“Your Chamber is on a mission when it comes to helping small business and inspiring entrepreneurial development. We’re providing essential resources and just in time education to help start, run and grow your business.” ~ Brad Phillips, SVP Marketing Communications  

Introducing the Northwest Arkansas Entrepreneur’s Guide

Our new Entrepreneur’s Guide is a free community resource filled with information for those seeking to start a business in Rogers and Lowell. Whether you need help on where to get a business license or how to find assistance with taxes, labor laws and insurance requirements, this Guide will save you valuable time during startup planning.

Download Your Copy Now

Setting Yourself Up for Success

Starting a business is a huge commitment. Entrepreneurs often fail to appreciate the significant amount of time, resources, and energy needed to start, run, and grow a business.

Biggest Challenges to Starting and Growing a Business*

• Coming up with a great and unique product or service
• Having a strong plan and vision for the business
• Having sufficient capital and cash flow
• Finding great employees
• Firing bad employees quickly in a way that doesn’t result in legal liability
• Working more than you expected
• Not getting discouraged by rejections from customers
• Managing your time efficiently
• Maintaining a reasonable work/life balance
• Knowing when to pivot your strategy
• Maintaining the stamina to keep going even when it’s tough

* Source: Richard Harroch, AllBusiness contributor, Forbes.com

We Mean Business, How Can We Help Yours?

Introducing the new online Small Business Toolkit.

Our online Small Business Toolkit provides just in time education for small business owners with helpful links to articles and essential information on relevant topics in these content categories:

STARTUP

Learn about starting a business from concept to planning to doing.

OPERATIONS

Explore strategies for running and growing your business.

OFFICE & HR

Make better decisions protecting your business and hiring, managing, rewarding, and retaining the best employees.

FINANCE

Manage your small business and personal finances.

TAX RETURN

Learn how to comply with federal and state obligations while lowering your tax bill

TECHNOLOGY

Learn about the different ways to incorporate and utilize technology properly into your business.

MARKETING

Discover new marketing and promotion tactics, tools, and techniques

Chamber Partners with Business and Industry Training (BIT) to Offer Soft Skills Certificate Series

Soft skills are often overlooked but are necessary in everyday life. The Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce is pleased to partner with Business and Industry Training (BIT) to offer a three-part Chamber to Community (C2C) Series.

Attending all three programs will result in receiving a soft skills certificate from BIT.

Work Life Balance – February 1

Work- life balance is essential to combat stress, ensuring both individual and company success. The stress associated with unbalanced lifestyles is costly; it damages productivity and increases individual health risks. Employees who have the tools to balance their professional and personal lives are happier, healthier, and more productive.

In addition to improving performance, many younger employees place a high value on work-life balance. Companies that include work-life balance as part of their culture will be able to better attract qualified candidates. Register here.

Presentation Skills – February 15

This program can benefit anyone who presents: a trainer, a meeting facilitator, speaker, or seminar discussion leader. No matter which role you are assuming, this workshop will help you become more efficient and proficient with the skills of providing information to others. Register here.

Delivering Constructive Criticism – March 1

Constructive criticism can be a helpful tool when used with the intent of helping or improving a situation in the workplace. However, it can be one of the most challenging things not only to receive, but also to give. It can often involve various emotions and feelings, which can make matters delicate. But when management learns effective ways to handle and deliver constructive criticism, employees can not only learn from their mistakes, but even benefit from them. Register here.

About the Presenter:

Gary Griffin is a results-oriented professional with extensive experience in strategic/consultative selling, sales training and leadership development, and sales operations management. As a Regional Training Manager for IKON Office Solutions (IKON University) Gary delivered on a wide range of tasks specifically focused on sales and leadership, performance coaching, and hands on support from the Region down to the individual teams within its’ geographic presence.

Gary recently moved out of the Corporate America life and works as an independent consultant in leadership development course delivery. He also spends time as a trainer for Caption Call, a company that provides a caption-based service to the hard of hearing or deaf, at no cost to the individual, so they can carry on what would be considered a normal phone conversation. “I help people with hearing loss stay socially connected for a longer, happier and healthier life.”

Our Mission Work | Small Business & Entrepreneurial Development

Our Small Business & Entrepreneurial Development mission work creates programming and events to open the door to new connections for small business to succeed. Check out our business connections events calendar.

We also engage with our Small Business Council that serves as the voice of small business. It guides our support and programming based upon your needs.

We partner with organizations that are invaluable resources for small business and entrepreneurial startups such as the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center, SCORE and Startup Junkie Consulting.

We advocate for small business and offer opportunities to influence civic, social, and economic initiatives supporting growth.

And we offer a variety of affordable advertising and sponsorship opportunities to increase visibility and awareness of your business.

Let us know how we can help your business succeed. Call Steve Cox, SVP of Economic Development, at (479) 636-1240 or [email protected].