Tricia Ford has been the Executive Director of the Homewood Chamber of Commerce since October of 2008. She was previously the Executive Director of the Mountain Brook Chamber. She started and ran a company called Market Potential, a full-service advertising/public relations firm, for 17 years. She is a graduate of the University of Alabama where she received both a Bachelor and Masters degree. I was able to snag a few minutes of her time recently and I really appreciate her being willing to be a part of this blog. She’s also a great friend and somebody I’ve done business with for years.
How has your experience running a business in the past influenced how you interact with small businesses in the community?
I understand them. I understand their day-to-day operation, the meaning of cash-flow (or not having cash-flow), what it is to juggle accounting, sales, marketing and everything. You wear a lot of different hats.
After running two chambers of commerce, what challenges do you find are unique to Homewood?
Homewood is a very tight-knit community. The challenge I am going to have is connecting the community with the businesses, the city government and having some sort of seamless communication among all of those areas, working together for one goal: to see the city continue to prosper and grow. It has so much potential and we have wonderful people that live here that love their community.
You’ve seen economic recessions before. How does this one in particular compare to previous ones and how has it impacted Homewood small businesses?
It is the worst I have ever seen. Given the good economic times that we experienced in previous years when compared to the current economy, I think we are very fortunate that our businesses are doing as well as they are doing. They are seeing slow improvements in their sales figures, but nothing can compare to previous years when there was more disposable income. I am seeing things turn around slowly.
When you talk to small business owners, what are you hearing is the single greatest challenge they are facing?
Getting customers in the door. And when you get them in the door, you might have a large crowd, and a large number of purchases, but with smaller dollar amounts per purchase.
Talk about the importance of technology as it relates to what you do every day.
It’s the communication value. With the advent of email and now social networking, communication is so valuable to get instant information out to the chamber members. Staying on the leading edge of that has kept me on my toes and with the help of a lot of good friends, I hope that I am learning fast enough!
As you dabble with social media, are you seeing the potential of communication with your chamber members and the positive potential that is there?
Absolutely. Their feedback is instantaneous and instead of trying to pry things out of people, I am getting a quick response to questions of “would this be helpful to you?” or “what do you think about this?”. It helps me do my job better because I better know how they are feeling or what their opinion is of what is going on and how we can serve them. It prevents mistakes, too. Prior to having that kind of communication, it was on a trial-and-error basis on many things that you offer your chamber members. Just through the sheer means of a quick survey, you can turn in a hurry and go in another direction.
