Springfield Chamber’s Boot Camp Delivers Assets to Improve Local Websites

The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce hosted our virtual Fall Business Boot Camp on Wednesday, September 23rd and Thursday, September 24th of 2020. Business owners tuned into these two sessions covering how to successfully “Take Your Business Online” going into this year’s holiday season. On day one, we were joined by Casie Braham of Lane SBDC, who gave participants the rundown of what online platforms work best to suit individual business needs and other considerations when selling products and services online, and Celeste Wong of Celeste Watches gave a testimonial on her experience with building her website. 

On day two we were joined by Mike Nordvedt of LifeSlice Photography, Erin Maloney of Ruby Porter, and Jenna Fribley of Campfire Collaborative. Mike gave a great introduction to principles of photography to best display products and services, Erin informed us how to utilize search engine optimization (SEO) to fortify business websites through data tracking, and Jenna Fribley discussed ways for businesses to effectively convey their stories through strong brand identity. The themes of all our speaker’s presentations cast a wide net of information on how to boost the e-commerce element of business websites, and gave an opportunity for listeners to connect with speakers and their resources. Thank you to all our presenters and to everyone who joined us!

But wait – Business Boot Camp isn’t over yet! Even if you didn’t participate in our first two sessions, the opportunity to join our extended cohorts program, “Taking Your Business Online,” is still open. Businesses will receive personalized coaching expanding upon topics covered in our first two sessions from professionals at SBDC and Ruby Porter, and the City of Springfield will be providing technical assistance funds to each participating business to help get their website or e-commerce store up and running. Businesses will be able to use these technical assistance funds as they go through the program to purchase things like hosting subscriptions, web design help, SEO optimization, paid social media, product photography, and much more, as they create, modify, and expand their online presence. The idea behind this extended offering is for business to come out of this boot camp program with actual tangible results and improvements to their website!

Registration deadline for the “Taking Your Business Online” Cohorts will be on Friday, October 2nd.

The two cohorts to choose between, “Getting a Basic Online Presence,” presented by Ruby Porter, and “Adding an E-Commerce Store,” presented by Lane SBDC, will each have two sessions on October 15th and November 12th, both sessions from 11:00am – 12:30pm.

If you have any questions or want to learn more, please contact Dani Thompson: email dani@springfield-chamber.org or Max Molzahn: max@springfield-chamber.org