BUSINESS & ECONOMIC DEV.
‘A seat at the table’: Chamber chairman
puts the spotlight on small businesses
By Aleks Gilbert
agilbert@mdjonline.com
Like many a nonprofit, the Cobb Chamber
of Commerce has to get creative when it
comes to money.
“There is no real free cash flow there whatsoever,”
John Loud, its 2020 chairman, said
in an interview in January.
In 2019, the chamber’s board discussed
raising the lowest-tiered membership fee
from $400 to $450 per year. Loud balked.
“They invited the wrong guy into that
room,” he recalled, laughing. The chamber’s
chairs are picked long before they ever
take office, and Loud knew he was going to
ascend to the position in a year’s time. He
vowed to roll back the increase the moment
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he became chair.
The board ended up creating an even
lower tier, for businesses with two or fewer
employees. It costs $250.
It was a preview of Loud’s chairmanship,
which began in at the beginning of the year.
In a recent interview, Loud discussed how
his priorities as chair have shifted during a
year of upheaval.
Q: Right before you assumed the chairmanship
of the Chamber of Commerce, you
listed three priorities: workforce development,
Dobbins Air Reserve Base and small
businesses. Now that we’re eight months
into 2020, I was hoping that you could tell
me how all those things have come along
during your chairmanship, and how you
might have had to adjust some of the ways
that you wanted to put a spotlight on those
things in light of the coronavirus.
A: I’ll share this with you: As the year got
underway, I had some very specific things
in mind for workforce, for the military and
we had some things for small business. My
man, you talk about a dynamic change. ...
This year has been so much more focused on
helping small businesses. … But there’s a lot
of unique challenges that our businesses are
going through. And, you know, if there’s ever
a time that folks need to turn to their industry
associations, their business associations, their
chambers of commerce — because these
types of groups have access to resources that
most individual businesses do not have. They
don’t have lobbyists, they don’t have relationships
with (politicians). The other thing
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