Small Businesses Gain Increased Support from Associations & Local Chambers in Building Customer Bases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – America's small businesses, particularly those owned by women and minorities, are getting substantial assistance from trade associations and local and state chambers of commerce in customer development, according to a survey released today by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called Access to Markets.

"Beyond building strong relationships with existing customers, businesses depend on their local chambers of commerce, trade associations, and industry events as key networking platforms to cultivate customers," said Rita Perlman, executive director of the Chamber's Access America program. "We applaud these groups for their efforts to support all business owners, including women and minority entrepreneurs, and provide forums that allow them to grow and compete."

The findings reveal survey respondents rank local chambers of commerce and trade associations and attending industry events second, third, and fourth respectively as important networking strategies to cultivate customers. Around 37 percent of respondents indicate individual consumers are their primary source of revenue. More than half of the respondents indicate that they do not expect to engage in contracting with state and federal government agencies in the next five years. Additionally, the data shows that only about a quarter of small businesses use a formal marketing plan to guide their customer acquisition strategies. Identifying contracting opportunities and understanding the contracting process itself are areas that many minority and women business owners still finding challenging.

The online survey was conducted by the Chamber's Statistics and Research Center in March and included more than 800 respondents ranging from the service industry to retail to construction and manufacturing. Of the respondents, 31 percent classified their businesses as women-owned, 15 percent as minority-owned and 12 percent as both. A significant portion of respondents (68 percent) were business owners with fewer than 10 employees.

Access America is the Chamber's outreach initiative that seeks to educate and foster opportunities for the nation's growing number of women and minority-owned businesses.
The U.S. Chamber is the world's largest business federation, representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region.

www.uschamber.com

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