So it is at the chamber.  Our mission has always been and continues to be  building, serving, and promoting business growth for our members and Venango Area Business. There are a variety of ways we do this. Businesses contact us daily for information.  We coordinate events to allow business networking, along with communication tools like our monthly newsletter.  Community events and festivals provide increased business and promotional opportunities. We do our best to stay abreast of the issues our members care about, in the region, the state and the country.  But do we have the balance right?  I’m certain we’ll be asking this for years to come.  We do care what you think.  We’ve asked our members to complete a survey.  This is a valuable tool in helping us determine where the chamber’s time and energy should be spent.  If you are a member of the Venango Area Chamber please take the time to complete the online survey sent to you via email, or the paper email provided to those not online.

I could likely write a whole series of blogs about church and our faith communities and their relevance to our business community, but yesterday the pastor’s message included a story that seemed worth sharing with everyone in the business of customer service.  I’ll save the details and names to protect the innocent but the general idea of the story went like this.  The pastor goes into a store, first thing in the morning.  There is no one to be found that can assist him.  After some time he finds two store employees, both offering bad advice. Once he finally makes his way to the checkout, things go from bad to worse. The result of the whole experience makes perfect subject matter for a sermon about anger.  Now think about this for a minute.  No one at the store recognized that this customer was a pastor (and probably wouldn’t have cared anyways).  Do you think the store’s management might have cared if they had realized that this customer would share his experience with more than 200 people in one sitting? My guess is that this story will be repeated many times over, with the store name and details included.

It may be worth considering who your next customer is and what audience they have access to.

If you have recently worked on a project to make your business or a public area look it’s best, please share your comments or forward your before and after pictures to chamber@venangochamber.org. We’d love to share our community pride!

The following day we gathered at Hagan’s new location in the Cranberry Mall to celebrate their opening with a Ribbon Cutting. This kicked off a great day for the 2010 Venango Works Trade Show. It was a couple of long days for Chamber Staff and all those in attendance.

The Derrick, our local newspaper, provided excellent coverage of the weeks events. On Saturday morning I ran into a community member (not a chamber member) who remarked about my very busy schedule, as chronicled by the paper. He pointedly quizzed “ Is it really worth it, all the time and effort?” I have never found it easier to respond, “Absolutely!”

There is little more satisfying about Chamber work than honoring our members who are successful. The Business of the Year Mixer provided the opportunity to celebrate what’s working in Venango. One new small business remarked to me, “Seeing my business name on the big screen in the few moments as I walked to the front of the theater to accept my Visionary Award, more than justified my annual chamber dues!” As we began our day with the ribbon cutting on Friday, the pride shown by Hagan’s staff was priceless. Tired and weary at 9:00 pm on Friday, I asked one of the vendors if they had found the Trade Show beneficial. The enthusiastic affirmation he gave provided me the energy I needed to finish out the week on a high note.

It is critical that we continue to evaluate the value of our events and we are constantly doing so. When you consider the last thing you put time and energy into, how will you answer “was it worth it?”

The  conference included an expo featuring nearly 200 businesses, with booths displaying their products and services. It would have been nearly impossible to visit with each exhibitor but I did my best to speak with many.  Each was offering a door prize in exchange for contact information.  Thank goodness I went with a good supply of business cards! I was especially pleased that my recently redesigned cards would likely stand out among all those plain white slips of paper. Not because I hoped to win a prize (but thanks to the Manufacturers & Business Association for the new book!), but rather, the possibility that even one business might now recognize the Venango Chamber the next time they hear of it.

And, I picked up the business cards or brochures of each of the booths I visited.  A quick email or note seems very appropriate to show my gratitude for a great day of food, fun and motivational business speakers. How much did I grow my network in one day?  It’s hard to say, but I’m willing to bet I’ll be learning the answer for months to come.

Take-away: You can grow your network by exhibiting at or attending the Venango Works Trade Show, Friday, April 23rd at the Cranberry  Mall. Get your business cards ready!

And be sure to save the date. WILD 2011, March 25th at the Bayfront Convention Center.

So, while recently reviewing our membership in preparation for the annual printed directory publication, I noticed something I found interesting. In many cases the  gatekeeper is gone!  I used to assume that we would not disclose the direct phone number and email address for the owners, presidents and CEO’s of our largest member businesses and organizations.  They were protected and hard to reach. But to my surprise, this is changing. I think it is one of the more positive signs of the time.  Not only do many of these previously “protected” individuals willingly share their contact information, but they encourage customers to contact them directly. This includes Oil City’s Manager, Ryan Eggleston, UPMC Northwest President David Gibbons and Penelec’s Regional Manager Linda Routzan.

One mystery remains.  Why do many small businesses make it difficult to contact them? I understand that everyone is very busy, but in this day and age we expect to be able to reach the people we do business with by phone, fax email and hopefully cell phone, maybe even facebook and twitter.  Are you making it tough for customers to find you.  What are you afraid of? May I suggest that you take the chance and share your numbers, online, in your chamber listing or on your business card. You just may meet someone that can’t wait to do business with you!

So today I was considering a few of the companies that are currently in my radar and what strategies they have implemented that put them there.  I have received several emails from yourmembership.com offering the opportunity to attend a free webinar about there membership software. Their persistence paid off. Today my staff and I took the time to join an excellent online presentation.

Coincidentally, a young lady called our office today to ask a few questions about what software we were using for our member management. Normally I might have not returned the message but today, perfect timing!  I was not only happy answer her question but curious to hear about ChamberAide.

Curt Moss of Weblink has found a great way to keep his company in the forefront by great use of social networking and positioning himself as an industry expert with great blog posts.

My last example for today is the concept of “giving it away”.

I am currently working on a project with Accrisoft, for the Pennsylvania Association of Chamber Professionals. The staff of Accrisoft are amazing at follow-up and exceptional teamwork.

CommunityLink has teamed up with ACCE to offer it’s members free marketing materials and not just any old designs but really good stuff.  This is a win for CommunityLink, ACCE and our chamber.

I may not be in the market for any of these services right now, but these companies have all found a way to get noticed. And, I’m happy to tell others about them.

At about the same time I read a post by one of my favorite bloggers, Curt Moss.  Curt was passing along a twitter tool, TweepML, in his post Creating your chamber’s community on Twitter. I decided to try it and set up the link that will make it simple for chamber members to follow other members.

The Venango Chamber now has more than 90 members that have created Twitter accounts.  Just imagine the benefit this offers if they all would actively use twitter!  If you’ve been reluctant until now to participate, please give it a try. Here, I’ll make it easy.  Just click on the button below to follow other chamber members now.