Butler County Chamber of Commerce aims to provide help, resources for local businesses
Since 1896, the Butler County Chamber of Commerce has served as a resource and a voice for area businesses.
“The chamber is a membership organization consisting of businesses, nonprofits, civil service groups that combine resources to advocate for the most pressing issues facing them,” said Jordan Grady, Butler County chamber president.
“We also do events like the Coffee Club that provide networking opportunities that are both formal and informal. They provide people that can bring awareness to your organization.”
Grady said between the chamber and its affiliate organizations such as the Slippery Rock Business Association and the South Butler County Business Association, it currently has about 1,200 members, including the 96 that joined in 2023.
“I think that’s one of the highest years we’ve had,” Grady said. “For our new business ribbon cuttings we had just under 60 in 2023. Then there are more that didn’t do it through the chamber.”
The chamber has a pool of resources available for people looking to start a new business or grow an existing one.
“Our sweet spot is we connect the right people to the right services to eliminate some of the micro problems,” Grady said. “That includes funding, help with municipalities to get correct permits, correctly filing (Limited Liability Companies) and attorneys.”
When it comes to funding, Grady said the chamber can provide business owners a list Small Business Administration lenders or banks that are also members of the chamber.
They can assist businesses in going after nontraditional funding methods as well, because depending on the organization, there are grants available or state and federal low interest loan programs.
“There is a general lack of knowledge of the resources that are available,” Grady said. “We are trying to be more proactive. The end result is projects get completed, more businesses get open, more businesses get expanded and then there is the economic impact that comes with that.”
Grady said business owners can be introduced to the proper state and federal financial sources by the chamber, which in turn strengthens the application process.
“If we can connect you with the right public financing body and they get you a low interest loan, you take that money from the loan, invest it into your project to create a higher equity,” Grady said. “Now the bank has more to work with when they try to get a loan for traditional financing approved.”
A membership with the chamber also allows for weekly networking opportunities such as its Friday Coffee Club event and monthly mixers.
The chamber also provides in-house training courses on a variety of topics such as retirement planning and using artificial intelligence in the workplace.
“Those training courses usually happen twice a month,” Grady said. “They are on a variety of different topics. The best resource we have is we refer people to SCORE Pittsburgh, which is Russ Hearn. We also refer to the University of Pittsburgh Small Business Development Center. They function a lot like SCORE.”
Russell Hearn is a mentor with SCORE Pittsburgh, an organization of business professionals providing volunteer support to people attempting to start or grow a business.
New to the chamber this year is the development of an entrepreneurship committee. The end goal is to provide a “one-stop shop” for people looking to start or build their own business, he said.
“Once completed it will be online on our website, but also be available in some type of resource packet,” Grady said. “So then when someone calls, we will have some tangible resources that we can provide. If they have questions, we can either answer them properly or connect them to the right person that can.”
Another avenue for helping develop business leaders is the Butler County Young Professionals, which is comprised of individuals employed at Butler County organizations.
“You can start to build a network, find a mentor or become a mentor,” Grady said. “There is a community service part to it where we are out doing certain service projects and it does foster a nice foundation for your career.”
