Business Bootcamp offers $500 technical assistance grants to participating businesses

In September, the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce hosted our virtual Fall Business Bootcamp. Small business owners tuned-in to sessions covering how to successfully “Take Your Business Online”, featuring presentations on creating and managing a website, finding the right e-commerce platform, and more.From these programs a cohort of 10 businesses was formed to continue the work of creating and improving their online presence to capture their customers in the wake of today’s predominantly virtual world.

Through an outstanding partnership with The City of Springfield, Ruby Porter, and the Lane SBDC, in the last few months we have been able to provide knowledge, expertise, advising, and even technical assistance dollars to these ten different businesses. In two consecutive workshops held in October and November, experts from Ruby Porter and the Lane SBDC were able to cover topics such as web design, search engine optimization, google analytics and different online sale platforms, providing a broad range of tools and resources to the cohort participants.

The City of Springfield provided $5000 in technical assistance grants to the Taking Your Business Online program. Each participating business was awarded up to $500 to spend on digital sales and marketing improvements to their organization. Businesses were able to utilize these funds in various ways, from purchasing podcast equipment to web development services, product photography to branding, and so much more. The Springfield Chamber strives to deliver educational business programming that meets the needs of our small business community now, and into the future. We are extremely grateful to our partners at the City of Springfield, Lane SBDC, and Ruby Porter for making this program possible.