Most Chambers of Commerce offer online business directories for their members as an added benefit of the membership. Chamber of Commerce membership fees currently average about $200 for smaller cities and $350 for larger ones. Membership to your local Chamber of Commerce is important for so many reasons. Unfortunately I also believe that many Chambers of Commerces do a poor job in directories for their members. They are poorly designed and hard to use for the public and they should be easy to use for maximum benefit of the small businesses who pay these membership fees. I believe that someone should build a website to help these Chamber of Commerce Groups do it better. Instead of only business directories Chambers should make catalogs, via an outsourced E-commerce cooperative type website, for the local businesses to sell their wares. The E-commerce Website would be run by another company and charge 2% of whatever is sold and the Chamber Collects 5%, while the merchant account is managed thru a local bank, the chamber itself or an Oil Company, Insurance Company, Investment Bank or Large Online Retail Bank. The financial partner would therefore have cash to lend for 3% fee, just like a credit card company. Everyone wins. Also merchants who buy locally can get credit (like credit cards) but better rates as long as they buy thru the system. It keeps money rolling locally, but uses the existing monetary system without upsetting natural money flows. I have thought here before and the chambers make a good partner because they want to help members and promote local spending, this means larger membership and more support for small businesses and thus fewer loans going south with SBA and fewer small business failures. Think on this in 2006. |
