Gratuitous Self-Congratulatory Post

Tonight, I had two years of hard work and dedication pay off.

About two years ago I joined the Chamber of Commerce under the affordable "home based business" category. Immediately after that I was invited to participate in the Home Based Business Round Table - supposedly a support group for similar businesses.

It was basically a handful of Independent Consultants for Companies That Give Boring Home Presentations For Crap You Don't Need, sitting around and bickering over booth placement at the next craft fair vendor expo just kill me now extravaganza.

I stuck around for a few meetings, hoping it would get better, but seeing clearly these direct-to-consumer sales folk (many of whom, btw, did this part time, had regular full time jobs, and could give a shit that the rest of us actually needed our businesses to succeed) had no idea what my needs were as a professional selling marketing services to small companies.

Before I quit outright, I found out that I was not alone in my frustration. Turns out, there's over 50 people registered in the chamber with concerns like mine. They just gave up before I came along, since nothing had changed in the 6 years since the then-leader had been in charge. I went to the president of the chamber and told her it was a waste of my time, and what I had been hoping to find simply wasn't there.

She begged me not to quit, told me they'd been waiting for someone like me to come along. Someone who could create change.

She gave me permission to turn everything on its head. So I did. The first order of business was to dissociate ourselves from the name "Home Based Business Group," because by then it had such an unprofessional stigma I couldn't even disclose affiliation with it for fear of losing business. I wrote a proposal. It was circulated. The vote - excepting the current president - was unanimous. She promptly resigned.

Thus was born the SOHO Forum (Small Office Home Office - a nationally recognized term) - a free educational resource for small business owners in our chamber. And guess who they put in charge? (Well, me and this other guy who I couldn't rely on to remember to show up to the meetings, let alone help me arrange them.)

I spent 2006 fighting for recognition. Begging people to come, convincing them it was all different now. They started to come... and then I had to work even harder to keep coming up with new business education topics, and new speakers to give them. People started coming up to me at events, saying they'd been hearing "good things" about SOHO and asking questions about it. Suddenly, people who had avoided the group for years were popping in. We got highlighted in various chamber publications and I got my picture in the newsletter.

I guess they liked what I did - I won the 2007 election in a landslide (thankfully the co-chair who won with me is a brilliant, motivated woman I would have done anything to work with). It meant more work, but with my new partner I was ready and willing.

The last several meetings have been great - filled the available seating - and we've been looking for a bigger venue. But we hadn't been in too big a hurry, because the attendees seemed to be naturally limited to the size of the space. We probably had 20-30 regular participants, just never on the same night.

Until tonight.

It was standing room only. The group kept the speaker - a highly paid sales consultant it was a major coup to get - going for over an hour with follow-up questions, and they'd have kept going indefinitely if we hadn't been forced to call it a night. Then everyone hung out and networked for at least another half hour.

When I got home my phone was ringing - my partner calling to share her enthusiasm for the rousing success. Success we created with one big idea, a lot of motivation and an undying faith that if we provided solid business education opportunities for the small business owner, they would come. And so they did.

We've already got an appointment to check out a bigger meeting space tomorrow....