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The DC Chamber of Commerce (DCCC), the Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (GWHCC) and the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) along with participating business resource partners, the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Small Business Administration, DC Small Business Development Center at Howard University, DC Department of Consumer & Regulatory Affairs, Coalition for Non-Profit Housing and Economic Development, DC Department of Small and Local Business Development, Washington DC Economic Partnership, the Latino Economic Development Corporation and the Congress Heights Training and Development Corporation, will host a small business forum, “POWER UP DC 2016: Get Money, Get Movin’... Accessing Capital to Start and Grow Your Business With Non-Traditional Funding Resources.”

A marketing plan is the blue print that outlines how your company will capture its share of your target market. The process of formulating a marketing plan can be broken down into 3 phases: Analysis of Company, Analysis of Business Environment, and Goal Setting. 

Social media can have a big impact on small businesses. Unfortunately, it’s not just about publishing a few posts and nice graphics. To really stand-out on a small business budget, your business has to understand its target customer, build great content and take a bit of a guerilla marketing approach to build experiences and programs that foster community and credibility.

Most entrepreneurs seek business growth, and while saying you want to grow your business is one thing, making it happen is another.  In the words of Walt Disney:

A lot of businesses want to sell their services/products to the U.S. Federal Government. Why not? After all, the federal government is the largest customer you can have the world!

Some people tend to believe that you can become rich quickly by becoming a federal contractor. That’s not exactly correct. There’s more to federal contracting than most people realize.

Federal contracting is not for the faint of heart. It is not a get rich quick scheme.

However, if you have a product or service that the federal government buys, you can become successful by starting out with completing these tasks:

As entrepreneurs, we hit the ground running every single day and often find there isn’t enough time to do EVERYTHING we want to do. It’s easy to take for granted those who are in the trenches with us throughout the year. So, as Thanksgiving draws near, I encourage you to take some time to reflect on how your staff is driving the growth and success of your business and ask yourself:

When was the last time you took the time to say thank you in a way that really showed how much you appreciate your team members’ contributions?

Have you ever considered joining your local chamber of commerce to grow your business or to help you grow professionally?

Here are six reasons why you should join your local chamber: