Why Business Owners Should Join their Local Chamber of Commerce

In this episode we talk about:

-  Building relationships with business owners

-  Visibility within your community

-  Opportunities and events with the Chamber of Commerce

-  Training and education from the Chamber

Christian: [00:00:15] Hola,hola. Today we're going to talk about why business owners should join theirlocal chamber of commerce. Now, here at BitBranding, we're very familiar withthe chamber of commerce. We have our distinguished guest, not guest. He'sactually part of BitBranding. Mr. Aaron Pearson, who actually has been part ofthe chamber of commerce- I mean, we've been part of the chamber, but he's beenvery involved in the chamber of commerce here in Allen, Texas.

Aaron: [00:00:44] Yes.It's not just me, but I am the one who goes to all the events. So I guess I'llhave some insight to chime in about specific events and things that I've doneor involved in a couple of ways.

Christian: [00:00:57] Letme tell you something, Aaron was the ambassador of the month or something likethat.

Franklin: [00:01:04] Whenwas it?

Christian: [00:01:04] InApril? Was it April?

Franklin: [00:01:06] Ithink it was April.

Aaron: [00:01:07] Yes,in April.

Christian: [00:01:08] Yeah,it is in April.

Franklin: [00:01:08] Itsays April 2017, ambassador of the month.

Christian: [00:01:12] Wow.A round of applause for that. No, but in all seriousness, we definitelyrecommend here at BitBranding that all businesses join the chamber of commerce,and today we're going to be talking about a few points of, you know, why as abusiness owner you should join and be involved really in the chamber ofcommerce.

Franklin: [00:01:34] Right.And the chamber of commerce- Me personally. I'm going to speak on my ownpersonal experience with, like, the words chamber of commerce. I thought it waslike a secret society, honestly because you hear chamber of commerce, and itsounds, like, super, super, super, like, distinguished, and it sounds superprofessional. So somebody presented it to me once, and I was, like, I don'tknow if I'm actually even qualified to be a part of the chamber of commerce.But actually going and interacting with the people, you see that buildingrelationships with those people is like basically, the premise of why joiningthe chamber of commerce is so important. You get involved in the community, andeverything other then- everything, I guess you could say, not other. Everythingthat you can think of that gets you around like-minded individuals that arethere to help you grow your business and possibly you can help them grow thereas well.

Christian: [00:02:33] Yeah,absolutely. I think the main thing here is going into the chamber of commercewith a mentality of basically creating friends, building relationships,building friendships, not with the mentality of, you know, what am I going toget? What business am I going to get out of this? Because to be honest, youknow, a lot of people go into the chamber and they don't get any business for, youknow, three, four, five, six months. So you have to create those relationships,and you have to create those friendships.

Aaron: [00:02:59] Right.And I think that that's a very good thing because it's kind of like invitingyour brother-in-law or somebody like that to do business with you. It's kind oflike you feel obligated to give them business, but for a business owner, it'syour relationship who's on the line too. So if I recommend Franklin to comeover to this place to eat and he doesn't like it, now that looks poorly on me.So it does take time for people to get to know you and create a goodrelationship with you, and then it's just a multiplier of people who have goodexperiences. And you don't know the network that people will know about. Just somany different people that know each other. They can spread you to it once thatyou do have the trust.

Franklin: [00:03:40] Right.Spending the time and actually, like, building that trust with the individualwill give them the ability to say you know what? I can successfully refer youto this person.

Christian: [00:03:53] Whatis that phrase that they say? You do business with people who-

Aaron: [00:03:57] Youknow, like, and trust.

Christian: [00:04:00] Thereyou go. I like that.

Franklin: [00:04:00] Ilike that. That should be put on a shirt.

Aaron: [00:04:03] It'sprobably on a lot of shirts. A lot of people use that, but yeah. I mean, you dobusiness with people you know, like, and trust. I mean, we've spent a lot ofmoney with people where we could have got it cheaper, but we want to continueto foster relationship with business owners because they've taken care of usand we want to take care of them.

Franklin: [00:04:21] Right.

Christian: [00:04:23] SoBitBranding here, we do a lot of the online stuff for businesses, you know, andwe make sure that businesses are visible online. But one of the main benefitsof joining the chamber of commerce and being present and participating in alltheir things is being visible to the community.

Franklin: [00:04:45] Right.

Christian: [00:04:45] Beingvisible to, you know, everyone around you. To all these other businesses. Andyou know what they say, you know, out of sight, out of mind. So you know, ifyou're not participating, if you're not doing any of these things, people arenot going to remember you. They're not going to know, and the other thing, Ithink the key word here is being consistent.

Franklin: [00:05:02] Exactly.

Christian: [00:05:02] It'snot just showing up to one of the meetings that they do and then not showing upfor another three or four months. It's actually being consistent andparticipating in all the things that the chamber does.

Franklin: [00:05:12] Exactly.Being physically present I think is like the icing on, not the icing on thecake, but it's kind of like one of those even playing fields. Like you said, wedo all this stuff for a lot of people online, but the people aren't going tohave, like, that, I guess you can say, that online relationship, like, in such asmall community like Allen. Well, I wouldn't say that it's small, but it is asmaller community of the metroplex. And just like any other area, if you'renot, like, physically there. Like, if you have that online presence to actuallybuild rapport with people, it's kind of hard if you don't have, like, a nicebalance of actually being there where people can touch you, shake your hand,give you a hug if they want to, and then they see online. They see online allthe time, but they don't see you around. I'm pretty sure that I'll buy pizzafrom a guy that I see everyday, shake his hand every other Wednesday or Tuesdayor Thursday versus seeing the ad from that person online or seeing it onFacebook.

Aaron: [00:06:14] Right.I think the biggest thing is that just showing up. Everyone knows how valuabletime is, and if you take the time out to say, hey, I'm going to show up and I'mgoing to be part of this, you're invested in it. Because it's really easy tosay, hey, we'll just sit behind our computers and run an ad, but to actuallyshow up to an event. And, you know, if the events 30, 45 minutes that's 30, 45minutes just at the event, not drive time there, drive time after. Like, it's areally big time commitment, and people recognize that whenever they see youshowing up. If they don't- it's kind of like we're in this exclusive group, andyou're just not paying your dues basically.

Franklin: [00:06:49] Right.I like it. You can say that it's kind of like family. Like I feel weird callingcousins and asking them for stuff and saying, hey, can I borrow five bucks? Butyou can't call somebody and say can I borrow five bucks if you haven't calledthem in awhile or talked to them. If you go into that person's store, you'regoing to their ribbon cuttings, you're going to their, like, their sponsorednetworking events. You get the opportunity to actually- that person sees that,hey, you know what? They are dedicated to actually getting to know me and knowmy business.

Aaron: [00:07:24] Right.And that's a very good segue into opportunities and events which is our nextone. And there's a lot of things, and I'll talk specifically to someopportunities that we have just being a part of the chamber which is we want toput on a 5K, an offline event, and we needed to talk to the city councilmembers. Well, just because we're part of the chamber, we actually knew thechamber board president at the time, and he did a warm introduction for me togo and talk to that person which could have taken months or not ever happened becausethey're busy. But just the connections and the opportunities that you have toget your foot in the door. You just never know who knows somebody to bring youinto that situation.

Franklin: [00:08:07] Right.And then on the other hand, you think about all the different businesses thatyou don't really know that are around you whenever you have, like- what wasthat that we had? It was like a happy hour or something like that, and Aaronand I went to it. There were some people there that I didn't know that wereactually even involved in the chamber, but they were there. You got to shaketheir hand. You get to find out about what they did, and it's just overalllike, I guess you could say, a general way of actually being able to go tosomewhere where, like, there is a different pizza restaurant there, and you getto see the different selections, types of pizza that they have. Or differentboutiques that are in the area that you didn't know were there, and I just lovethe fact that you get to experience different types of, I guess you can say,people and atmospheres whenever they have events. Like the gala, for example,like, where we got the the award for best-

Aaron: [00:09:07] Whatwas it?

Christian: [00:09:08] Emergingbusiness of the year.

Franklin: [00:09:09] Emergingbusiness of the year where BitBranding received that award, and actually seeexactly how many people were really involved with the chamber which was supereye opening because you see a couple people throughout the week. But like at thatevent, you got to see how large and how massive and how far the arm of thechamber actually stretched.

Christian: [00:09:28] Right,and I mean, to be honest, it just opens up a lot of doors for a lot ofbusinesses, and it's very important to, yeah, be involved in these events. Andin essence they give you those opportunities. Another huge part of joining achamber of commerce is the training and education that you get from being amember, and not even being a member. Like, if you don't want to join right awayand you want to just check out some of the training and education that theyhave, I mean, they have some great stuff, you know, ranging from social mediamarketing stuff all way to tax preparation to legal services and help.

Aaron: [00:10:05] Iwas going to say, I think we did like business plan. They did free businessplan planning with us that they brought in somebody to go into the chamberboardroom. Now that was for a member, but that is-

Christian: [00:10:17] Itwas a services that's free if you are part of the chamber, and, I mean, that'sjust great, great things for us. Another big thing and this kind of meshes withthe events, but one of the events that we went to actually had guest speakerstalking about entrepreneurship and starting your own business. And these arethings that you might get somewhere else, but these are provided by the chamberfor just being a member which I think is just great.

Aaron: [00:10:43] Lunchwas provided too. So that was good.

Christian: [00:10:46] Yeah,exactly. They also new membership luncheons. I mean, there's a bunch of eventsand programs and trainings, and you can definitely gain a lot of knowledge, youknow, from attending these things.

Aaron: [00:10:58] Whenyou said- you made a comment about the membership luncheons, one thing thatcame up was that a lot of people think that the chamber of commerce is for,like, older people. I'm doing air quotes at this point, but they think it's foran older crowd, and that's not necessarily the case. Actually, it's a goodreason we're doing this podcast, and it's not really on our notes. But thereare young professional groups, and it's just getting involved with other peoplewho are around your age, 35 years and younger, who are growing businesses,going through the same struggles, and those could be friends that you make forlife. You're going through the exact same thing. Getting down in the trenchestogether, growing businesses, and just making connections, and I think it's ourjob since we're all millennials here to get involved in the chamber of commercebecause eventually those older people who are involved are going to be gone. Soit's our job to start taking over- not taking over, but really.

Christian: [00:11:52] Reallygoing to take over.

Aaron: [00:11:52] Yes,take over, but-

Franklin: [00:11:54] Takeit all.

Aaron: [00:11:55] Butjust getting involved so that the next generation can continue the chamber ofcommerce because it is so beneficial for business as a whole.

Christian: [00:12:04] Wow.I like that a lot.

Franklin: [00:12:07] Thatwas a really-

Christian: [00:12:08] Areal good plug for the millennials to join the chamber.

Franklin: [00:12:11] Right.

Christian: [00:12:12] No,I agree 100%. I think I'm just going to end this with, and I've already said afew things about this, the importance of participating in the chamber. Onething is joining. Another thing is participating and being active. That'swhat's really going to benefit you in the long run.

Franklin: [00:12:34] Exactly.

Aaron: [00:12:35] Absolutely.Anybody have any last little tidbits?

Christian: [00:12:39] Idon't really think so.

Franklin: [00:12:40] Idon't think I have anything.

Christian: [00:12:40] Yeah,I don't have anything.

Aaron: [00:12:41] Allright, so something new that we're going to start doing towards the end of theshow is asking a question of the day, and I'll throw it to these guys before wewrap up here. Who has a question of the day?

Christian: [00:12:51] Doyou have a question, Franklin?

Franklin: [00:12:53] Yeah,I do. What's your favorite summer movie? So far I'm going to say it. Spider-Manhas topped the top of my list. So.

Christian: [00:13:03] Oh,so currently right now.

Franklin: [00:13:04] Currentlyright now.

Aaron: [00:13:05] July2017.

Franklin: [00:13:06] July2017. What's your favorite movie in theaters?

Christian: [00:13:09] AndI'm going to tell you something. If you're wondering like, OK, I know theanswer to this question. I have my favorite movie, you know? Where am Isupposed to tell these guys? Well, you can go to our website. It's beenbitbranding.co/podcast, and you'll see the episode number and you will be ableto leave comments right at the bottom of that page. OK. So just leave us thecomments right there on our website.

Franklin: [00:13:31] Allright.

Aaron: [00:13:31] Andwe will respond. We're not just going to make you leave a comment and then wedon't say anything.

Christian: [00:13:36] Right.

Aaron: [00:13:37] Sothat's a good question. Let's answer that. We have about a minute or so.Christian, I'll throw that to you. What is your favorite movie for 2017?

Christian: [00:13:45] I'mgoing to say the same thing. Spider-Man Homecoming. That was just amazing.Although, I do want to check out Baby Driver. Have you seen that?

Franklin: [00:13:54] Yes,I have seen it.

Christian: [00:13:55] Ihave an article I need to give you. It's just crazy. The editing was donesimultaneously while they were filming the movie. It's something crazy. I justwant to watch that movie so bad.

Franklin: [00:14:03] Yeah,that just gave me chills.

Aaron: [00:14:06] Havenot seen it. Have not seen Spider-Man, so I will get on that, but anyway, wewill wrap up here. We want to thank you guys so much for joining us on thisepisode. This is episode 4 of the Marketing Natives on why business ownersshould join a local chamber. The most important part about this podcast is foryou to subscribe and share this if you're getting some value out of it. Also,in the bottom right-hand corner, you iPhone users, there are three little dots.Click those dots, and you can share this. Share it with a friend. Share it witha millennial business owner that you know will get some value out of this, andthat's really it.

Christian: [00:14:43] Yeah.We'll see you next week.