Are you a member of your Chamber of Commerce? I’m not. As we try to build a “Shop Local” movement in our town, I miss the CoC, or at least my fantasy version of the CoC.
When I was in Small Business 101 ( I actually did take that class before I started), I was told the CoC membership was essential. The networking, the connections, the opportunities. None of it helped me during my years of membership. It took me a long time to figure out that the CoC …

It’s Spring, and everyone should be bursting with happy energy. Instead, customers whisper in a tone like you might have a terminal illness, “How’s business?”
It’s the latest trend … customer concern. First, it was once a day; now, it can be three or four times. “Are you doing OK?”
Everyone is suddenly noticing that shops are closing. Shops they liked, shops they hated, shops they had never noticed until the brown paper went up in the windows. It’s not an easy trend to grasp.