THE B.I.G. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Serving Beaver, Iron & Garfield Counties

In the past, communities in Beaver, Iron and Garfield counties have attempted to organize Chambers of Commerce to represent and act as an advocate for their local businesses. A major hurdle these small communities encountered during these efforts has been maintaining the organizational and legal structure of their organizations.

With the hope of aiding these efforts, county and tourism representatives from Beaver, Iron and Garfield counties met in early 2022 and agreed to form a tri-county Chamber of Commerce. The Cedar City Chamber of Commerce, which has a fulltime staff that can help with administrative duties and logistics, agreed to help support this effort.

As a result, the new BIG Chamber of Commerce was formed, with the letters “BIG” representing its member counties: Beaver, Iron and Garfield. The purpose of this organization is to support businesses in the tri-county area through providing tools and resources to help owners grow and strengthen their companies.

The BIG Chamber of Commerce meets monthly, with the meeting rotating between different locations in each county. Presenters at these meetings provide insight to help businesses improve and address challenges they are facing. Business owners from the three counties are encouraged to share their concerns and needs with the BIG Chamber so the Chamber can bring in presenters to address their issues.

These meetings also provide an opportunity for business owners to network, get to know one another and share their challenges and successes.

Another large part of the BIG Chamber’s mission is connecting businesses with organizations that provide resources supporting a wide range of business needs, from starting a business and creating a business plan to obtaining training and education for employees. These resource providers include:

• The Business and Innovation Center – Education, resources, mentoring and a makerspace.

• The Small Business Development Center: Business evaluation, marketing assistance and money management training.

• The Women’s Business Center

– Business counseling, training, networking, workshops and technical assistance.

• World Trade Center Utah: Expansion into international markets.

• Joining the BIG Chamber of Commerce is easy and extremely affordable. The fee schedule for joining the BIG Chamber is as follows:

• $100 per year for businesses with a storefront

• $50 per year for home based or nonprofit organizations stgeorge.utah.edu stgeorge@utah.edu