Gratiot Area Chamber of Commerce

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Contact GACofC:
	Patricia F. Nelson, Executive Director 110 W. Superior Street P.O. Box 516 Alma, MI 48801 PH: +1 (989) 463-5525 FX: +1 (989) 463-6588 Email: chamber@gratiot.org

Letter from the President:

By Phil Moore

Small businesses really make up the backbone of our local economy. This is really no different than in most of America. The importance of the role of the small businessman is hard to over state. Most new jobs are coming from small businesses. Most innovation begins in small business. From the local economy’s perspective, having ten employers with ten employees each is better than one employer with one hundred employees. It creates more stability in the economy and labor force. It also has a greater potential for growth. From a city’s perspective, our bond rating goes up if the economy has greater diversity. Too much concentration in one industry or one sector can affect our bond rating.

The role of the Chamber is to help do things together to foster an improved business climate. By working together, we can do more than we can separately. By sponsoring community-wide sales, we can attract bigger crowds and more customers than any one business can do by itself. We can sponsor marketing for the community to help create community branding. We can sponsor health insurance plans that are cheaper for our membership. For even our larger members, the Chamber can provide services that are cheaper by cooperating than individual businesses can provide by themselves.

One recent development has been the creation of an industry roundtable. By gathering the industry in one spot to discuss common issues and problems, it may be possible for local industry to work together to solve the problems. The Chamber’s goal is to facilitate this type of interaction.

Bottom line, I believe in the role the Chamber plays to improve the business climate in Gratiot County. They are the business advocate and facilitator in the county. I applaud those that have the wisdom to be members. We need to encourage other businesses to join our team. The more members we have, the more services the Chamber will be able to afford and provide. As fellow members, one thing you can do to help the Chamber is to recommend to your neighboring businesses that they also should become members of the Gratiot Area Chamber of Commerce. The larger our membership- the larger our voice. Our goal should be to have all Gratiot businesses as members of the Gratiot Area Chamber of Commerce.