A message from the Executive Director of the South Niagara Chambers
What’s the value of a chamber membership? What’s my return on investment? Is my membership something I can do without? These are questions that we get asked by our members and potential new members on a regular basis. Of course our team is able to provide a long list of benefits to respond, but every now and then something happens to really demonstrate why supporting your local Chamber is so important!
A few weeks ago a fairly new business hosted one of our BA5’s. The venue was beautiful, and in fact the event was sold out! As I made my way around the room more than a few people mentioned to me that they were doing business with the host because the Chamber had referred them. As we began the official portion of the evening, our host commented on how they wanted to use local products and services and how helpful the Chamber had been in facilitating contacts. That night alone we identified 5 members onsite who had been referred by our Chamber and were doing business with our host!
Following the event, and for days after, we received emails from various members expressing their appreciation for the work we do! In fact, other testimonials came our way regarding other connections that we had made that transpired into exciting opportunities, both locally and beyond our borders!
As I mentioned we do have a long list of benefits that we can rattle off, and we know that while not all benefits are of value to all members, making connections for businesses is of value to all! Our staff is certainly well informed on local products and services, but our board members, committee members, partners and strategic alliances that we have established in other countries provide us with connections to a much larger circle, which in turn we want to utilize to benefit our members!
If you are a champion of all things local, then you want to be a part of your local Chamber. We will be your go-to on all things in the community! We have that knowledge and those contacts! If you are a local business trying to expand beyond our community, or are already doing business beyond Niagara, you want to support your local chamber because through our network we have developed that knowledge and those contacts as well!