As I facilitate chamber and association planning sessions across the country this fall the chronological next step for these organizations is to build their budget (profit plan) around their new strategic plan.  If this sounds like you, read on for an additional step to your budget process.

Organization executives often ask how I was able to leave the chambers I served with so much money. "Pat, how were you able to SAVE so much money?!?" The truth is, I didn't really save a dime. I simply budgeted to operate on 90% of the forecasted income. This is classic Ben Franklin "Pay yourself first" thinking. I just tried to implement his "Penny saved is a penny earned" thinking into the current day's financial plan.

Basically, the philosophy works like this; "saving" 10% of your money seems to overwhelm people and organizations that are facing so many expenses. I simply chose to live within the 90% of our income and made "paying" our reserve account as important as paying the utility bill. 

When you do this with your organization's budget and your personal budget, every ten months you have an additional month of income in the bank ready, well, for times like these. After a little more than five years, you will have an entire year of income in reserves. This puts you and your organization in an outstanding "power position" for the future.

 

In my first decade of providing my weekly newsletter/blog I have refrained from selling advertising and/or marketing other companies. As you can see, this is changing with the banner above for MyChamberApp. With recent figures stating that nearly 300,000,000 smart phones are in use, we MUST take advantage of this huge market for our members!

This past summer at all of the U.S. Chamber Institutes, I spoke to enough people in our industry that are so thrilled with the MyChamberApp concept in their organizations that I offered my support in an effort to keep chambers of commerce on the bleeding edge* of technology as they continue to support their members.

You will see the MyChamberApp banner in my weekly mailings throughout the rest of this year. I hope during at least one week you will have the time to click on their banner to find out what all the excitement is about. I highly recommend that you review their list of current cllients and testimonials and then talk to one of their experts to help you earn more members and more money.

 

* Keith Woods, former Santa Rosa, California chamber exec, mentor and speaker told us in 1995 that we can't afford to be on the cutting edge of technology, we must be on the bleeding edge. We were driving Model A's back then and we are driving Model T's today. Take a breath. Technology is not going to stop so plan and budget to keep up with it. pm

 

 

 

Probably one of the classiest things a volunteer organization executive can do when trying to show appreciation of a volunteer is to send a card or letter to the volunteer's spouse and/or family thanking them for their support and telling them how valuable this particular volunteer is to the organization.

 

Actual letters or cards of thanks in the mail are excellent, but they are made even better when people you love read them to you.

 

Make your "Thank you's" as special as possible.

 

 

 

When I moved to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho the population here was 24,000. So the question always came up, "How in the world did you ever get 1,000 members?!?"

 

I really want to tell you that it was my business acumen, my charisma and my outstandiing leadership abilities. But, that wouldn't be fair or, truthful. The number one reason this small community was first able to have a chamber of commerce with 1,000+ members was...

...the new Coeur d'Alene Resort and Conference Center.

That's right, prior to 1986 Coeur d'Alene did not have a meeting room that could hold 1,000 people. Not even close. Therefore, the chamber of commerce was always limited and not allowed to be big. The 1,000 person conference center allowed the chamber to double the size of its annual meeting until we hit capacity.  My message this week is simple; plan your annual meeting at the largest possible location in your community so you can start preparing to "be BIG."

 

(Because I received another call on this topic just this week, I thought I would share my thoughts with all of you so you can be prepared for this in the future.)

For more times than I would like to remember, the advent of a strip club or an adult entertainment "book store"  locating in the main business district has put pressure on the local chamber of commerce "to do something about it!"  While some may think this is a great time to show the power of the chamber, I recommend going another way...

My first piece of advice is to do something before the issue arises. When we wait until we have to be reactionary, it blows up in the media. The only winner is the strip club that receives the front page and television advertising they could not or would not be able to afford. Be prepared by quietly supporting your municipality to establish strict ordinances so you won't be played like a patsy in the future.

My second piece of advice if it is too late for the first, is to lovingly place this issue in the hands of the people with authority to develop municipal ordinances, especially if these types of businesses are legal in your community. You can't win getting into this argument.  Simply express your faith and trust in the "city fathers and mothers" to do the right thing for your community.