Xenia Area Chamber of Commerce Investor Benefits

XACC Investors enjoy one of the many training seminars offered through their Chamber Investment

Return on Investment...It Pays To Belong

When a business invests in the Xenia Area Chamber, it forms a partnership with 500 other investors that leverage time, money, and other assets to create stronger individual businesses and a stronger community.  Chamber staff facilitate this partnership.

Following are just some of the returns received through chamber investment:

• Credibility – Chamber Membership brands a business as “a step above” the rest.  A national study completed in late 2007 proves that consumers and businesses alike are up to 63% more likely to purchase goods from a business that they know is a local Chamber member.  Download the study here.
  
  
• Networking Opportunities – The Chamber provides an arena in which investors may meet and mingle with potential clients and customers.  Some of these are: 
  • Toast of the Town
  • Awards Banquet 
  • Golf Outings
  • Committee Meetings
  • Brown-bag lunches targeted to Chamber membership and focusing on various areas of interest.
  • Greene County Safety Council Meetings
  • Xenia Area Young Professionals Meetings
      
• Education – The Chamber offers seminars and programs on leadership, personnel management, sales and marketing, asset recognition and management, customer service and other business-related information. The chamber also offers a variety of small business start-up services and a marketing guide developed by local marketing experts for a nominal fee.
• Interaction with legislators – The Chamber hosts an annual legislative breakfast as well as provides the opportunity to network with legislators during other Chamber events. 
• Legislative advocacy – In partnership with other chambers, we take positions regarding potential legislation that will affect businesses.  We work with local governments at all levels to try to keep up to date involving ordinances that relate to business and create awareness of their impact upon our investors.
• Communication – The Monthly Edition of Xenia Chamber Connection provides information about business issues and community activities.  We are constantly expanding and updating an e-communications network that allows us to provide more timely information to member–investors regarding networking opportunities, legislative issues that involve businesses, educational opportunities and community activities.  
  
  The Chamber's Weekly E-Newsletter is distributed to more than 1,000 Chamber partners and others who are interested in learning about community activities, events, and news related to Chamber members.
• Referrals - Chamber Investors are referred to local residents and to visitors via telephone, hard data and our website that provides an online membership directory with a link to a map showing the business location as well as a link to the member's website.

• Our website highlights Xenia Chamber investors to the more than 250,000 individual visits per year and almost 2 million hits that our website receives. 
  
  Opportunities to be part of the Featured Business Mall will also help you promote your business.

• Information – The Chamber provides information such as area demographics, relocation and visitors packets (more than 2,000 each year which may include your coupon or brochure if you are a Chamber member), and Xenia maps (10,000 maps every two years) with Chamber Investors’ ads, as well as directions via telephone and to visitors.
• Community Marketing – The Chamber partners with regional media to promote the Xenia area. Trail promotions have been produced and televised in the Dayton and Cincinnati markets to bring visitors into our area.  Xenia Old Fashioned Days Festival, Inc., is a sub-corporation of the Chamber.  The Old Fashioned Days Parade, televised on WHIO-TV7, is a 90-minute showcase for the Xenia area. Collaborative advertising opportunities are offered to member businesses.  A brochure is available to market downtown development. Promotional information is regularly provided to schoolchildren throughout the U. S.  Area entryways into the community have been made more inviting through landscaping programs.  We host Greene County Public Relations Professionals meetings to share ideas to promote our community and each other’s businesses.  Working in partnership with the Greene County Convention and Visitors Bureau, we help host successful events such as conventions, the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure, and our own Greene Trails Cycling Classic that bring visitors into Xenia. The Chamber developed a beautiful, full color Community Image Magazine that has helped us promote the Xenia Area to people and businesses that might have an interest in locating in the region.
• Targeted marketing for your business – Key business and community decision makers may be reached through our newsletter and other means of information distributed to member-investors.  The Chamber website lists chamber investors under their business categories and provides access to a map providing the business location.  The featured business mall available through the website gives members the ability to provide much more information about their business that may be accessed by the powerful search engine utilized by the website and provide referrals to your business.
• Business - Education Partnerships - Our Education Committee has a program called Partners in Education.  More than 100 businesses currently take an active part in the program by interacting with students in our local schools in an infinite variety of ways.  Programs may involve anything from job shadowing to company tours, speaking to a class, or providing financial sponsorship of some need at a particular school.   Xenia businesses know that we must have a qualified and prepared work force.  Anything that promotes work force development is a plus for our community and our businesses.
• Greene County Higher Educational Opportunities was established by the Chamber to work throughout Greene County to help students complete Financial Assistance Forms and to find scholarships for those who are trying to attend college.
• Xenia Educational Endowment Fund, another sub-corporation of the Chamber, is very much involved in providing grants for programs within the schools as well as scholarships for Xenia students. 
• GreaterDaytonWorks.com - Chamber Member Businesses may post job offerings on the Internet FREE. Sponsored by DPL, Inc. 
• Bulk Mail Permit – Any Business Level member may take advantage of the Chamber’s bulk mail permit to do mailings of more than 200 identical pieces at a greatly reduced rate.  Use of this permit saves Chamber investors a one-time setup fee of $175 AND an additional $175 annually.  Organizations may also use this benefit at an additional cost of $50/year.
• Group Rated Programs – Through our affiliation with the Southern Ohio Chamber Alliance, Chamber members receive discounts on Workers’ Compensation, Health Care through United Health Care, Prescriptions, Vision, and Dental Programs.  An additional affiliation with the Ohio Chamber Alliance also allows members to receive discounts on Health Insurance through Consumers Life, a subsidiary of Medical Mutual of Ohio.  You may contact our independent insurance agent members and ask about insurance plans available to Chamber Members. 
• The Chamber has partnered with the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation to form and manage the Greene County Safety Council in an effort to create a safer work environment, help businesses manage the cost of BWC premiums, and network to help each other manage this part of their business more effectively.
• Xenia Area Young Professionals Group has been created in an effort to get young professionals involved and help them grow within the business community.
• Certificates of Origin - Most countries will accept a general-purpose form identifying the seller, mode of transport, date of export and consignee and containing a description of the merchandise. The Certificate of Origin is usually prepared by the exporter or the freight forwarder, notarized and attested by your local Chamber of Commerce.  This service is free for business-level Chamber Members and $30.00 for non-members.
• Notary Service - Free Notarial service
• Use of Meeting Room – Free use of meeting room as available.  Must be scheduled in advance.

When you visit a business, check to see that they display the current year’s decal.  Display of a plaque does not necessarily mean a business is a current Chamber Member.  If you do not see the current year’s decal, encourage the business owner to invest in your Chamber – and in the Xenia Community.  The return on investment is significant.