“Juggling family life with our professional life, particularly in smaller communities, can often lead to very specific challenges,” Brashear said.
Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce CEO Loretta Brashear says many situations that women face in the business community are unique to their gender, especially when it comes to small business owners and sole proprietors.
“Juggling family life with our professional life, particularly in smaller communities, can often lead to very specific challenges,” Brashear said. “By networking and dialoguing with others who have successfully navigated these issues, trading best-practices, and learning from each other, we hope to strengthen the local business community as a whole.”
Here are three ways the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce Women in Business program helps women owned businesses:
Sharing marketing practices, especially with social media, which can often become a full-time job in itself.
Creating digital content for these outlets, in the form of video clips for commercials, audio podcasts to share their ideas, and graphics to promote sales, events and various programs. The Women In Business participants have access to the Chino Valley Area Chamber of Commerce photo, video and audio equipment and skills.
Access to our KQNA radio Talk of the Town Monday radio Broadcasts. Each week, this program features interviews live on the air at 4 p.m., on 1130am/99.9 FM/95.5 FM) as well as Chino’s Chamber regular promotional spots on the Yavapai Broadcasting radio family.
Brashear said the Women in Business program is important because, particularly in smaller communities, local businesses need to support each other, even in fields where they would normally be considered “competition.”
“When the community is looking for a place to eat, or looking for a specific style of clothing, or a particular item for the home, no one outlet fills all the needs. With small businesses, each owner or manager has their own style and personality, and their locations reflect that. If one of our participants doesn’t have an item or doesn’t have access to something, we hope they will let their customers know, ‘Well, so-and-so down the street just might have what you’re looking for.’ The saying, ‘It takes a village,” really shines when it comes to small business owners.”
The Women in Business program gives the women a chance to get to know the people in the business community and see the variety of services and level of talent in the area, says Brashear. “There are some great businesses in this area that many people are unaware of. We want to get the word out.”
Brashear said the Chino Valley COC Women in Business program is unique because it can offer participants professionally produced content for their websites and social media. “We offer many of these at no cost. Some of the larger, more elaborate packages are available at very little cost to the business owners. We can tailor each marketing campaign to fit the needs of each business.”
She is encouraging more participation by business owners and managers, men and women. “We will succeed as a community as our local businesses succeed – more people, more events, trading more ideas.”
The group started officially with the launch of its Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/CVWBiz) in 2016 as a sub-group, companion page of the Chino Valley Area Chamber of Commerce page (www.facebook.com/ChinoValleyChamber).
The next meetup will be 5-6:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 15, at The Pea Vine, 400 W Butterfield Road in Chino Valley. QCBN
By Stan Bindell, QCBN
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