Giving Back

On July 24th, the Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce held its 49th Annual Golf Classic. It was a spectacular day, a bit warm with clear blue skies and a nice breeze. Being a long-time member and photography sponsor for the chamber, I had a blast as the golf outing photographer with all of the members smiling for me.

Believing strongly in the power of networking and giving back to the business community, I have always seen the value of chambers and community associations. It’s the old story, you give freely and the good you put out there comes back again and again and that’s what has kept us in business all of these years. In fact, 90-95% of our business is by referral, I do little cold calling.

This is how I’ve always marketed my myself and our services by hanging out in professional industry associations and getting them to smile for me, chatting them up and having an fun time doing it.

In fact, I arrived early as the golfers were coming in, photographed registration, the golfers preparing for the day, and the shotgun start. Then, with my teams sheet, I hopped in a golf cart and chased them all down to make my foursome group photos. Along the way, I also photographed the hole sponsor tents on various tees and all of the sponsor signage throughout the course.

Once I completed part that of the day, for those members who did not golf, they had a lunch cocktail hour at the Club, that was my next stop. Again, rinse and repeat, hang out, photograph everyone having a great time networking, exchanging business cards, and of course doing some networking of my own, it was then off to the Silent auction and Awards banquet.

It was a really fun and exciting day. The Chamber can now use the photos I made for various purposes, such as their newsletter, social media posts, website content, and future promotional and marketing campaigns. Furthermore, the photos demonstrate that they are a professional organization and help strengthen their branding message.

Many large and small businesses belong to the Marlborough Chamber, and it is an exceptionally active group. It is often said that successful businesses are built on great relationships.

I could not agree more.