Over the past several months, you’ve probably noticed our revitalized focus on small businesses. Not only have we launched the Small Business Chicago program to provide support and resources for our member companies and SBDC clients, we are beginning to study the region’s small business community in depth so we can further understand what small businesses and entrepreneurs in the area need to be successful in today’s economy.
As our first major push in these efforts, we will be collaborating with the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University Chicago to conduct the 2014 Chicagoland Small Business Survey. The Marketing class of 30 graduate students, taught by Professor Joan M. Phillips, Chairperson of the school’s Department of Marketing, will be instrumental in helping us create and conduct the survey.
Through this survey, we will gather valuable information from thousands of area small businesses including demographic data, public policy concerns, hiring plans, growth trends, economic outlooks and an overview of what types of resources and services small businesses and entrepreneurs currently utilize or would like to see available.
Our recent
member survey made it clear that our members want us to support small business and report on economic indicators and trends; through the 2014 Chicagoland Small Business Survey, we’ll be doing both.
Thank you to the U.S. Census Bureau, Better Business Bureau, Constant Contact and the City Treasurer’s Office for serving as partners on this initiative.
For more information on our Small Business Chicago program,
click here.
Theresa E. Mintle
President & CEO
Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce
