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Annual Award nominations are being taken now until Dec. 15. This is your chance to nominate a fellow business, organization, person, or even yourself, for one of the five awards: • Business Of The Year • New Business Of The Year • Emerging Business Of The Year • Organization Of The Year • Volunteer Of The Year You can nominate using a paper ballot or an online ballot, and the links are found at the bottom of this newsletter. If you are wondering about the award criteria, that information is also found there. A list of the past several y...
At a recent workshop for my church, I learned about JJ BUCKLE. There are fourteen traits and attributes that every leader in any field possess. JJ BUCKLE DID IT! is an acronym used to remember all the traits. Turns out the US Marine Corp uses a slightly different version: JJ DID TIE BUCKLE. No one has all fourteen traits, but nearly everyone in a leadership role has most of these traits. Do you have what it takes to be a leader? Absolutely! Justice is the practice of being fair and consistent. A just person gives consideration to each side of...
I often marvel at the number of people I know who are willing to volunteer at so many events all over Carbon County. These are busy people with full-time jobs, families and social lives! You can see them taking tickets at a rodeo, handing out mugs at Steinley Cup, setting up tents at music in the park and giving directions at a fun run. As an event planner, I rely heavily on volunteers for our chamber sponsored events. It takes about 30 volunteers each for the fishing derby and the Beerfest. That is in addition to staff and board of directors!...
This phrase is a favorite of a local businessperson. He believes that if an individual business does well (raises the tide), then all of our businesses will do well. This concept has been the mission of economic and community development professionals across the nation. But there is only so much we can do. A strong local economy is also the responsibility of fellow business owners. I hear it all the time. Local business owners do not get the support they need from other local business owners. In fact, this is one reason businesses drop their...
What have you learned today? If you cannot answer that simple question, I suggest that you reflect upon your daily activities, your interactions with people, the challenges you faced and what successes you had. As a business owner, I hope you can understand the importance of continuing education. I don’t necessarily mean a 10-week accounting class—I mean LEARNING. Without growth and education, you will be left behind. Isn’t that we told our kids when they were 16? You don’t have time, you say? You will—when your business slowly loses its compe...
It is now May, and we all know what is going to happen in the next 120 days, right? There will be live music festivals, hiking, rodeos, car shows, picnics, beer gardens, fishing, floating, gardening, jet skis, family reunions, weddings, biking, craft shows and the list goes on. You may know that one of several vital function of this Chamber of Commerce is to promote our members and tourism in the Platte Valley. How do we do that? By placing ads in regional media outlets, putting notices on the electronic marquee, sending packets of maps,...
At the February Annual Dinner and Meeting, there was an infographic on each of the tables that was a visual representation answering this very question. Just as a tree needs certain things to grow, so does your business. Passive energy comes from sunshine. How a plant uses that energy is key to its growth. A business needs to take resources such as marketing research and venture capital and utilize them in ways to benefit the individual business. Roots are needed to draw up nutrients and water from the soil. Depending on the mineral...
At the Feb. 7 Annual Dinner, we were happy announce our annual awards: •VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR-- Bob Lauman •ORGANIZATION OF THE YEAR-- Corbett Medical Foundation •EMERGING BUSINESS OF THE YEAR-- Sweet Marie's Mercantile •NEW BUSINESS OF THE YEAR-- North Fork Engineering •BUSINESS OF THE YEAR-- Hi-Tech Auto We have THE BEST MEMBERS! Did you know that the Chamber hosted 32 events last year? Our member's online Business Directory Listings were viewed 19,934 times last year--that's a 97 percent increase from just two years ago! People clicked t...
The last building block in the Economic Development Tiers is “New Business Recruitment”. This gets people really excited when they think about community and economic development. “All of our problems would be solved if we just had a business relocate here and hire 125 people.” “If we had more retail shopping, we could keep people from leaving town.” “We just need to get someone to build a new motel.” These myths have haunted community leaders for decades. In reality, growth comes from within a community. Instead, we need to create an envir...
The last economic development block in the third layer is ENTREPRENEUR DEVELOPMENT. This is similar to the adjacent block, Existing Business Development, but focuses on start-ups, new ventures and development of innovative products and services. At one time or another, most of us would have been considered an entrepreneur--your first lemonade stand, babysitting or mowing lawns. The skills you learn when you are young stay with you your entire life: time management, customer service, financial planning, imagination and problem solving to name a...
The second layer of the Economic Development Tiers Includes Quality of Life and Workforce Development. This month my thoughts turn to the third block: Infrastructure Development. Living in a small, rural, isolated community can be thought of as a negative situation. But many of us feel the exact opposite. We choose the Good Times Valley for a multitude of reasons and relish those attributes. Such as a sense of calm and quiet. Feeling safe. Knowing our neighbors by name. Support. However, when it comes to infrastructure, we want the same things...