A successful “Meet the Artists” reception was held May 5th from 1pm – 4pm.

Gallery 21 is currently on display (housed in the Century 21 Heritage Group Ltd office at 1 Queen St North, in Tottenham)

Host Brian Lafazanos with Gallery 21 Artists and Chamber President Jess Prothero.
Pictured left to right: Brian Lafazanos, Donna Greenstein, Danielle Magder, Kaarina Brooks, (Seated – Ruth Draper), Anni Bretschneider, Corrine Donnely, Kathy Bauer, Curator – Maureen Bayliss, Jess Prothero (Not pictured – Barb Hughson)

Sample of artwork on display.

Artist Barb Hughson and her work.

The post Brian Lafazanos and Century 21 host “Gallery 21″ appeared first on Tottenham & Beeton Chamber of Commerce - Official Site - Tottenham, Ontario.

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Linda is a resident of the area and has extensive experience in the community, and is an enthusiastic new member of our team. She has been an active volunteer in the community for over 10 years, and has a depth of experience in administrative work.

Linda is eager to connect with and meet our Chamber members!

Please drop by the Office to introduce yourself to our new office administrator.

Welcome Linda!

Regards,
Jess Prothero
President
Tottenham Beeton & District Chamber of Commerce

The post Welcome our New Office Administrator! appeared first on Tottenham & Beeton Chamber of Commerce - Official Site - Tottenham, Ontario.

Are there factors that affect your coverage you night want to be aware of?
What’s covered? What limits of coverage are there? What types of coverage are there?

Click the link below for a short article on factors regarding insurance for home based business owners.

Home Based Business Insurance Factors

Thanks to Chamber President Jess Prothero for this information!

The post Insurance and Home Based Business appeared first on Tottenham & Beeton Chamber of Commerce - Official Site - Tottenham, Ontario.

Please do send us a note regarding any topics that you would like to see covered.
We are aiming to make this site a useful, collaborative, and interactive resource for business people.

Business Thinking: Sharpening Your Axe

A young man entered a logging camp with the hopes of joining a crew with a reputation for great production. He approached the foreman with a grin and said ‘I’m here to ask to join your crew”!
The foreman looked the young man up and down and said…”Ok young man. I’ll give you a shot. This is a very productive crew. My guys can fell 12 of these big trees a shift. If you can keep up, the job is yours”.
The young man blurted out with confidence “Just wait and see! You’ll be impressed. I just know it!”

The young man headed out with the experienced crew and sized up his first tree.
He effortlessly swung his axe and settled in to a day of hard work.

At the end of the shift, he encountered the foreman as he wandered into the camp kitchen. The foreman asked, “Well young man…How did you make out? How many trees did you fell?”

The young man replied, “Nine. I brought down nine trees”.

The foreman responded by saying, “Not bad”. “Not great either. Give it another try tomorrow”.

Not to be deterred, the next morning the confident young man departed halfway through the crew breakfast. He had a head start and was certain he would do better this day. He took a deep breath and started to swing his axe…

At the end of the shift, he dragged himself into the crew cabin about 15 minutes later than the rest of the crew. The foreman spotted him as he was hanging up his gear.

“So…How did it go today young man? How many trees did you fell?”

The young man shook his head with some disbelief. “I was able to bring down 8 trees!
I’m not sure why, but I was trying harder today!”

The foreman wrinkled his forehead and thought for a moment. He replied…”I’ll give you one more shot. You’ll have to step things up if you want a spot on this crew.”

The young man was clearly frustrated as he gulped down his dinner and went to bed early.

The next morning the young man was gone before breakfast. He was already out swinging his axe into the heavy timber. He took no breaks except for a short lunch break. He gave his all and came stumbling into the crew camp well after sunset.

He entered the crew cabin and slumped down into a chair completely exhausted.
He held his head in his hands and shook his head slowly from side to side.

The foreman approached him and asked him “Are you OK young man?”

The young man blurted out, “I just don’t understand it. I left before breakfast. I skipped breaks, I took a short lunch. I worked as hard as I could…I just don’t understand why I only brought down 7 trees! I just can’t figure it out…!”

The wise and experienced foreman sat on a stool in front of the dejected young man and asked him one simple question. “Young man, during all the time you were working so hard over the last three days, did you ever stop once to sharpen your axe?”.

As business owners, how often to we stop to “sharpen our axes”? With a focus on being productive, sometimes we are so preoccupied with business-as-usual, that we forget to take the time to stay “sharp”.

Stay tuned for an announcement for the upcoming Christmas Meet and Greet networking event.
Hanging out with a diverse business group is a great step in tweaking one’s thinking with new perspective and varied viewpoints.

More articles coming soon!
Regards,
Peter Finnie
Chamber VP
Peter Finnie Artistic Photography

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If you want to be a  successful email marketer, it’s essential that subscribers open your messages. After all, if your audience isn’t opening your emails, it’s impossible for them to take action, such as clicking through to your website or making a purchase.

But how do you keep them opening your emails  on a regular basis? There are four primary ways:

1. Solve a problem. 

2. Save them money.

3. Make them smarter.

4. Entertain them.

Take a look at your recent email marketing messages. Can you identify which of the four reasons your subscribers are reading your emails? If your answer is “none of the above,” you might want to reconsider your approach.

Read more:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226221#ixzz2PJFGWMMP

The post Effective EMail Campaigns – Ideas for Small Business appeared first on Tottenham & Beeton Chamber of Commerce - Official Site - Tottenham, Ontario.

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The Tottenham Beeton & District Chamber of Commerce is seeking a highly motivated administration/communications professional to act as the Chamber’s key contact with business members and the general public as well as oversee the day to day operations delivering on Chamber objectives.

Candidates should have experience in organizing events as well as providing administrative support to the volunteer Board of Directors.  This work would involve a wide variety of responsibilities including development of marketing materials and correspondence, planning and executing events, membership sales and retention, budget development and financial preparation, preparation of agendas and minutes for all Board meetings and daily interaction with local businesses, board members, government and business organizations and the general public.

The successful candidate will work 24 hours per week and may include some evening or weekend meetings and events.  Applicants should have previous administrative and marketing experience and be able to work with minimum supervision.

Please e-mail resumes to: tottenhamchamberofcommerce@bellnet.ca

The post Office Administrator Position Available appeared first on Tottenham & Beeton Chamber of Commerce - Official Site - Tottenham, Ontario.

Please be advised that the new Tottenham Community Week Website is now live.

Please check out: www.tottenhamcommunityweek.ca

The website is your source for information regarding the annual Summer Festival held over the first week of July.

Chamber members please also be advised that the TCW Planning Committee is looking for Community Partners, Vendors, and Volunteers for this years celebration of family and community spirit.

If you or your business connections can benefit from an association with this great event, please reach out to the committee and let them know how you can help get involved.

Regards,
Peter Finnie
Chamber VP

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When it comes to growing your business do you know it pays to set SMART goals?

You may have heard of smart business goalsetting, but have you ever dug deeper and broken your goals down into an achievable form?

Most people dabble with goal setting after the first of January, but many often return to old habits and unproductive busy work because they don’t know how to properly set goals.

When planning your goals here are a few things to keep in mind.

1) Plan on Paper

This forces you to make your thoughts concrete. Instead of allowing your goals to remain floating around in your head and never really getting acted on, write down where you want your business to be. Be specific. Think about what results your business is supposed to produce for you.How much of an increase in sales would you like? How many new clients or customers would you like to develop? These concrete items give you something to shoot for. By planning out where you would like to be in the future, you can get a much clearer picture of what you need to be doing in the shorter term. The bottom line is that writing your goals down makes them more tangible and actionable.

2) Ask…Who do I need to become?

If you have a tendency to be disorganized, the answer might be to ‘become a better organizer’. If you tend to be late for meetings, your answer might be to ‘be disciplined with my calendar planning and be punctual’. Chances are you will need to grow personally in an area or two to become the person that makes your goals a reality. While we may have resisted the notion when we were children, as business people and adults, we know deep-down that discipline in business is a good thing.

3) Be willing to take action – This moves goal setting and productivity into the realm of today, and not just a daydream about the future. Be the person who moves ahead step by step.

4) Set SMART Goals

SMART goals are goals that fall into a specific pattern which make them more actionable than vague notions of the progress we wish to make.

SMART Goals are:  SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ACTION ORIENTED, REALISTIC, and TIME CONSTRAINED goals.

Let’s break down why SMART goals are beneficial:

SPECIFIC

Goals that are specific make it easier to evaluate progress. If your goal is to increase sales, you need a specific number or percentage of growth to shoot for. If you only have a vague notion of what you would like to achieve, how will you know you’re making the required progress to hit your long-term targets?

MEASURABLE

Powerful goals need units of measure or specific markers that you define in order to track and quanify progress. This goes hand in hand with the specificity mentioned above.

ACTION ORIENTED

Goals that you set must have a bias for action built in. Since you cannot always control what a customer or client may do, you must set goals that reflect the actions that you as the business owner can take.
You are in control of the action steps you can take daily to develop your business. Your goals should focus on elements that you can take action on daily. This ensures that the target is not left to chance, but rather you stay in control over forward progress.

REALISTIC

Your goals should be realistic. If you look to double your business in two days, unless you’re starting a local lemonade stand in an August heat-wave, doubling your business may not be realistic in that short a time frame. Look at your business and make a realistic estimate of the type of growth that is possible in the near to medium term. Having wildly unreal estimates has sabotaged many a business goal setter by creating a mindset that is more of a fantasy than an achievable reality.

TIME CONSTRAINED

Your goals should also be time constrained. Setting realistic goals is key, but there should also be some time pressure to get the job done. By setting specific dates for the completion of your goal, you put pressure on yourself to take action every day while the clock is ticking. Open ended goals do not tend to produce the focus and bias for action that time constrained goals do. Remind yourself daily of the time limit and the purpose of your goal. When you stay aware of the time ticking down, you will tend to make greater effort to achieve the goal.

By focusing on setting SMART goals, you can boost your productivity by staying engaged with GOALS that have relevance and real meaning to you.
Get ready for a surge in productivity by implementing a SMART goal strategy!

The post SMART Business Goalsetting appeared first on Tottenham & Beeton Chamber of Commerce - Official Site - Tottenham, Ontario.