Benefits of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce
The Asheville Chamber of Commerce hosts a monthly Educational Series — a one-hour seminar on various topics related to business and business people. These meetings alternate between a before hours’ time slot (8:00 to 9:00 am) and a lunchtime time slot (noon to 1:00 pm).
For the Asheville morning events, Ray Access will be providing the coffee. For all attendees. Free of charge. It will be the first time a morning Chamber Educational Series event has had coffee furnished. And it took a small business to make it happen.
This Small Business
Ray Access is a small business. In fact, we’re a partnership. That means there are two of us: Linda and Mark. Only a solopreneur business is smaller. But in our industry — online business writing — having two instead of one is a competitive advantage: Everything we produce is professionally edited.
Yet this small business joined the Asheville Chamber of Commerce in August 2014. Believe us when we say it was a major investment for such a small business. It could be a big step forward or a big step back, but we decided, “It was time to go big or go home.” We believed in our business enough to take the risk.
Networking Opportunities
We were determined to grow our small business. We market to other businesses, and the Chamber of Commerce offered a way for us to connect to more area businesses than we could otherwise reach. By getting involved and attending Chamber events, we could build relationships and gain name recognition for our budding enterprise.
The Asheville Chamber of Commerce also provided us with many, many, many networking events. We were fairly active networkers before joining the Chamber, but with our membership, our networking activity tripled. While this was exciting at first, we soon realized it was a “good news, bad news” arrangement.
Marketing vs. Working
If we spent all our time marketing, we’d have no time to work. If we spent all our time working, we’d have no time to market our business. It’s an old business dilemma, one we wrote about before. But to grow a business, you have to find time for both. And if you’re a small business, chances are you have to find time to do both by yourself.
Of course, Ray Access has an advantage a solopreneur doesn’t: There are two of us. So we split up the events to cover more ground, while still having the time to do the work we love. We attend weekly networking events, as well as monthly events, so it’s still a big commitment of time, but that investment is starting to pay dividends, in both work and better community relationships.
The Educational Series Sponsorship
One of the monthly events we attend is the Educational Series. At the last before-hours seminar, we complained about the lack of coffee. Instead of becoming a problem, it became an opportunity. Most Chamber sponsorships are well beyond the reach of a small business like Ray Access. But providing coffee for 40 people? We could do that.
And so we created a new sponsorship opportunity. By supplying coffee every other month, we are both helping other businesses and spreading the word about our business. It’s a win-win situation that makes sense. Even for a small business like Ray Access.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.