When I first started my business and was reading all the advice doled out on the net, one of the first things I did was to join my local chamber of commerce. The received wisdom on forums, etc. seemed to be that it would help me make good business contacts in the local community and give me access to networking events.

However, a few years later I’m starting to think that perhaps chambers of commerce really aren’t so relevant to SMEs anymore. They tend to be largely about doing business locally and I found that the type of businesses that were members were not those that would ever really fit my potential client profile. The majority of the members seemed to be more traditional businesses where success really is about building up local clientele - shops, restaurants, solicitors, local print shops, etc. My business isn’t necessarily about doing local business, I have clients all over the UK and some in Europe, most of whom I have never met. I did a quick informal ask around some of my clients, who include email marketers, IT trainers and PR consultants and found that out of 20 questioned, only 1 was a member of their local chamber of commerce. The words that crept up several times when talking about chambers of commerce were that the people I spoke to thought of them as “old fashioned” and “irrelevant to modern business”. I had already realised that if it’s new clients I’m looking for then chambers of commerce aren’t the way to go about it for my type of business.

Although it depends to some extent on your particular local chamber of commerce, it seems that rushing off to sign up as a member may not be the best way to build up your business.