Helps Businesses Throughout Region
Vermont Business Magazine It has been just over six months since the Northeast Kingdom Chamber of Commerce established a Business Assistance Center to offer personalized counseling to businesses in the region, and the response to this enhanced service has been encouraging. More than 50 businesses and entities from all over the Northeast Kingdom have already contacted the chamber for assistance, as the organization continues to increase its workforce development and business advocacy in the tri-county region.
The chamber has always worked with businesses, helping them with such issues, but the chamber felt it necessary to expand such aid in light of the additional business guidance needed during this most recent economic downturn and ongoing pandemic, said NEK Chamber Director Darcie McCann.
NEK Chamber Executive Director Darcie McCann holds a sampling of the businesses that the chamber has helped through its Business Assistance Center. The BAC was instituted last year to help address the obstacles that stand in the way of businesses succeeding.
The chamber’s longtime toll-free number, 800-639-6379, has been switched over to the Business Assistance Center to encourage more business people from across the region to reach out for more help. The chamber office will also be adding more posts on its new Facebook page, the Northeast Kingdom Business Forum, where news and updates can be posted on and about companies. The NEK Chamber is also a notary and provides certificate of origination services to member companies shipping products overseas.
“As a chamber, our primary focus has always been to improve the economic landscape for our region, and the Business Assistance Center is one very tangible way of assisting our business community in solving the many work-related issues that cross their desks,” said McCann. “We want to be a strong advocate in addressing the concerns they face.”
The NEK Chamber is located on the Lyndon Institute campus in the Mathewson Hall building. Business people wishing to contact the chamber for help may do so at 802-626-5594/748-3678 or [email protected]. Companies do not need to be chamber members to receive such help and there is no cost for the service.
“We may not be able to solve every issue that businesses may encounter, but we are going to do our very best to help them reach the best possible result and remove obstacles that stand in the way of their success,” she said.
The director made it clear the chamber will continue to work with local, regional and state economic development agencies and entities on ways to best serve the business community and the Kingdom’s economy.
