Why I decided to rejoin the San Jose Chamber of Commerce

San Jose, CA -- When I first joined the SVO as a business member, my partner Jonathan Williams and I owned a not-for-profit fitness facility called Silicon Valley Applied Biomechanics. As members, we directly benefited and gave back to the community with the foundation's internship program. Although it was a lot of effort to teach the interns about our business, it was very gratifying.

During our time as members, we thought we were too busy to take full advantage of our membership. We also felt that the organization under the previous management only focused and paid attention to bigger businesses. As a small business, we constantly felt like an afterthought. Although we no longer have the physical gym, we still own and manage several businesses including an online fitness business, a graphic design business, and a soap business. And now that we have a better understanding of the business environment in San Jose during and after COVID, we realized that we need the support that the Chamber can provide especially now with new management that is more focused to developing smaller businesses.

So how can the Chamber help a micro-business like ours?

Small business with revenues less than $2,000,000 can receive specialized services and benefits for $50 a month or $600 a year. Here is what it gets you:

Networking and Visibility

The Chamber provides members opportunities to engage in networking events such as Monthly Member Breakfast, Power Lunch, Networking Mixer, Business Referral Network Groups, Ribbon Cutting, and Website and eNewletter advertisement.

Advocacy and Permitting

The Chamber has partnered with Pinnacle Strategy and has a dedicated staff to assist with City of San Jose Planning Building and Code Enforcement department, conditional use permitting, and Santa Clara County Health Department permitting.

Marketing

The Chamber has partnered with Deductive Marketing and Recruiting, an AspireNorth Chanel Partner, to provide cutting-edge marketing technology that captures contact information of potential prospects and markets your products and services.

Financial

The Chamber has provided special pricing and benefits on Comerica's small business products and services.

Public Policy Committees

The Chamber provides members opportunities to engage in policy committees such as Transportation, Housing and Land Use, Competitiveness, Community Development, and Water and Energy.

For these reasons, we believe that we cannot afford not to be members.

Click here to find out more about the San Jose Chamber of Commerce.