Finding good quality (inexpensive) learning resources to keep you at the top of your industry can mean the difference between success and struggle. A chamber membership is a great investment for your professional and business development as is some time spent absorbing the innovative ideas of others. TED talks are an amazing opportunity to learn (on your schedule) from a few of the brightest minds in our world. Best of all, the talks are free. Here is a list of some of the best TED talks for small business owners.

Saying that joining a Facebook group for business replaces the need for a chamber membership is like placing a nickel in your piggy bank and claiming to have a retirement account. Sure, the two are kind of similar but you’ll never get the same amount of return from that group as you will from a chamber membership. Here’s why.

If you’re a solopreneur, you’re likely putting in some long hours building your business. Anything that helps you be more productive for little money is a necessary investment for you at this point. You may have thought briefly about the chamber and then decided against it because when you think of older people standing around talking about business, you probably figured it wasn’t for you. It’s not how business gets done nowadays. But the chamber offers a lot more than what you imagined and a lot of it can help you build a strong business in a much less time than going it on your own.

In line with the Denton Chamber’s effort to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, the Diversity Corner will be featured in the first Mind your Business newsletter of every month to update you on the work of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, and more importantly, share with you tips and information about diversity, equity, and inclusion that can help you better serve your customers and lead your employees.

The Denton Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors is pleased to announce its new President, Erin Carter, IOM, M.S.

Whether you host a business event in partnership with a charity to help them raise money or simply have a sidewalk sale, a special business event can help bring people in and show them a new side to your business. But it does take some organization. Here are the steps to ensuring a successful business event.

Even if you’re feeling shy about technology, it’s time to start building that email list. You want customers and potential customers to keep you in mind. Reaching out to them and offering them things they want like special deals, coupons, exclusive information, and other items they’ll find value in will increase your list and, in turn, your sales. Here’s how.

Are you struggling for customers or do you wish you had more clients? Aside from needing more time in the day, this is one of the most common sources of angst for small businesses. But how do you get more leads if you can’t afford to hire a shark of a salesperson? You follow these lead generation tips.

Referral marketing allows your loyal customers to “sell” for you by referring others to your business. Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, getting helpful reviews and referrals is not as easy as just providing good service or a worthwhile product. Believe it or not, the chamber can be a tremendous help to your business and its referral marketing efforts. Here’s how.

Most businesses want to improve their search engine optimization (SEO). It means more customers at less cost, and almost everyone wants more customers. But how you improve your organic reach on a global scale is very different from how you do it on a local level. While the two have some things in common, you can usually affect your local rankings much faster than the larger scale ones. You can generally see movement in a handful of days, assuming your local competition isn’t busy doing the exact same thing.

Efficiency is key these days as we’re pulled in hundreds of different directions. If running your business seems like a struggle, it’s time to make things easier. Some businesses choose to do that by hiring additional people, but if you don’t have the budget for that right now, there are other things that can be done to help you make the most of the hours in your day.

Some days it feels hard to compete with the loss leaders big box stores employ, the operating hours they’re able to keep, the programs, their ad budget, their marketing…the list goes on. But small businesses do have an advantage box stores don’t and it’s one that’s rarely used.

Becoming a resource for your customers or clients is one of the first steps to gaining their trust and helping them think of you when they need assistance. If they know, like, and trust you they’re more apt to do business with you. But what type of content can you share to accomplish this? And how can you become a resource for them on the Internet?

Facing your fears and moving past your comfort zone is a popular topic for keynote speakers and life coaches right now, but never has facing your fears been more important to your career and business than in the area of public speaking. If you want your business to be remembered and you want to establish yourself as a thought leader, you need to learn to speak in public.

A chamber membership is an investment in your business. As an investment, you undoubtedly expect a return. While it’s easy to look at what you paid for membership and how many new customers were sent your way through the chamber and calculate your return that way, there’s more to it than just that. Here are 5 examples of how they win with your chamber membership.

Do you feel stretched to the limit? Do the hours in your day fly by only to find out you have more on your to-do list than you do minutes left in the day? Then it's time that you start looking at your schedule and figuring out where the hours are going. Are you guilty of these business time wasters? If you are, you're about to get some of your day back.

Southern Opportunity and Resilience Fund (SOAR) is a partnership of local and national community organizations created to provide access to free business support services and flexible, affordable capital to small businesses and nonprofits with 50 or fewer employees across the South and Southeast. Calvert Impact Capital is arranging and LISC Fund Management is managing the Fund.

People buy from people they know, like, and trust. While you might be in the right place at the right time when someone is up against it, and they may buy from you once without knowing, liking, or trusting you, for them to return, you’ll need more than luck. You can’t like someone you don’t remember, so let’s get to work on establishing the like part of the sales equation.

No matter what the cause of the business disaster, having a plan in place can mitigate the damage to your business and your business reputation. If you don’t have one, you need to set aside the uncomfortable feelings and get things in order.

We’re all so busy these days. That’s part of the reason life hacks are so popular. But did you know one of the best professional life hacks is chamber membership? Here’s what you can get out of it to help you do more for your business or professional life with less.