Betty Boros, NJBIA Chief Member Strategy Officer
For the uninitiated, ChamberLink is a partnership between NJBIA and 17 local business organizations for the mutual benefit of our member companies. We coordinate our activities, join together in advocacy and offer member pricing to our events for our partners.
I’m willing to bet that members of local chambers of commerce are overwhelmingly small businesses. It’s the case with NJBIA as well; while a large majority of the state’s major corporations have joined NJBIA, our membership is dominated by small companies. So I think it’s worth noting that what constitutes a small business is changing.
The federal Small Business Administration (SBA) is adjusting its industry-specific monetary-based size standards by nearly 8.4% to reflect the inflation that has occurred since the last adjustment for inflation in 2014. It’s also adjusting program-specific monetary-based size standards by the same amount for sales or leases of government property and stockpile purchases.
So if you’ve been too big in the past to qualify as a small business, you may want to check again. The rule is not final yet, and SBA is accepting comments until Sept. 16. Go here to learn more.
In the meantime, here are some of the interesting events coming up next week.
- The Hudson County Chamber of Commerce wants to help members figure out what they should charge for their goods and services. It’s hosting Hudson County Consortium: Pricing for Small Business Profitability, on Wednesday 7, 9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. in Kearny.
- Newark Regional Business Partnership is offering an evening of networking Wednesday, Aug. 7 at 3rd Space in Newark from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.
- The Gloucester County Chamber of Commerce wants to help its members do networking right, so it’s hosting Networking: Having the Conversation from Entrance to Exit, Thursday, Aug. 8 from 8 a.m. – 10 a.m. at Rowan College of South Jersey’s Business & Corporation Center in Sewell.
