Owen Sound & District Chamber of Commerce

Have your say about red tape...

The OCC is seeking your help understanding how businesses feel about red tape in the province. The government has committed to decreasing the red tape burden on business but requires clear input from the business community in order to translate this commitment into noticeable changes. Right now the majority of businesses across the province continue to be negatively impacted by obstructive government regulations. Some of the corporations and local chambers from our network have formed a ...

Stick it to Crime...

Owen Sound Police Launch “Stick It To Crime” Initiative. The Owen Sound Police Service is launching their new “Stick It To Crime” crime prevention initiative. The strategy is designed to prevent the rapidly increasing incidents of fraud, committed through the theft of electronic information from personal banking and credit cards, at point of sale terminals (debit pin pads). Fraudsters are very skilled and quick at installing ...

eLearning Courses

Owning and operating a business isn't something that one undertakes lightly. It requires a huge leap of faith. It's both exciting to live your entrepreneurial dream, and at the same time, it's scary because there's no guarantee that you'll succeed. As the leader of your business, you're the one with the ultimate accountability for the business' success. That is a heavy responsibility to bear. The Two Leadership Commitments You Made When you get into business, you make two significant and ...

Workplace Violence & Harassment...IMPORTANT Information

Workplace Violence & Harassment Requirements Take Effect June 15: “Tool Kit” for Employers (FYI - June 22 evening seminar in Owen Sound) The Ontario government has released a “HOW TO” TOOL KIT (PDF file) which is a template guide to help businesses comply with new requirements relating to workplace violence and harassment. Starting June 15, businesses must: develop workplace violence and harassment policies and programs; assess risks of workplace ...

WOW! - Thanks for the response....now see the results!

You told us. As expected, the vast majority of you enjoy living and working here....but from the 120+ returns, while the majority thought it was a good place to operate a business, a significant number said "No," this is not a good place to operate a business...AND more than HALF of all responses added some great "comments." It is well worth reading all the comments but before we get to those let's take a quick look at the Yes or No ...

Business Excellence Sponsorships:

Recognizing business excellence in this community builds awareness of the critical role our membership plays in the economic development in this region.We make a difference...and so could you by investing in an award sponsorship.While most have now been secured, these four categories are still available.We appreciate your consideration. Contact Bert Loopstra at 519.376.6261 New Business of The YearPresented to the best new business that has been established in the last 18 ...

Nominations are Still Open

This year's award categories are: 1. Business of The Year Over 25 Employees 2. Business of The Year 1 to 25 Employees3. NEW! SOHO Award (Small Office/Home Office)4. New Business of The Year5. Service Excellence Award6. NEW! Skills Trade Excellence Award7. Young Entrepreneur Award8. Community Service Award9. NEW! Hospitality Award10. Environmental Stewardship Award& Length of Service Awards Award Criteria and Online Nomination

Advocacy is 'Essence' of Chamber

Reprint of article by Dave Moyer in 'Make It Your Business' Chamber supplement in Owen Sound SunTimes April 27, 2010 The Owen Sound and District Chamber of Commerce is proud of its role as the voice of business in Owen Sound and Area. Most recently your chamber made a deputation to Owen Sound Council regarding issues that we feel should be of importance not only to the Business community but also to the general taxpayer in Owen Sound. The recent process by which a ...

Embracing a Growth Oriented Tax System

Tax reform plan needed to ensure post-recession prosperity - Canadian Chamber Ottawa, April 30, 2010: Today, Canada’s most influential business advocacy group released a report that looks at what the government must do to ensure the positive steps that have been taken in tax reform continue to pave the way out of the recession. In response to advances in communications and information technologies, and the ease of movement of skilled workers and capital across national ...

Let us know your accomplishments!

City applauds Small Business success The Business Enterprise Centre and the City of Owen Sound are applauding Owen Sound businesses and are collecting small business success stories in order to showcase these stories locally and beyond.Small business is at the heart of our local economy and drives employment, investment and new growth opportunities for our community. The positive business environment that supports this growth has a large regional market, stable workforce, a network of ...

Summer Jobs for Students

More Local Students Get Help to Find Summer Jobs The Owen Sound & Area Family YMCA Community & Employment Services is pleased to announce that our organization will once again be offering the Summer Jobs Service (SJS) program in the counties of Grey and Bruce. The SJS program has been offered locally by the YMCA for the past 10 years. The wage incentive program offers employers a $2 per hour reimbursement for hiring a student between April 1 and September 6 (Labour day). The ...

Breaking Down Barriers for People with Disabilities

FREE RESOURCES ANNOUNCED FOR BUSINESSES TO MEET NEW CUSTOMER SERVICE STANDARD The Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) and the Owen Sound & District Chamber are working together to help Ontario businesses comply with Ontario’s new customer service standard. Breaking down barriers for people with disabilities, begins by breaking down barriers for organizations that want to better serve them,” says Len Crispino, President & CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. ...

What do good employees really want?

What do good employees really want? - by Donald Cooper There's lots of confusion about this, so here's the "straight goods". According to most surveys there are 7 things that really good people want in a working environment. Note: This is not what average people want...and for sure it's not what sloths want. This is what top performers who will move your business forward want. 1) A challenging job with opportunity to grow. Good people want a challenge. They want to grow ...

Deputation to City Council - Your feedback is appreciated

The Owen Sound and District Chamber of Commerce representing over 500 business’ in Owen Sound and area have been following the recent actions of Owen Sound Council and are concerned with our municipal processes. First let me applaud the hard work that both staff and Council continue to do with respect to the operation of our fine City. Two issues have come forward that require more public scrutiny and clarity in order to allow your business community to understand the decision ...

Enhanced Listings

The Opportunity to Advertise on the Chamber Website is Back!Once again we are offering button ads and enhanced listings.

Free eLearning Now Here!

New Training Program Gives Owen Sound Businesses A Competitive Edge! To help our member businesses improve their business skills and keep their valued employees, the Owen Sound and District Chamber of Commerce is partnering with the Chamber eLearning Centre. The Chamber eLearning Centre offers a wide range of FREE and affordable, professional and effective training available for you and your employees. With this program, more than 250 business courses are available ...

Programming Schools for Business

“Beyond the ABCs: Programming Schools for Business” “What are your business’ needs?” It turns out that business responses to surveys are often a reflection of what were their wants! In our region, there have been many such studies conducted over the past decade. Training Boards, universities, community agencies, provincial / federal / municipal governments, colleges, community development authorities, and entrepreneurial ...

Is Your Business Card an Actionable Marketing Item?

(Comment: You may think business card design doesn't require several hundred words but it's a window to who you are and what you do in business...so well worth a quick read.) Over the years I’ve been asked to judge a number of Business Card Competitions and what I’ve discovered is that many business cards completely miss the mark when it comes to accomplishing the very purpose for which they were created! So, here are my ...

Our Local Economy

Local Economic Indicators Show Slight Improvement by Steve Furness The local economy showed signs of moving forward at the end of 2009. Based on selected ‘local’ economic indicators, the local economy is gaining momentum. This mirrors the provincial and national economies which are experiencing tempered growth particularly in employment. As the local economy starts to see gains, these local indicators should improve in 2010. City ...

Students - Be your own boss!

Full time student’s aged 15-29 have the opportunity to start and run their own business with the help of The Business Enterprise Centre, Owen Sound and Area and the Ontario Government program Summer Company 2010. Owen Sound, ON, January 19, 2010 - It’s never too early to think about summer and owning your own business. This provides students with a great opportunity to gain experience and to create their own employment. Imagine starting and ...

What is the Ontario Health Study?

Ontario Health Study: Be part of something big!: Owen Sound Residents Can Make Ontario Healthier Have you ever wondered why some people get cancer or heart disease while others don’t? That is the question the Ontario Health Study will answer. By discovering new forms of prevention and causes for such chronic diseases as cancer, heart disease and diabetes, the Ontario Health Study wants to make your community and the rest of Ontario a healthier place to ...

Driving your website traffic

Seven Ways to get more traffic to your website in addition to using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - by Andrea J. Stenberg In the movie Field of Dreams the ghostly voice told Ray "If you build it they will come." But that's not necessarily true of your website. Once you build it, it takes work to get them to come. And while search engine optimization – doing things to get your website found on Google – is essential, there ...

DriveTest Strike Impact

Are you aware of the Economic Impact of the DRIVETEST STRIKE?... DriveTest, a private company controlled by the British based Serco DES, has been on strike since August 21, 2009 and the impasse continues, entering its twelve week. While not a high profile strike that draws media attention, it affects many Ontario families.This includes young drivers getting their first permit or completing the next level of their graduated licenses and many ...

Screw up with a customer?...What an opportunity!

Good customer service is not about perfection – it's how you fix your mistakes that counts by Andrea J. Stenberg Every business owner who plans to stay in business for the long term tries to provide the best possible products and services to their customers. Satisfied customers are repeat customers – and a source of referral business. And while we may strive for perfection, the truth is we're human. No one can be perfect - at least ...

Another positive view on HST...

Economist and Tax Expert's take on HSTNovember 4, 2009Summary A report released today by economist and tax expert Jack Mintz states that a harmonized sales tax combined with Ontario's proposed corporate income tax cuts and other recent tax changes would significantly increase jobs, boost capital investment and lead to higher annual incomes for Ontarians.The report predicts that over the next 10 years, as a result of these tax measures, Ontario would see:1. ...

Local economic indicators reflect caution recovery - by Steve Furness

Local economic indicators are showing positive gains although some indicators have not yet recovered to 2008 levels. The unemployment rate has started to edge down slowly from a high of 8.8% in May to 8.4% however last years unemployment rate was only 4.1%. The number of individuals accessing employment insurance also declined locally falling from 768 in May to 672 representing a 12.5% decline. Housing prices have moved higher and are now higher than the average ...

Telephone Etiquette

The Lost Art of Telephone Etiquette by Andrea J. Stenberg It happened to me again today! I received a telephone call from someone I'd "met" online. "Hi this is Joe. I just got your email. You had some questions?" While he did in fact say his name, he jumped right into the conversation without reminding me how I know him and what exactly the call was about. The problem is that last night I spent an hour and a half replying to ...

Business Allies say 'Yes' to HST

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce joined a group of non-partisan business leaders to demonstrate the broad-based support for sales tax harmonization. The Smart Taxation Alliance includes the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, AGS Automotive Systems, Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Canadian Council of Chief Executives, Canadian...click here for full article.

The Simple Truth About "Value"

Whatever business you're in, there's an urgent and serious battle being waged in your industry for customer ownership. The winners of this battle will achieve higher sales and profitability…and the losers will become a commodity with an uncertain future. Ultimately, customer ownership is all about creating, delivering and communicating compelling Value. Customers demand it and businesses promise it, but there's a huge lack of clarity in business today as to what Value really is.Let's ...

Pre-budget consultations

Canadian Chamber of Commerce Pre-Budget Consultations, 2009.Submission to House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance... The global economic and financial crisis has been unprecedented both in terms of its severity and high degree of synchronicity. Worldwide, demand slumped and trade plummeted. Central banks (including the Bank of Canada) aggressively cut interest rates to stimulate aggregate demand, and introduced bold and innovative measures to provide much needed ...

Just when you think you can't do it!

NEED A GOOD BOOST?...JUST LOOK AT ONE MAN'S POWER OF INTENTION! For hundreds, maybe thousands of years, people have been trying to figure out how primitive people could build huge structures such as Stonehenge and the pyramids out of stone blocks weighing thousand of pounds. Scientists have been stumped. Then along comes a normal guy - a retired construction worker and he says well, I would do it like this. And he ...

A Man With a Business Plan

Outside England 's Bristol Zoo there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 buses. For 25 years, its parking fees were managed by a very pleasant attendant. The fees were £1 for cars ($1.40),£5 for buses (about $7). Then, one day, after 25 solid years of never missing a day of work, he just didn't show up; so the Zoo Management called the City Council and asked it to send them another parking ...

Why People Buy or Don't Buy...

The Simple Truth About Why People Buy & Why They Don't Buy: You could fill a large room with all the books ever written on the subject of why people buy and why they don't buy and, mostly, they over-confuse the issue. The simple truth is that people buy "stuff" (that would be products and services), in every part of their business andtheir personal lives for one reason only…to make some of their stress go away. That's it! ...

Eight Steps to Small Business Nirvana?

My goal is to translate how Buddha's Eightfold Path to peace and clarity might reveal strategies for running a small business. Before I start I apologize to those whose familiarity with Buddhism extends beyond my limited knowledge. That doesn't take much. With the decision to spend a couple of months in Thailand and its predominant Buddhist population, I thought I should at least read one book on Buddha's far-reaching ideology. As it turned out ...

The Power of Positioning.

Every business needs a BIG IDEA that…a) Defines your value,b) 'Grabs' your target customers,c) Clearly differentiates you from your competitors,d) Focuses your staff…and,e) Grows your bottom line. Once you've created a BIG IDEA for your business, the next step is to create a clear and compelling Positioning Statement that will be an important part of your total Brand communication in this age of the 10-second sound byte. To be effective, your ...

The Ontario Chamber Case for Sales Tax Harmonization...

The report, Made in Ontario, The Case for Sales Tax Harmonization, demonstrates that Ontario households, businesses and government will all benefit from reform of Ontario's sales tax. Many details within the OCC report can be seen in the final model for implementation chosen by the Ontario government including: exemptions for municipalities, academic institutions, hospitals and schools; exemptions for children's clothing; and a low income tax credit. Sales tax harmonization is ...

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