The Solo Chamber Pro’s Toolkit

Chamber pros do a bit of everything—whether you’re an office of 2 or 22. But never is that more understood than by those of us who are “solopros” running one-person chamber offices. From administrative tasks to high-level economic development strategy, the solo chamber pro is a force to be reckoned with.

But it doesn’t always feel that way.

Many days, it can be overwhelming, and your desire for help (or even understanding) can make you feel like there are easier jobs out there and that you might just apply for one. But the solo life can also be wildly rewarding when you have the right tools and support behind you.

If you’re a new solopro or simply are trying to find creative ways to cope and maintain the type of efficiency that should qualify you to take gold in an extreme sport, you’ll need a strong combination of adaptability, resourcefulness, and a proactive approach.

Thriving as a Solo Chamber Pro

As a single-person chamber of commerce office, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and stressed, but with the right strategies (and a little help from other chamber pros), you can boost efficiency, reduce stress, and achieve more.

Mastering Retention and Outreach

It’s just you. So how in the world do you manage retention and outreach? The chamber pros from our Facebook group had some suggestions.

Divide and Conquer

Ellen Grant from the Gilmer Chamber shared what her chamber did to delegate. They “split our membership list between Board of Directors, Ambassadors and Staff. Each person has about 18 members they are responsible for contacting.”

The Pueblo West Chamber of Commerce also uses ambassadors to help. Danae Stratton said, “I divided members up between myself and our 27 ambassadors to call twice a year and set a calendar reminder for myself to remind them or have them do it during a membership drive. It totaled out to be about 10 people per ambassador to reach out to twice a year. Average phone call took less than 2 minutes and the members love that they are checked on, even if only a few minute phone call just to see how they're doing.”

Use Tech

John Newby suggested that while it’s not the same as a personal touch, “With technology, you can send text reminders and info links. Same with email or a personalized video. Make technology your friend. Outreach need not be face to face.”

Pick Your Impact

When time and resources are limited, you’ll have to make decisions on what has the greatest impact. As Jeff Meredith suggested, “At least half your members don't join for the touches, but the advocacy or big picture goals. Another 15-20% are actively involved. Focus your efforts on the remaining 30 percent.”

Handling Visits Without Spreading Yourself too Thin

Ideally, stopping in and seeing members is a great way to connect, but for lone chamber execs it can be another source of stress. How can you possibly reach every member every year?

Dave Moravec from the Colerain Chamber of Commerce shared his experience and how he handled the pressure of reaching out. “It took my first 90 days to reach all 150 of the members one on one. It was a goal to do so face to face...then COVID hit. Some got phone calls, others booked time, and we met via Zoom. It was my first priority …A couple reminders from above that I consider.

1. I now don't have to count every member visit, because I see them at various events or meetings. I make sure that those touch points matter.

2. Some don't need or want to be seen each year. If they are using an ancillary benefit and satisfied, that may be all that they need.

3. Annual events...drive attendance and participation, especially for those that want to be seen. They may not JUST want to see you, but others at an award dinner, or whatever.

Finally, as suggest by others, remember selfcare. People and businesses WILL leave the chamber. No chamber has 100% retention. Do your best, try your hardest, set priorities for what REALLY matters, and let some stuff go. OH...and one more thing mentioned, find an office admin (the right person) and find a way to fund it.”

Providing Value

Thinking of ways the chamber can provide value for members is also exhausting. Many solopros feel like they must do it all alone. The Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce adopted a different strategy. Lynette Hearrell explained a plan she implemented, “I am assigning each board member, an industry sector, like retail, medical, nonprofits and churches, big industry, and construction, beauty, etc. At each board meeting and throughout the months, I am having them think about how are we providing value to their assigned sector and to take the lead in planning, or finding resources. It should take a lot of pressure off me and always keep a focus on providing Chamber value to all of our varied members.”

Volunteer Training (and Yes, That Means the Board too)

Most single staff chambers at some point realize they can’t do it all and as we’ve seen from several of these chamber pros, they turn to volunteers. But what happens when the volunteers don’t know what they’re doing? It’s possible you have willing people who are causing more harm than good.

That’s why one of the most important things you can do for your own sanity is volunteer training—especially your board. Some people don’t understand what the position calls for. Some are looking to build their resumes or just get out of the house. Training and communicating expectations to them can be one of the biggest gifts you give yourself as a chamber pro. Hire a consultant/expert, bring in another chamber pro from a nearby community, or run a training on your own. Getting clear on how they can make the biggest impact for the chamber and the community will make your professional life easier.

Now that we have the ideas and chamber pros suggestions, let’s get to the tools that can really make a productivity and efficiency difference.

The Solopro’s Chamber Toolbox

Here are the tools that can help you do more with less.

Membership Management & Communication

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software. Centralize member data, track interactions, automate communications, and streamline renewals.

Email Marketing Platforms for professional newsletters, event invitations, and targeted campaigns.

Social Media Management Tools for scheduling posts, monitoring engagement and managing multiple social media accounts from a single dashboard.

Website Builder. If you don’t have a website (please don’t use a Facebook page in lieu of a website), you can create and maintain a professional chamber website without coding knowledge using some of the simple builders out there. However, you’re going to be in a better position if you have your frontend website linked with a backend chamber management system/CRM but sometimes that’s not in the budget (at least not initially).

Event Registration & Ticketing Software for event management with online registration, ticketing, and payment processing. If you have a chamber CRM, you may already have a module that handles this. However, posting to eventbrite or Facebook can draw in a different crowd and help you reach a larger audience when people see their friends going to your events.

Productivity & Organization

Project Management Software to track tasks, deadlines, and progress on various chamber initiatives. This is especially helpful if you’re working with a variety of stakeholders.

Cloud Storage. No reason to lose a file because your device dies. Additionally, working in the cloud means you can share files and access them from multiple devices, making it more efficient to work from the device you want to work from wherever you are.
Calendar & Scheduling Tools. Manage appointments, meetings, and events efficiently.

Note-Taking App. Capture ideas, create to-do lists, and organize information effectively.

Financial Management

Accounting Software. Manage invoices, track expenses, generate reports, and simplify tax preparation.

Payment Processing Solutions. Accept online payments for memberships, events, and other transactions.

Marketing

Graphic Design Software. Create visually appealing marketing materials, social media graphics, and event promotions. Some allow you to create templates and save your brand colors to make design creation easy.

And one category that deserves its own section…

AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers powerful tools to streamline operations and boost efficiency across many of the categories above. But since its capabilities are so vast, we thought it should have its own category. When using it, you might even feel like you have a staff.

Here are a few ways you can create a virtual assistant-type experience using AI:

Use AI-powered email marketing tools for personalized communication and targeted campaigns to create, a/b test, and analyze data.

Utilize chatbots to handle routine member inquiries and provide basic information, freeing up your time for more complex tasks. How many times do you really have to tell someone your office hours?

Record meetings and have them transcribed. Search meeting contents with a few quick questions. It’s like having your own secretary.

Analyze attendee data using AI to personalize future events and improve engagement.

Leverage AI-powered data analytics tools to gain insights into member behavior, engagement, and satisfaction. Utilize AI to generate automated reports, saving time and effort.

Use AI for smart email management and sorting. AI can categorize your emails into "important," "promotional," "social," etc., so you focus on what matters first. Gmail has this as does SaneBox.

Write quick replies. AI can suggest short, professional responses to common email inquiries, saving you time drafting replies.

Meet your new scheduler. AI can help you find the best times for meetings by analyzing your and your colleagues' calendars (permissions required).

Tell AI to send you reminders for upcoming appointments, deadlines, or tasks so you can stay on track.

Use smart search by enabling AI to find the documents you need faster by searching for keywords or phrases across all your files. Google Drive can now find search words in PDFs, making search capabilities even more robust.

Ask AI to pull specific information from documents (like invoices or forms) and automatically input it into spreadsheets or databases.

Schedule content and posts. AI can help you schedule posts across different platforms at the optimal times for engagement.

Personalize email campaigns using AI so your email content is tailored to individual subscribers’ interests and behaviors.

Craft the right subject line to increase opens using AI.

Bounce ideas off AI and get writing assistance on things like blog posts, articles, newsletters, event descriptions, and social media posts.

Create images and graphics to accompany your marketing materials.

The solo chamber life is a whirlwind of multitasking, a constant juggling act where you're the CEO, the marketer, the event planner, and the IT support all rolled into one. It's exhilarating, but it can also be exhausting. But with some smart strategies (and a little help from AI), you can tame the chaos, find more balance, and rediscover the joy in your work.

While there is a time investment in getting some of these efficiency tools and techniques set up and implemented, you might be surprised at how much they can lighten your load and let you focus on what you do best – championing your community and making a real difference.

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