The chamber of commerce is an organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the local business community. Typically, a chamber is composed of people – mostly business owners or business representatives – who meet to organize events, fundraisers, workshops, and other activities aimed at helping business grow. We are proud members of three local chambers – the Coppell Chamber of Commerce, Flower Mound Chamber of Commerce and the Lewisville Area Chamber of Commerce. As a member, you don’t need to participate in every event, but the more you participate, the more you will benefit from your chamber membership. Don’t just take our word for it. Grasshopper has a great article with data and interviews from business owners from other chambers – they too agree with most of the points on our list.  Here are the top 10 reason on why we feel that you should join a Chamber of Commerce:

1. Networking Opportunities – Finding valuable networking opportunities can be difficult for business owners. Chamber events and meetings can offer you new prospects to build your professional networking connections with people who will want to do business with you and who can introduce you to others who will want to do business with you. The relationships you can build through a Chamber help people know, like and trust you – which leads them to want to do business with you.
2. Resources, Workshops, and Professional Development – Chambers often hold seminars and ongoing education opportunities that specialize in benefiting the small business owner. These professional development classes come at a fraction of the cost of formal education classes dealing with the same subject matter and are usually small in number which maximizes one-on-one interaction between the speaker and the attendees.
3. Ribbon Cuttings – Ribbon cuttings are one of the best ways to bring community awareness to your organization and to help you celebrate being a part of the community. A ribbon cutting formally introduces you, your company, employees, products, and services to the public, Chamber ambassadors, and even elected officials who are present at the event. You don’t need to be a new business to have a ribbon cutting; many Chambers are happy to welcome new members with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
4. Community Connections – Joining your local chamber allows you to become more active in community projects and events. Engaging directly with your potential client base gives you the advantage of seeing their needs first-hand and then developing a marketing strategy to begin filling those needs with your products or services.
5. Personal Relationships – Beyond just building your professional networking base, developing valuable personal relationships with other chamber members is a huge incentive to join your local chamber. You’ll find like-minded, business-focused individuals who share many of your interests and concerns, which can often be a hard thing to do if you don’t already know a lot of people who own their own companies.
6. Promotion and Visibility – Chambers offer many different ways to promote their affiliates. From the aforementioned ribbon cuttings to promotional booklets, member directories, newsletters, event calendars, sponsorship opportunities, and the chamber’s website you won’t find it difficult to promote your company and elevate your visibility through a chamber.
7. Becoming a Voice for Local Business – Chambers of Commerce are affiliated with their cities’ government agencies and act as a voice for their members. Joining a chamber allows you to become involved in local and federal issues that can benefit or harm local businesses interests. By becoming a voice for local business you can help shape the form of local legislation and regulations that may affect how you can do business.
8. Events and Programs – Going to a good party might not be high on your list of business goals, but since hosting a variety of events is a specialty for chambers, it can be now. Annual galas, community outreach initiatives, business growth seminars, and holiday parties are just a few of the fun and educational things a chamber member can enjoy doing. Each of these events offers another opportunity to build relationships with other business people, promote your business and interact with your customers.
9. Becoming a Committee Member – When you become an active member of a chamber, you have the chance to join different boards or committees. Doing this gives you more decision making power within your chamber and allows you to assist in shaping its future as an organization.
10. Growing your business – In the end, joining a chamber allows you to grow your business beyond traditional parameters of sales or marketing by easily finding all of these opportunities in one place. Meeting new people, becoming involved in local issues, and expanding your knowledge and outreach are invaluable to the growth and success of your business.

As you can see, the chamber of commerce has many opportunities to help your business grow. However, the chamber is not an instant ROI machine. You must put in your time and effort to get what you need out of the chamber. It’s not difficult, but there are steps to follow. We work with dozens of companies across North Texas to help maximize their ROI from local chambers. If you are you planning on joining a chamber of commerce, give us a call and we’ll help prepare you for a Ribbon Cutting and help organize your company events. We can help polish your speech, setup a powerful event for business, help you maximize your ROI, and get you pointed in the right direction.