BY JEFF BACON
If it takes a village to raise a child, what must it take to raise a village? Cooperation, communication and collaboration are some of the first things that come to mind. Of course, for your Chamber, all of these are foundational to our mission of helping to develop a vibrant business environment in the Wood River Valley. Every day we are evaluating what we are doing to help connect businesses and build our community. The programs and services that we offer are designed to help our member businesses grow their capacity to better serve our community and its visitors.
Recently, the Chamber began working with the United States Small Business Administration and the Small Business Development Center. Our first goal is to open better lines of communication between these important, federally-funded and state-funded programs and our members. The SBA and SBDC have many tools and resources available to help small businesses in our community and we are helping our members with direct access to representatives from these organizations by offering regular business hours in our offices each month. To schedule a time to visit with a representative from either the SBA or SBDC, please call our offices at 208-788-3484.
Additionally, the Chamber has announced a series of business training classes that will be held every other month for the balance of 2016. The first class is a quick primer called Getting Found On Google. This first class, scheduled for Wednesday, May 25, will help member businesses use a best-practice approach to increasing the search results for their business and use the tools that Google provides businesses for maximum impact.
“We teach this class in many cities across the U.S. and no matter how many times I see it, there’s always something new,” states Kristy Bane with the U.S. Small Business Administration. “Sometimes all it takes is for a small business to have access to this type of information to really help boost their current efforts.”
The classes scheduled for the rest of 2016 include: Using Social Media to Better Promote Your Business, on July 27; Surviving Slack, on Sept. 28; and Decoding Financial Statements, on Nov. 30.
The Chamber also offers many training classes online. Classes regarding customer service or marketing are available to our members in an on-demand format on our website HaileyIdaho.com.
“We’re excited to be able to offer Valley businesses our full suite of services through the Chamber,” notes Bryan Matsuoka with the Small Business Development Center. “The Wood River Valley is an area that we see has a lot of potential. It’s important that small-business owners in the Valley know there are many resources available to them, and in working with the Chamber, they have access to it all.”
Jeff Bacon is the Hailey Chamber of Commerce’s membership director. For more information, visit haileyidaho.com or call the Chamber at (208) 788-3484.