Yea yea…I joined the Chamber of Commerce. I am so excited to meet some local business owners and network. So far EVERYONE I’ve met associated with the Chamber has been overly helpful and extremely nice. Must be that “Southern Hospitality” everyone talks about. 😉 😉 Anyways, I have heard so many wonderful things about using the Chamber to help grow your business, as well as sharing & receiving knowledge from others.

I did already attend one meeting in which the speaker was Diana Morrison, a local successful business entrepreneur and the Chairman of the Chamber…or as I would like to say, the “Chair-Woman”…ha.ha. She gave an invigorating talk to small business owners about networking. She was willing to share all her years of knowledge and even printed handouts for everyone who attended. The information in my opinion was invaluable and certainly useful to helping a business succeed. Some topics she discussed were : getting a signature look for your business, taglines for your business, business cards & stationary, pre-planning, proper networking etiquette and many more topics. It was a bit weird, because 90% of the stuff she discussed is actually projects I am currently working on. So I think maybe I am on the right track for 2009 and building my business…at least I hope. One of my favorite things she discussed was an elevator speech, which is a simple 15-30 second “infomercial” about you & your company. She calls it her elevator speech because it should be short enough to be spoken and understood between floors on an elevator. Genius, I said…simply Genius and I could probably fit a lot of information in because I talk really, really, really fassssst most of the time…ha.ha. Anyways, Thank You Diana for being so very generous in sharing your “secrets” to networking. (Click here for Diana’s Blog) I hope that I can “pay the kindness forward” by helping others.