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As a member of the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce, is your business accessing all of the services provided? Are you making the best use of your membership? Our staff is available to help. The Chamber’s Five Point Focus is designed to help maximize your business investment by: driving foot and internet traffic to our members; increasing business to business connections; providing cost saving solutions for employee benefits and human resources compliance; advocating for positive change with a focus on reducing taxes; and supporting economic, workforce, and tourism development. To do all of this, we provide a series of programs, events, and services. The increasingly popular Shoptauqua Gift Card is now accepted by 150 local businesses including restaurants, retailers, salons, wineries, specialty stores, museums, and service providers. Since the launch of the program, well over $100,000 worth of Shoptauqua Gift Cards were sold to local businesses and residents. That is money that comes into our member businesses, going back into the local economy. If your business isn’t participating, call the Chamber to learn more. The Chamber’s referral system also drives business to our members. In the past twelve months, there was a daily average of 5,919 referrals from our online business directory. That includes businesses that are pulled in a list, such as an online search for “restaurants” or some other type of business, as well as clicks that take visitors directly to your website and social media pages, and direct Google Map views for the location of your business. Our Community Chambers organize events throughout the year that help to drive traffic into local businesses. As an example, coming up this week the Jamestown Community Chamber offers Jamestown Cruise-In, a downtown classic car and hot rod show that brings thousands of people out on a Friday night to see a great display of vehicles, enjoy live music, and experience downtown Jamestown. Local restaurants often see an uptick in business from these types of community events. Additional events organized by the Chamber help to build important business to business connections. Throughout the year the County Chamber works with our Community Chambers to provide Experience Chautauqua Business After Hours events that focus on networking as well as giving local businesses and landmarks an opportunity to show off their unique attributes. In the past year more than 2,100 people registered for Chamber events that offer business networking opportunities. We invite all Chamber member businesses to take advantage of all the services we have to offer throughout the year and throughout the county. For more information, check our website at www.chautauquachamber.org or call our offices at 366-6200 or 484-1101.