Executive Director’s Report #2: August, 2018

We’ve had a great few months at the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce with lots of new member growth and exciting new things happening. This month I wanted to focus on our new members and welcoming them to our community.

New Member Mixer at Chino Youth Museum

On August 16, the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce hosted our New Member Business Mixer at the Chino Youth Museum.

We had an amazing turnout with 18+ of our new members participating. The night was filled with great food, excellent raffle prizes and fun business networking. We even had a few kids running around.

Thank you to our new members who participated that night:

• Wheel House Center,
• Retro Rolling Video Games – Best Game Truck in Chino / Chino Hills,
• The Dental Office on Soquel Canyon,
• KB Real Estate,
• New York Life Insurance
• CardConnect West
• doTERRA Essential Oils
• Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que, Chino Hills
• KidsArt – Chino Hills
• D1 Networks
• SoCal Synergy
• C & S California Capital
• Home Heights Realty
• Sizzler
• Small Business Breakthrough
• OneWest Bank
• Los Portales
• Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que, Chino Hills
• Space Lift Design

A special thank you to new member Los Portales, Cannataro’s Restaurant, Mountain Mike’s Pizza, and Sizzler for providing food and new member Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que, Chino Hills for drinks.

New Member Explosion

Since the start of the new fiscal year, we’ve made a lot of strides to help provide more service for members of the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce and it’s been showing in our numbers. On June 1, 2014 the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce had 336 members and has gone up and down in small increments since then.

Until … our membership began to grow in March, 2018.

Since March our Chamber has gone from 319 members to 375 as it stands today and we’re adding more members every week.

A huge reason for the increase in our membership numbers is our new membership coordinator, David Bare. David began working with us around March/April 2018 and has been extremely proactive in reaching out to businesses in our community to let them know about all the good work we’re doing at the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Here’s our net membership growth per month since March, 2018:

• March: 319 to 327
• April: 327 to 346
• May: 346 to 358
• June: 358 to 364
• July: 364 to 371
• August: 371 to 375

When David meets with businesses in the Chino Valley he lets businesses know a variety of ways the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce can help their business. The things he’s found business owners find most attractive about the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce are:

• Being part of the Chino Valley Business community
• Our customizable listings on our website which act as a second website to help drive more traffic to member websites
• Our quarterly email blasts which members can use to get in front of 2,000+ local businesses and community leaders
• The fun group of people you can meet and connect with

“The reason that a lot of people are not chamber members,” David says, “is because no one ever asked them. Kind of like the reason some people are not married.”

Thank you David Bare for all your hard work to bring new businesses into the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce!

This month we’ll be sharing photos of the plaques our new members have received this month on our Facebook page. Be sure to follow us on Facebook if you’re not already – https://www.facebook.com/ChinoValleyChamberOfCommerce/

Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce Business Expo

Another huge opportunity for the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce and the businesses in our community is our annual Business Expo. And this Business Expo is going to be bigger and better than ever.

The year before I became Chairman of the Board, our Business Expo was on its last legs. In 2014, our Business Expo was held on the lawn in front of Chino City Hall and only 16 businesses participated with very little foot traffic. Since then, our Business Expo has grown substantially and while the numbers vary from last years event, we had between 67 and 80 businesses participating.

We hope to make that even more this year.

It’s still early in the planning process, but we have loads of entertainment secured for the event including Rockstars of Tomorrow, the 2018 Chino Hills Business of the Year. We also are working with the shops at The Shoppes at Chino Hills to be more involved this year too.

All signs point to our best Business Expo to date.

Register for the 2018 Business Expo here – https://chinovalleychamberofcommerce.com/business-expo/

You can also let people know you plan on attending the 2018 Business Expo by visiting the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Business Expo event page here – https://www.facebook.com/events/236670526979566/?active_tab=discussion

Upcoming Events:

Here are some of our upcoming events for the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce. Hope to see you at some of our events this month.

September 7 Ribbon Cutting at the Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery

The Tilted Kilt will be hosting a ribbon cutting on September 7 from 10:30am to 1:00pm. In the morning they’ll be doing a live radio show with Keyshawn Johnson from 6am to 10am. I also heard they’re going to have some inexpensive Mimosas and Bloody Marys if you’re into that sort of thing.

September 20 Chamber Valley Chamber of Commerce Mixer at Chino Neighborhood House

Our September Mixer will be held at Aquiar Square located at 13191 6th St. from 5pm to 7pm in collaboration with the Chino Neighborhood House. Should be a great time, please come to connect with other Chino Valley Business owners at our monthly mixer.

September 24 Ribbon Cutting for Xscape Pods

Xscape Pods is a new Escape Room experience located at 4200 Chino Hills Pkwy, #825.

Join the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce on September 24 from 12pm – 3pm for the coolest new Escape Room experience in town.

Upcoming Business @ Breakfast Topics:

The Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce hosts a weekly Business @ Breakfast every Wednesday from 7:45am to 9am at the Chino Hills Community. Please join us for the opportunity to share your business with 30+ local business owners, learn something to better prepare your business for the future and network.

• September 5 – “How to Budget & Plan for Small Business Success” – Jason Zara from Zara Business Strategies | Breakfast Sponsor –
• September 12 – “Cyber Security” – Eddie Darmawan from D1 Networks, Inc.
• September 19 – “Banking in 2018” – Karon Mulligan from US Bank
• September 26 – “TBD” – BB from SunGuide Solutions

If you joined us this past year, thank you for becoming a new member. Hope to see you sometime in September!

Zeb