While the troubles facing large corporations are well documented, less is being written about the everyday struggles small companies and mom-and-pop shops are facing to keep their doors open. For the most part, these businesses that help define individual communities aren't entitled to government bailouts and are being strangled by a lack of bank financing to help them through these troubling times.
These companies make up the vast majority of the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber's membership, and the chamber is working harder than ever with individual members to help them grow their business.
One way the chamber helps is by hosting our annual Small Business Conference. This year's conference is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20, at the Birmingham Conference Center. The conference features two dynamic keynote speakers in Doug Rothwell, president and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan, and Bob Fish, founder and CEO of Biggby Coffee.
An equally important part of the day are a series of breakout sessions geared toward helping small businesses operate more efficiently and learning new tricks and tools to drive new and more businesses to their business. Each session features a local “expert” in the area who will guide the discussion.
Topics focus on how to better manage accounts receivables, effective leadership, marketing strategies, using social media as part of your messaging, and building better business relationships.
Each of the topics will run twice with three topics per time slot, which hopefully will allow our guests to attend as many sessions as they prefer. Handouts and other takeaways will be distributed to help capture the valuable information.
learn more about the Small Business Conference or to register, visit the chamber website at www.bbcc.com
Joe Bauman is president of the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber. He welcomes feedback at joeb@bbcc.com.
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