By Moses Leos III

From Oct. 17-21, chambers of commerce across the state will celebrate Texas Chamber of Commerce Week. In this week’s business section, we highlight what the Buda and Kyle Chambers of Commerce do for local business and the community.

By serving as an opportunity and relationship builder for area businesses, the Buda Area and the Kyle Area chambers of commerce continue to function as a way for owners to stay involved with the region.

For BACC Executive Director Bret Kiester, involvement in the community is one way the chamber works to assist its clientele.

“For us in our area, the chamber is a logical step in the thought process, because it helps people to meet their customers and meet other potential business owners you can work with,” Kiester said.

Kyle Chamber CEO Julie Snyder said the chamber’s main role is representing the business community, whether with government or other entities, to create “a strong local business economy.”

“It creates a collective effort with entities to position the city as a great place to do business,” Snyder said.

Several factors play a role in the chamber’s visibility in the community. One is the networking and relationship building with businesses and the public. In Buda, that extends to their monthly luncheons and Coffee and Connections, along with events such as the Fajita Fiesta and their annual Chamber Gala.

The KACC similarly holds monthly chamber luncheons and networking events, along with the annual Kyle Fair and Music Festival, which is held in October.

In Buda, the chamber works to provide education for area business owners.

Kiester said a bulk of the Buda Chamber’s membership is small businesses and individually owned enterprises.

Kiester pointed to the chamber’s last monthly luncheon, which featured a guest speaker who worked in human resources. The speaker gave insight on HR topics, such as interviewing job candidates, shedding light on executive order that’s coming in and other items.

Previous topics included providing business owners insight into the Affordable Care Act.

BACC also works on providing other education and leadership workshops for business owners. Those have ranged from Facebook 101, which dealt with social media and how it applies to businesses, to working with businesses on applying for resources from the Small Business Administration.

 Helping new businesses spread the word to the community is also a function of the chamber. Kiester said the chamber organizes ribbon cuttings for businesses new to the area, along with providing assistance for marketing and business plans.

The chamber works to provide support, but also works hand-in-hand, with the Buda Economic Development Corporation.

In Kyle, the chamber works within four core competencies, which include promoting the community, providing network opportunities, representing the interest of businesses with other entities and promoting a strong economy.

While not a department of the city, the Kyle Chamber does work hand-in-hand with Kyle Economic Development to assist and educate business owners. In addition to organizing ribbon cuttings, the chamber also works to represent business owners in city-related topics. Snyder said a recent example was the chamber’s involvement in the 2013 road bond initiative.

A primary difference is the Kyle Chamber’s involvement with promotion. Snyder said promotion is a two-fold process that involves chamber members and the chamber’s use of Hotel Occupancy Tax dollars for tourism.

Various events, such as the Kyle Fair, “continues to get a lot of promotion,” according to Snyder.

“Facebook, Twitter and all of those things, all are used to promote the community,” Snyder said. “In addition, we do a number of things as far as relaying activities throughout the community to the people who live here.”

But there are several challenges that the chamber does face. Retention of members and growth of the chamber is one of the primary issues.

“We are blessed to be in a high growth area. You hear stats that Buda is the fastest growing area with a certain number of population,” Kiester said. “But that’s not going to be like that forever. Membership retention and growth are definitely the lifeblood of any chamber.”

Advocacy is another challenge. Keister said the chamber has worked at “being a support at the local and national level” toward advocating for businesses.

As the chamber’s membership holds steady, Kiester said retention is key. He said chamber sponsored events not only benefit the community, but also allows business owners a chance to have specific targeted marketing.

“I think the thing I’m most proud of…is just our involvement in the greater community,” Kiester said.

For Snyder, the challenge is communicating the value to members.

“It’s different for everyone,” she said. “Maybe that a larger business is looking for a different type of value, they may have a different need, where a smaller business may have needs for operations or HR training.”