We are your neighbors. How can we help? That was the theme of Tuesday’s meeting of the Wilson Boro Business Association. What does your business need help with? Who knows what you do? Who knows that you even exist as a business? How can we help each other spread the word? Why bother? I was listening to a documentary about small towns and small businesses and their impact on each other. Every dollar spent locally comes back threefold into the community. So where would you like to see your money go to improve someone’s lifestyle? A thousand miles away to some corporation executive who doesn’t know you or care about you? Or to your neighbors who live down the block or around the corner? Who are you going to help? Who is going to help you?

So what did we talk about?  Take a look:

• Take advantage of the free advertising available on the Wilson Boro Business Association website: www.wilsonbusiness.org. Where else can you get free advertising? 
• Use that same website to find business resources you need. (Keep your dollars in the neighborhood.) • Begin promoting each other’s business – and your own – by joining the Wilson Boro Business Association (WBBA) and carrying a few of our newly made business cards. 
• Use the WBBA logo – perhaps as a window sticker (or bumper sticker?) to increase your credibility. Businesses that link up with other businesses are seen as more reliable and trustworthy. (We all need some of that!) • Get your name on our map. 
• Call four or five fellow business owners and tell them about us. If they’re not interested, ask them why not? (Then tell us, too.) If they are, show them how to join.
• We discussed how Northampton County can help us create a map of our Boro that would have your business on it. The Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Wilson Boro Façade Grant Committee are working with our group to build an accurate list of the Boro’s businesses so we can put you on the map. So help us by letting us know you want to be on it. Bankers, bakers, (candlestick makers?), gift shops, quick stops, party treats, places to eat, clothes on your back, shoes on your feet, marketing advice, website design, computer repairs, cutting hairs, whatever you have as a skill, share it with us and make it known to your neighbors. But you have to let us know you’re interested. So check out our website. Sign up. Be a neighbor. Help a neighbor. It will bring smiles to many faces, including your own. We also talked about writing a set of bylaws and getting more organized (at least on paper). If you know of or have a copy of a similar group’s bylaws, send it to us. Or bring it to our next meeting on December 11th.

  Next Meeting Date

  Tuesday, December 11th

  7:00 PM

  LaBella Pizza, 1715 Butler Street.

   

              This upcoming meeting will be our last meeting in 2007. Did the year go as fast for you as it has for us? Were you busy? Did you have too much downtime? Come talk to fellow Boro Business Owners and share your triumphs and tragedies – and maybe some of your comedies. Getting to know your neighbors allows them to feel comfortable talking about you to someone else. That leads to business for you! So make yourself known to us and we will help make you known to others.

  Topics/Agenda for our next meeting include:

  • Progress on the map, especially on the list of 160 businesses. Show up and ensure your name appears on it when it does get published. 
  • Guest speakers and topics that can help us do our business better. A seminar on safety or fire prevention could ensure those cans of paint don’t catch fire. An attorney could give you a tip on how local laws impact your business. An accountant could talk about taxes. What would you like to see? Come tell us in person.

  Looking at the calendar for December, we decided that Christmas Day is not a good time to tear ourselves away from family for a meeting. So there will be only one meeting in December. That puts the meeting after December 11th as January 8th. 2008. What are you planning to do to end 2007 and begin 2008 in a positive manner? We’d like to know.

  We are your neighbors. We can help. Please join us on December 11th.