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Getting the Most Out of a Chamber of Commerce Membership

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Getting the Most Out of a Chamber of Commerce Membership – Interview with Laura Dolce

In this episode of “Small Business Big World,” we’re joined by Laura Dolce, the Director of the Kennebunk Maine Chamber of Commerce, to explore how small businesses can maximize their membership benefits in a chamber or trade organization. Laura shares insights on how to navigate the various programs, events, and networking opportunities available through the chamber, as well as tips on how to actively engage and contribute as a member.  Join us as we dive into practical strategies for leveraging the resources and opportunities offered by these organizations to support your business growth.

Chris Cluff (host): Hello and welcome to Small Business Big World, our weekly podcast featuring everything you need to know about your small business. Today, I have Laura Dolce with me. Laura is the executive director of the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Arundel Chamber of Commerce up here in Maine.  She’s going to share some information about getting the best out of a chamber membership or really any trade organization that you as a small business are might be a member of. So thank you, Laura, for joining us.

Laura Dolce (guest): You’re most welcome.

Chris: Awesome. So just a few little housekeeping things before we get going. Don’t forget to like and follow and subscribe everywhere that you might consume this podcast or this video, Instagram, TikTok, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, all that fun stuff. Make sure you join our Small Business Big World community on Facebook, it’s a group, you can join in, ask questions, and you can always email us your questions at podcast@papertrails.com. Send us anything you have that might help us pull in some new guests, get those questions answered for you. Also, visit smallbusinessbigworld.com.

So, Laura, you’ve been the executive director of the Chamber for 10 years now, right?

Laura: Nine, just started my 10th year.

Chris: So close, feels like 20 years.

Laura: It feels like 30, but yeah.

Why join the Chamber of Commerce?

Chris: So in that time, you’ve come across a lot of small businesses and there’s a, certainly everyone asks, why do I join the chamber? What do you tell them?

Laura: Well, we tell them to absolutely join the chamber, but I think especially when it comes to small businesses, chambers can be amazing partners. We get a lot of new businesses and honestly, there is just nothing better than working with a new business to really get them out there. But you know, we, we hear from people kind of what value, where are you going? The reality is your chamber membership is usually relatively small for the year. But in exchange, what you get in terms of, you know, all the obviously different organizations give you different things, listings on their website, listings in a guidebook, marketing assistance. We do a lot of different things. A lot of webinars and seminars. You’ve done some yourself, you know, and, and those are great sort of value that we give to members. They’re usually free or very low cost. They could be legal. They could be financial.

I mean, gosh, during COVID, how many financial, you know, webinars and emails and everything coming out of our ears, but members found that hugely helpful and that’s stuff that they couldn’t get elsewhere. So being able to do all of those things, obviously networking events, you know, I think a lot of chambers are, do a great job of connecting businesses to other businesses. So if you come into town and you’re a bakery, we might connect you with a restaurant so you can help provide some of their breads. We do a lot of connecting with businesses to each other, you know, we just connected a food truck to one of our small businesses that’s looking to add food trucks. And I think that we also do a great job of connecting people to the community, starting with a ribbon cutting and then going from there for community events and things like that.

What do you get out of a Chamber of Commerce membership?

Chris: That’s all great. So, you know, when we look at these, what people say, well, the chamber doesn’t do anything for me, right? You know, I paid my $395, right? What didn’t do anything for me last year. Well, you know, when I think about that, I always say a rising tide floats all boats, right? Absolutely. If you’re willing to put in and participate, the Chamber can do a lot for you and it may not be a direct dollar-for-dollar match, but it’s an intangible expense I would say right. So for me, I pay my membership and I know that the Chamber is doing great work in the community and is building our client base and which in turn is you know making everyone more successful and makes me more successful, right? So that’s how I look at it, but you know, how do you answer that question when someone says, what’s my ROI on my $395 membership, right? How can I prove and justify that expense?

Laura: Well, I think first of all, it’s not a passive membership. I think any organization you join, any business group, it’s not going to be passive. And if you want to be really passive, then yeah, you might not get much out of it other than supporting that group. But the reality is we give you access to so many different things, whether it’s, the networking, whether it’s the connections to other businesses, the free trainings, all those things that we do, but you have to be active.

You have to make sure like we, we give you a web page, for example, and we tell you, you know, connect your Facebook page, connect your Instagram, whatever you need, put your LinkedIn, all of those things, photos, videos, and then if you don’t do any of that, which really helps pop you in the Google rankings then you’re not taking advantage of something that’s free right there. If you’re not doing any networking events, if you’re not doing any of the training, and then you’re going to say, ‘My God, what did the Chamber actually do?’ You’re losing thousands of dollars in value right there. So we always say we’re really good partners, but that doesn’t mean it’s a passive thing, you know?

What do the committees look like?

Chris: And just, I mean, for a regular member of these organizations, I mean, what does getting involved look like? I know a lot of chambers have committees. If there’s a lot of work that happens for different events and different causes and all that stuff, what is that, you know, what does that commitment usually look like?

Laura: Honestly, it’s a pretty small commitment, depending on the committee. It’s usually one hour a month. I mean, even our board technically is one hour a month, but we have committees ranging from ones for different events. We have a nonprofit committee. We have a new economic development committee. And again, it’s really kind of putting in that hour a month, you know, sometimes we do have events, we love to have volunteers where, you know, most organizations are wildly understaffed. So any kind of volunteerism that you can give and really showing up for events, showing up and being a business that’s present, that we can introduce you to other people that we know that, you know, you’re there showing up for other businesses. That’s huge. But I mean, chambers and all of the organizations. We need people to come. We need you to serve on a board, come to a meeting, all those things.

Chris: And that’s interesting. I mean, certainly a Chamber is a more general and diverse group. It’s all businesses in an area generally, but we see a lot of work done by the restaurant associations or manufacturing associations or things like that. That their mission is really to drive a specific sector. I think that that’s one of your challenges is keeping, your chambers very hospitality driven, very heavy in that. So how do you keep the non-tourism folks happy and that’s always been a challenge is because the population is so diverse.

Laura: No absolutely and that’s why we have two different marketing committees. We have a destination marketing committee that really focuses on issues around tourism and bringing people in but our local marketing committee is probably our most active committee because we do have a lot of tourism members and people think, oh gosh, Kennebunkport. But the reality is, the majority of our members are small businesses. They are small year round non tourism related businesses. They’re like yourself or their banks. Obviously many benefit from tourism, but they’re really not focused on that.

So we really try to make sure that when we do any kind of webinars, when we do offer that there’s a diversity in that. So, you know, during COVID, we did very specific, hospitality sessions where we talked about what the kind of rules and regulations are around that, we talked about de-escalation for staff that works frontline in those places. So that was really specific. Then there were the financial ones that really kind of applied to everyone, but it was the PPP discussions, all the kinds of SBA loans. All those things.

Chris: And even most recently, you know, we had some flooding, right?

Laura: Oh, we had flooding.

What resources do Chamber of Commerce make available?

Chris: You know, there are some, you know, you guys made some resources available that members may not have known about otherwise, right? You were in touch with, you know, the state and the federal government through the legislatures that said, ‘Hey, these are the things that are out there.’

Laura: Right. And I think that’s something that we do well. I think a lot of organizations, the communication is so important. And again, it’s not that, you know, brain surgery, but to be able to say, here’s all the resources are in one place, we can help you navigate that. Here you go. You don’t have to go search on 30 websites and do all of that kind of stuff. That’s, that’s a value as well.

Chris: And that was really neat. You particularly took some of your insurance agent members and said, okay, what do you need to file? And if you have a claim, right, if you had flooding, what do you need? Right? And that was because I think in these situations, a lot of businesses were overwhelmed and, and, you know, just maybe they didn’t think to call their insurance agent or if they did, what do they need? What, what do I need to get myself ready for that process?

Laura: And I mean, I learned stuff from that. I mean, everyone kept talking about take photos, take photos, but a lot of them are saying, don’t just take photos, we need video now. We might need drone footage, depending on what your property looks like. So there were a lot of things that I don’t think people necessarily would have thought of because technology is changing, you know, and there’s new needs for that. So I thought it was really great that the agents, all three gave us completely different things to kind of focus on, but they all, you know, kind of came together there.

Chris: And I would say that’s one of those passive-ish memberships, right? An insurance agent, right? They’re not really promoting themselves, generally speaking. But this was a chance for them to show their expertise, right?

Laura: And we have members who handle, know water cleanup and disaster cleanup and they were great too with a list of tips right off the bat of stuff you need to think about and look at. So I may not be it may not be an everyday occurrence that you’re getting some sort of Promotion, but it’s again getting out of it what you put into it and participating and the one thing that chambers do better than just about everything is at referrals. Honestly. I mean, there’s in a day that goes by that we don’t get questions, you know like I need a contractor. I want to redo about a bathroom. I just moved to town, I need an insurance agent, I need a bank to help me. So we get those phone calls, we get those emails, we get it through social media. And there is a value in belonging to an organization that can refer you that way. It’s not just Joe Schmo in the street.

How to print piece help businesses?

Chris: So it’s interesting, you know, one of the things, I’m a different type of traveler, I’m a different generation, I think, but, you know, when I became active in the chamber, I realized you guys send out a lot of guidebooks and a lot of… literature, right? There was a stack of mail and I’m like, why don’t you guys send it out, right? And, you know, so people say, why do I go spend this advertising, these advertising dollars, you know, part of your membership is a listing in the annual book, but certainly, you know, for a lot of folks getting that reach. And in your situation, in your organization, you’re sending a ton of these guidebooks, 100,000 guidebooks out a year.

Laura: I mean, people still, especially in our market, we’re surprised how many people still want print products. You know, and I mean, I come from a print background, so that kind of surprises me, but we literally don’t have a single book left at the end of the year. And that’s just the guidebook, you know, the dining guide, the maps, all of those things, it’s 100,000 pieces. They go, but people when they’re here are still looking for something tangible. I mean, we make sure that it’s available digitally. We have a digital flipbook. We have digital links to all the advertisers. We really do a lot with our digital stuff, but darn it, those print pieces, if they go, even the years we’ve trimmed back, we ran out, like people were like, I need more. So it’s, yeah, it’s just crazy.

Chris: Yeah, and I think, you know, certainly when you get those calls, right, hey, someone’s always getting married. You know, I need leads on lots of things, but it’s just crazy. right? So and I you know, certainly being participating in those guides and books that you guys are, you know, answering those questions, right? It’s helpful, certainly that’s you know, again, some of those things are not necessarily included in the cost. But it’s just you’re facilitating that information.

Laura: Yeah, I mean and honestly we send them all over the country We send them to people looking to move here people visiting here like you said weddings and we send to Canada. Just about every single state in the US and then people from Europe come and take them from the kiosk, so they’re going everywhere.

Does the Chamber of Commerce provide referrals?

Chris: So your team in particular, we say you guys are experts in small business too, and that may mean just making those referrals, right? You may need to, you may know who to talk to. You may not know the answer, but you may know who to talk to about that. But your team in particular has some amazing skills. What are the things that your team brings, some of the things that your team brings? ‘Hey, I’ve got this problem. What can you help them solve directly?’

Laura: I mean, I think the connections. The connections are huge. And just knowing who to steer them to, how to connect them to people. Someone was asking about cell service. This morning, it’s constant. But knowing exactly, ‘Okay, here’s who’s handling that. Here’s who’s doing it for the town. Here’s who you need to contact. This is where we are with this process.’ Kind of keeping fingers on a lot of different pies with our municipalities.

You know, a lot of marketing expertise on our staff. So just knowing. We started a new starter membership, which is high school and college kids. It’s a free membership. We just added our third yesterday. And, you know, part of what we make them do is to come sit down with us. They sit with a score rep, but we talked to them about what marketing might look like. You know, if you’re a 17-year-old, you’re probably not hanging around Facebook a lot, but we talked to them about like what you need to do in our market and understanding those pieces. And I think that’s something we do. And then we have an expert on social who is constantly walking people through Tik Tok these days. And a lot of businesses getting into that, especially tourism and travel, but it’s, you know, it is so appealing to different generations. And that’s how people, you know, consume what they’re looking for. And people are consuming business content that way. way.

How the Chamber can help businesses with marketing

Chris: It’s really interesting. We talk a lot about how to market your business. And we all, it’s one of the challenges that I always enjoy about business. And I think a lot of folks who run small businesses are really good at running their businesses. They’re really great at fixing a car or cooking a cheeseburger or whatever, but they don’t have time, frankly, to do a lot of these things. So what other direct resources? I know you’ve done some classes, things like that. You’ve helped people write press releases and there have been incidents in businesses where you’ve helped them write statements for their own pages and things like that. So just those kind of resources, just having a pulse on the community has been helpful too, right?

Laura: Yeah, I definitely think so. I mean, we are, you know, fortunately, we do a little more with the press just because of our backgrounds, but absolutely being able to help people with press coverage and doing press releases and, you know, really able to advise on a pretty deep level. I mean, we used to nine years ago, sit down and say, this is Facebook. Like this is how you create a Facebook page. So, now obviously we’re a little bit more at an advanced level. And we talk about digital marketing and we talk about your audience. And we talk about, you know, engagement and things like that.

But like you said, you know, you might be great at, you know, flipping a cheeseburger, but maybe you’re not seeing something awesome about your business. And so, sometimes that outside look to be able to say, hey, you’ve got, X, Y, Z going on and you know, we had a member that just hit 20 years in food business in town and we’re like, let’s celebrate that. You know, like there’s not a lot of that going on. So let’s talk about that, and sometimes people just don’t think, like you said, they’re kind of still busy flipping burgers and just doesn’t come to them.

What the Chamber does for advocacy

Chris: That’s right. I know in your organization, and a lot of trade organizations, advocacy is a big part of that. What does your team do in terms of advocacy for the membership and for businesses in the community for local and state and even federal sometimes issues?

Laura: Yeah I mean we’re non-political that’s our in our initial charter it’s been around a hundred and plus years. Some others are and so they’re able to do a lot more with lobbying and things like that. But I think even just the advocacy advocating for small businesses, there’ve been concerns about wages and about extra benefits and things like that. And being able to talk to our local reps or even our, you know, federal reps and saying like, this is what our small business owners are dealing with. I don’t know if you know that because you’re, you know, sitting in DC or wherever. But, you know, this is a big issue. And here’s why.

We talked a lot about that when the minimum wage stuff came up and obviously it’s not that the chamber doesn’t want people to have a livable wage, but in our market, particularly, we have a lot of 14 and 15 year olds who work. So a lot of businesses were saying, well, what do I do with my 14 year old and my paying him the same as a 25 year old and this, if the scales here, how do I kind of make that adjustment? So we really tried to talk that through and especially like now and during COVID, I mean, we had to really advocate for businesses and our hospitality couldn’t reopen when everyone else did. So we really worked hard on advocating that those businesses be ready. We put some plans in place, with the flooding, the same thing. We’ve reached out to our federal reps to really talk about that and talk about some options. And they’ve been sharing resources and certainly they’re aware of what people are facing.

Chris: And the nice thing about that is you all serve on other kind of committees as well. So it’s, talk about the connecting, right, but there’s the connection with the town because you serve on town committees as well in each community that you serve. And I know that that’s true about most, trade organizations where the directors and the staff are serving on different committees that are then helping advocate really on behalf of them and their membership at every monthly meeting or anytime there’s a project or something that needs to happen, right?

Laura: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I serve on the Economic Development Committee among many other committees in our towns, and that’s really useful, especially for a chamber. But being able to talk about that, talk about connectivity, talk about the brand, talk about some of the issues that we’re facing here with struggling downtown, I mean, that’s a national problem. So being able to help address those issues is pretty huge. And again, even just going to some of those meetings and advocating for a member, you know, sometimes a business is going in or there’s a change or there’s a new business and neighbors are nervous or people are really concerned. And a chamber can talk about what that’s like and who these people are as business people. And sometimes that also helps a little.

The value Chambers provide to struggle businesses

Chris: So when a business is struggling or when there’s, something happening in an area of town, a group is struggling, something’s going on, what are some of the things that you’ve done? I know you’ve taken sections of town and helped them brand that as a home improvement mile, or you helped them organize themselves with events and things like that. What are some of those things looked like in the past, and what is your chamber in particular, but many chambers do a lot of these types of things?

Laura: Yeah, I mean, we really try to bring sections of town together. We’ve worked with lower village and some of their issues there and trying to get some safety and sight lines. And we’ve done a lot of work with our downtown.

And again, I mean, our downtown has shifted over the years as all downtowns have. And so we’ve put together a downtown series to we kind of bought into a series along with one of our sponsors that a national expert does on what makes a good downtown? We did seven or eight sessions open to the public. To say, you know, here’s, here’s a piece of it. Like here’s something we’re going to talk about signage. We’re going to talk about sort of that drive by customer and what are they looking for? We’re going to talk about streets. So we’re going to talk about zoning and some of the other issues that you can do. And I think, you know, that’s a big part of what we have worked with over the years is kind of putting that together.

Sometimes it’s a marketing piece. You know, we worked with the town to really do a nice marketing piece that really highlighted downtown. And so being able to bring those groups together and say, where are the concerns, you know, let’s see what we can get done. And again, I keep hating to say COVID, but like our downtown, as soon as that happened, people, you know, businesses were scared because they couldn’t open, they wanted to do takeout, but how do I do that? So we were able, you know, day one to say, we need to get that, you know, the ordinance controlling sandwich boards gone, because people need to function. And we need to be able to mark off spaces that are now, yes they were public, but I want to put cones there and that’s a drop off or a pickup spot. So being able to do that kind of work with those businesses. So that kind of day one, they were able to continue to make a living and try to keep people employed.

Chris: And that’s, I mean, that’s true today. I mean, you’re still doing that with, you know, struggling businesses every day. I mean, unfortunately, not every business is amazingly successful. They’re for whatever reason. I know you’ve done a lot of kind of consulting with folks and sitting down and talking about how they operate their businesses or why this isn’t working or what they’re, but just a sounding board more than anything.

Laura: Yeah, we do that all the time. And we always appreciate if a business comes to us, we always say, come to us before you’re ready to close the doors and things are, because there are things that we can help. And again, we can help by bringing in someone from SCORE, or SBA and we’ll talk it through. We have a lot of businesses, especially in the last maybe three years, you know, post COVID, that are finding they have to kind of reinvent themselves, that are finding they need to look at either new product lines or a completely new direction, you know, and that’s something that we can really help them through.

We still have businesses, you know, in our downtown who are, you know, again, just struggling to get their feet under them a little. So to really sit down and spend hours talking to them about what they need to do. We just did that with two businesses this week who really, you know, I think appreciated the time, but they’re kind of shifting and changing, going another direction. And it’s hard to get that message out, but we can do that. We can do that through our many, many newsletters. We can do it through social, all those other opportunities. And we can give you some advice on kind of where to go with that and how to get that out there.

What do businesses get in terms of advertising?

Chris: So we talked a lot about, you know, the different collateral and pieces. that you put together, but what is, you know, if I’m going to sponsor, advertise with a chamber or any trade organization, what should I expect to get back from that, right? I’m spending big dollars advertising, you know, I hear that from members all the time, like, gosh, that guidebook is so expensive, right? What should I expect to get back from that?

Laura: Right, and the guidebook is pricier than some of our other pieces, but again, you know, it’s going out to 50,000 people. And I think there’s some– stat that, you know, every print piece that goes out three separate people look at it in a family or something. So if you think about, if people are moving here, if people are having weddings here, all of that is something that’s going to be in front of their eyes. And it’s going to be online, you know, it’s going to be digital. People are going to click through. So it’s being able to give you not only our local market, but the market of the people who are coming here as well, and kind of exposing your business to that.

A lot of it what chambers do is free, you know, the free listings, the free page. But then there are optional marketing opportunities, but they’re great for a small business because they’re pretty targeted to your market, your audience. And honestly, a lot of them aren’t really cost prohibitive. Sponsorships are a little different, you know, and we’ve created both kind of the local sponsorship and sort of a tourism sponsorship. But it puts you out in the newsletter. It puts your name out and your, you know, logo in a banner out at every single event we do, you know, it gives you certain entree into all the events, it gives you annual dinner stuff, you know, so it really, we build out a lot of marketing, and we give you kind of some options once you become a sponsor. And again, it’s sort of that, that helps your brand, you’re out there hundreds of times a year, people are seeing that again, you know, digitally, print-wise, all those ways. And I think it’s an odd surprise that businesses come back year after year for those sponsorships, even the new ones.

Chris: Now if you had your star member that gets so much value, participates all the good things, your A+ student, so to speak, what would that look like?

Laura: Well, I mean I think, I mean you do a lot of right stuff. We have a lot of businesses that absolutely do, but it’s someone who has gone in and taken advantage of every single thing they can have on that website. They’ve put all the links in there. They’ve filled out their 15 word description. They’ve chosen their categories. They are coming to webinars, they’re keeping themselves up to date on that. They’re probably serving on a committee and then we’ve pushed them up to the board. They’re coming to the networking events and they’re connecting with other businesses. I think that alone would be fantastic. And again, that’s open to every single business that joins.

What is expected from board members of the Chamber?

Chris: That’s great. So, you know, I certainly serve on your board.

Laura: You do.

Chris: And I can tell you the salary’s phenomenal.

Laura: Oh my God, it’s awesome. Sometimes we give you muffins. (laughing)

Chris: It’s usually donuts.

Laura: It’s donuts, yeah. I know, I haven’t cooked in a while.

Chris: What do you expect, you know, what if you do get involved in your business? a board member, what do you expect of a board member, right? I mean, we’re all busy in our particular situation, we’re busy business owners, right? You know, what’s the expectation of a board member when you get to that level?

Laura: Well, apparently it’s to become the director ’cause that’s how I ended up here. But, I mean, we expect you to come to the meetings. We don’t want you to kind of skip out on them because we are making some decisions. We are talking through some things. We’re looking at the budget. We’re looking at marketing for the year. We’re talking about the market. I mean, and goals for the organization. So, you know, being an active participant in those conversations, looking at our strategic plan, going through that, talking through members who maybe are new and we’d like to have come in or members who are maybe dissatisfied, being able to help out. I mean, I think good board members are ambassadors for an organization. Whether or not that’s an official title, some have ambassador committees. But you know coming I know not everyone can get to an after-hours, but coming to some networking event. So that people see your face there or maybe serve on a subcommittee, you know I think those are things that you really want your board members to do.

Chris: And generally speaking that the lift of a board It’s not terribly huge. You know, usually it’s a couple meetings a month maybe max depending on what meetings you’re on. Laura: Yeah, absolutely. Chris: You know, and that’s really helping drive the chamber forward. And I mean, in your organization, you use your board as support staff, right? So if you’re trying to, you know, run an event or a project or a series of something, you know, using the board to help for that. And every board member has different expertise too.

Laura: Right, we have one more board member that comes to all the networking and helps with check-ins, spends literally 45 minutes and just helps with check-ins, but that’s huge. That’s time that we could go out and find our new members, introduce them to more experienced members, really try to make those connections that we’re not standing at the table handing you drink tickets.

Being part of multiple organizations

Chris: Well, good Lord. This was really great. Lots of good information for businesses to get the most out of the membership in any trade organization. Certainly, it’s not a chamber, certainly a great place to start, but if you’re in a certain industry, there are lots of industry-specific trade groups, maybe not necessarily locally, but also nationally as well to think about. And you have to figure out what organizations you’re going to get value out of.

And we look at our memberships every year, when those renewals come up, of course, and this year we did unfortunately drop a couple of memberships that we participate in, just because we weren’t getting the value out of it that we thought then when the directors came back to me and said, ‘Well, why are you dropping?’ I said, ‘Well, frankly, it’s because I can’t put the time the time in my head right now,’ and I said, ‘Well, it’s because I can’t energy into giving the full value, right? That’s, I know what it’s like to be a good member of something. And I know that we were, I was not able, and my team was not able to participate and contribute. It’s not necessarily anything to do with the organization. It just, we didn’t have that capacity.’

Laura: And if someone comes to me and says that, at least I like to hear that it’s honest, because people come and say, well, the chamber never did anything. I would much rather hear, you know what, I couldn’t take advantage of it this year, maybe next year, maybe something,

Chris: Right, and that’s what I told these folks. I mean, we canceled a couple of, you know, trade organizations that we were part of, and I just said, you know, sorry, we’ve not been able to participate. We’ve been a member for a year, I haven’t been to one event, I haven’t gone to one webinar, I haven’t done anything. I haven’t given your members value either. So, you know, not to, I’m sure they wanted my check, but not to drag down the organization with a dead member, that was kind of my thing, so.

Laura: And I’d like to remind people too, it’s not, really an either or thing. Like we have a lot of members who are chamber members and that, you know, they count on us really being advocates in ways in the community and things like that. But we have a lot that are members of the manufacturers association. They’re also members of HospitalityMaine because they’re advocating at a completely different level for those members. So we have members that are, you know, members of three, four different organizations and all of those are bringing something different to that table for them.

Conclusion

Chris: Well good, thank you very much again for joining me today. Now we covered a lot of ground, lots of different ideas. I hope everyone gets some different tips and tricks out of that, but certainly remember please, like, follow, share, Small Business Big World, Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook, our Facebook group. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you get, you get your podcast. Certainly feel free to email us any questions, podcast@papertrails.com. Otherwise, we’ll see you all next week.

So Laura, how do people find you if they want to get in touch with you, have online access social, or how do people get in touch with email?

Laura: So gokennebunks.com. It’s our website. You can link to all our social from there. We’ve got the list of the staff. My email is director@gokennebunks.com and pretty easy to find. Yeah.

Chris: So that’s great. And certainly, anybody has questions, they’ll surely be happy to answer them.

Laura: Absolutely. Thank you.

Chris: Wonderful.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Small Business, Big World. This podcast is a production of Paper Trails. We are a payroll and HR company based in Kennebunk. Kennebunk, Maine, and we serve small and mid -sized businesses across New England and the country. If you found this podcast helpful, don’t forget to follow us at @papertrailspayroll across all social media platforms, and check us out at papertrails.com for more information. As a reminder, the views, opinions, and thoughts expressed by the hosts and guests alone. The material presented in this podcast is for general information purposes only and should not be considered legal or financial advice. By inviting this guest to our podcast, Paper Trails does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific individual organization or product. or service.