What is the best business advice that you have ever received?
Inge Houston
President/CEO
Dublin (CA) Chamber
The best business advice that I ever received was: “If you are that busy, you are not charging enough.”
This advice reminds me that my business and I are worth it. Applying this concept to the chamber, it highlights opportunities to restructure dues and bundle services that my members are using frequently into partner or sponsor opportunities.
I am worth it!
Zeb Welborn
President
Chino Valley (CA) Chamber
From 2013–2015, I hosted 120 episodes of my podcast, “The Defining Success Podcast,” where I received great advice from successful professionals. Chris Brogan, an online marketer, offered insight during his episode. He said, “When I think of ways to make money, I fail. When I think of ways to be of service to others, I make money.”
I have worked to be of service to others ever since. In addition to Chris, I spoke with my father, Larry Welborn (an award-winning court reporter for the Orange County Register), about his thoughts on success. What he told me was something he shares with me every time we play golf together, “Hit the ball as hard as you can.”
In business, and in life, I always hit the ball as hard as I can because… why the hell not?
Deanna Kupcik
President/CEO
Buckeye Valley (AZ) Chamber
Our chamber was that “old white guy — good old boys club” for a long time. And we hadn’t consciously tried to diversify; it just happened naturally. We were lucky about seven years ago when one of our members quit his job and asked if he could just hang out at the chamber office to keep himself busy. That led to him becoming our office manager, and then he evolved into our membership director, which we call our “Friend Raiser.”
Tedy Burton happens to be African American and with that has opened up our membership to diversity. It is amazing how many minorities migrate to our chamber because they see that we are accepting and inclusive. We are finding that our members want to see people like themselves.
I have always tried to have our Board of Directors reflect our business community in respects to the types of businesses represented. I had never thought about our board reflecting our community regarding race. But our current chair is a young Hispanic business owner, and our new board will have an African American woman and a bank manager from Croatia. It hasn’t been intentional; it’s just happened.
The good advice part of this article comes from Tedy in his answer to a question posed on Frank Kenny’s Chamber Professional Facebook page: “If you are looking for a magic pill or a wave of the hand, then here you go….you attract who you are. If your chamber is welcoming to all, then you will attract all. If not, then you won’t. Our business is based on relationships…Make some relations.”
Jason Camis
President/CEO
Gardner Edgerton (KS) Chamber
Change is inevitable. How you manage it and how your business adapts to it will make all the difference. Whether it’s something small, like the price you pay for an input, or something major like a competitor business coming to town, you have a choice in how you tackle that challenge. Remember what you were, embrace what you are and more importantly, know what you want to be.
This advice couldn’t be more true for chambers over the past year.