8 A
SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ SATURDAY, APRIL 1, 2017
BUSINESS BEAT
541-997-3128
290 Highway 101, Florence, OR 97439
www.fl orencechamber.com
www.facebook.com/fl orenceoregon
www.twitter.com/FlorenceOrCoast
April 1, 2017
Welcome to the Chamber!
NEW BUSINESS MEMBERS
Lauren’s Place Bed & Breakfast
10987 Mapleton Road 541-268-6943
Garden to table Bed & Breakfast on
the Siuslaw River, with dock, kayaks,
swimming, hammock & more!
www.laurensplacebnb.com
NEW ASSOCIATE MEMBERS:
Florentine Homeowners Association
182 Florentine Ave. 541-997-1762
Beautiful 55+ Gated Residential
Community
www.fl orentineestates.org
Siuslaw Vision 2025
c/o 1460 Ninth St.
A community organization working
together toward a 10 year vision for the
Siuslaw Region.
www.siuslawvision2025.com
2016-2017
Corporate Underwriters
Driftwood Shores Resort
The Korando Dental Group
Three Rivers Casino Resort
TR Hunter Real Estate
Distinguished Sponsors
101 Things to Do Magazine
Banner Bank
Bi-Mart
Beachcomber Pub
Burns’s Riverside Chapel
Fred Meyer Stores
Lofy Construction
Oregon Pacific Bank
PeaceHealth
Peace Harbor Medical Center
Sea Lion Caves
Shippin’ Shack
Siuslaw Signs & Graphics
Spruce Point Assisted Living
The Siuslaw News
Be sure to thank these members for
their investment in our community!
April 6 th , Lovejoy’s Restaurant Hosts
Business Aft er Hours at 195 NopalHeather
and Hannah are opening their amazing
restaurant to share a sampling of fi nger
foods such as samosas and pasties, along
with more dessert items like sticky toff ee
puddings and lemon tarts. Th ere will
also be tea samples, and refreshments.
What better way to make connections
than with exceptional tasty bits and sips?
April 20 th , Siuslaw Vision 2025
Hosts Business Aft er Hours/Siuslaw
Celebration from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00
p.m., at the Florence Center of Lane
Community
College.
Refreshments
will be provided by Chef Kelsey Terry
of Homegrown. A brief program from
6:00-6:30 p.m. will feature updates on
Siuslaw Vision projects. Th e public is
invited and welcome to this community
open house. Lane Community College is
located at 3149 Oak Street, in Florence.
April 13 th Noon Forum – GOOGLE
GURU –Put your business on the map
training! Nick Wiley from the Lane SBDC
will be the guest speaker for the Noon
Forum on Th ursday, April 13. Let’s Put Our
Cities on the Map is a program designed
to empower communities to support their
local businesses and encourage them to
get on the map. Local businesses keep
our communities strong; when we help
them succeed on the web, they make our
communities even stronger. Visit www.
gybo.com to learn more about the
program and get involved. On the lunch
menu - Cod in a roasted pepper cream
sauce, spring veggies, honey polenta and
Caesar salad is available for $14.
Th ese monthly (second Th ursday) meetings
are focused on resource based content to bring
new knowledge, skills, tools, and partnerships
to local business. Th e Chamber isn’t a service
club, but when businesses are strong we can
support our service organizations. Come
fi nd out how you can build your business
by partnering with the Chamber. When you
partner with the Chamber, you’re partnering
with SUCCESS!
with “as-is,” with minimal investment, and get
just that return--nothing remarkable, nothing
to drive new economic development to our
community. Basically enduring the process
and gaining nothing.
Or…we can plant seeds and build our
future. Th e city is working hard to support
healthy and sustainable economic development
and to grow stability and opportunity for
residents and their families. Re-Vision
Florence is truly an amazing opportunity
to capture visitors traveling up and down
Highway 101 who may not have planned a stop
in Florence. Once they slow down through the
new beautiful corridor, pull into Old Town,
discover the river view restaurants, hotels,
and shopping—they’ll stay, spend time ALL
AROUND TOWN and return, the next time it
will be destination Florence. Th at’s what I call
a good harvest.
Th e Chamber’s Downtown Revitalization
Team (think last year’s fl ower baskets) has
partnered with the Oregon State Parks “Main
Street Program.” Th is program works with
communities just like ours to assist with goal
setting, fi nance resourcing, and successful
revitalization of “main street” business. Th eir
success is evident in communities all over
Oregon. McMinnville, Astoria, Sisters, are
just a few. Th e Chamber’s DRT committee is
currently developing a plan see how we can
work together with the City, local businesses,
investors, and the Main Street program to
partner with Re-Vision Florence. Th e proof
of the pudding is in the eating, and the
communities that have worked the program
are dining well at the table of economic
development. Th ey have blossomed, with
business growth not just in the Main Street
area, but the entire community. Th at’s what it’s
all about. Making the circle bigger. Stay tuned
for more information.
could buy and did we ever! Th ey have left that
model and who is swinging in and grabbing the
simplicity menu? In & Out Burger with their
By Bobby Jensen Jr.
Chamber Board Member three meal options. I have personally witnessed
the two restaurants next door to each other
As
the
world and McDonalds with two cars in the drive
becomes increasingly through while In & Out had a line of twenty
complicated with more one cars down the street. Th at’s a real example
and
more
options I personally witnessed but there are studies
available in about every out there telling us the same thing. Check this
area of our lives, we›re out: Sheena Lyengar, a professor at Columbia
starting
to
change University, set up a tasting booth in Draeger’s
our buying behaviors. supermarket which is known for having a large
Th is change goes against common reasoning selection of products. Th is was done twice on
but is being proven by our purchases in the two consecutive Saturdays. On one Saturday, 24
marketplace. See, we as consumers say we want fl avors of jam were available, and on the other, 6
personalization and more purchasing options were available. Now myself, and probably a few
but what we’re actually buying is saying the of you reading this would assume the 24 fl avor
exact opposite. An example of this was the booth would get more attention and it did but
McDonald brothers, who built the restaurant let’s look at the results. When 24 jams were
that could deliver you a hamburger, fries & available, 60% of the customers stopped for a
milkshake in thirty seconds. Th at’s all you taste test and 3% of those bought jam. When
only 6 jams were available, 40% of the customers
stopped for a taste test, but 30% bought some.
Huge diff erence in results. Th e larger display
attracted more people but the smaller display
sold way more jam; about 6 times more. A 600%
increase in jam sales! I’ll be the fi rst to admit
it doesn’t seem like this would be the case but
the results are too good to overlook! Another
benefi t of fewer options is your customers will
not only purchase more from you, they will be
happier with their purchase as well. When we
have more options and we make a purchase
decision, we will always second guess our
purchase and have a higher level of buyer’s
remorse. We wonder if we would have been
happier with one of the many other options we
could have purchased.
So take a look at your product or service
off erings and see how you can combine,
remove, or simplify options. Y ou can be that
easy to decide, easy to buy, be glad you bought,
Business!
From the Director’s Desk
By Bettina Hannigan
Chamber Executive
Director
What do you
want and what do
you want to pay for
it? Brutal, right?
Well that’s some
good old-fashioned
wisdom my father
instilled in me from
the beginning of my
memory. It applies to
EVERYTHING, our time, talents, resources,
relationships, goals, and more. I fi nd it to be
a very quick way to evaluate choices. Answers
become crystal clear when this simple equation
is applied.
You have to plant a seed to get a harvest
– and don’t plant seeds with weeds! Plant the
good stuff , the best seed, for the best harvest.
Th at investment can sometimes be very scary.
Will it grow? How long will it take? What will
the return be? Our community is coming up
on some incredible opportunities.
Re-Vision Florence is right around the
corner, and our community has some serious
decisions to consider. ODOT is coming
through, this is not debatable. Our season
is going to be aff ected by the construction,
not debatable. What is debatable, is how we
capitalize on this opportunity: We can stick
Simplicity Sells-
Fourth of July
Sponsorships
are still available!
Promote your Business
Support your Community
Contact:
Florence Area Chamber of Commerce
290 Hwy 101, Florence
Call (541) 997-3128
www.florencechamber.com
LEVERAGE - Maximize Your Chamber Membership
Th e Chamber is your go-to resource. Are you
maximizing your membership? Here are just a
couple ways you can use your membership to
help build your business.
1) Request the membership list, market
to fellow Chamber members with
member to member deals via e-mail,
snail mail, and personal contact.
2) Is your market homeowners? Request
the relocation list, welcome prospec-
tive new residents with your services,
off er them an incentive. Market away!
3) Take advantage of the Chamber’s bulk
mail permit, send out a postcard with
your introduction or special to the
neighborhood that fi ts your demo-
graphics. (Call Bettina, she’ll tell you
how.)
4) Host a Business Aft er Hours, intro-
duce your business to the Chamber
and local community.
5) Have your brochure or business card
at the Visitors Center.
6) Come introduce yourself to the vol-
unteers, let them know you appreciate
their referrals (you’ll probably get
more if they know you!).
7) Attend Noon Forums – Discover new
knowledge, resources, and relation-
ships.
We like to think outside the box! If you have
an idea, challenge, or opportunity you’d like
help with, give us a call. Le t’s leverage our
resources and maximize your membership!
Not a member? Become one today! Call 541-
997-3128 for details.
if workers are called in at other than scheduled times. A primary goal
of these bills is to help workers balance the demands of their jobs with
family responsibilities. However, these mandates reduce fl exibility for
employers and employees—many of whom sought out their jobs for the
fl exibility they provided.
Legislative Update – Oregon News
Look for taxes that can be passed with simple majority votes. Or-
egon State Chamber of Commerce has cautioned its members that the
legislature would look to ‘kick the tires’ on a new Legislative Counsel
legal opinion that gives the legislature authority to raise some taxes
without invoking the constitutional 3/5th supermajority voting require-
ment to raise in the legislature. Th e Legislative Counsel gave legislators
the green light to take away tax deductions and tax credits with simple
majority votes. Th is provides a tempting path of least resistance to raise
revenue. Th e House Revenue Committee is signaling its interest in
raising revenue using this method and is eyeing such things as removing
or limiting itemized deductions, property tax deductions (HB 2771) and
mortgage interest deductions (HB 2006). Th is will be an issue to keep a
very close eye on over the next several months.
Major PERS hearings resume in the Senate. Th e Senate Workforce
Committee will continue to take testimony on SB 560 and SB 913, which
to date are the major PERS Reform bills of the 2017 session. Among
other things, the bills raise the retirement age, lower the assumed earn-
ings rate, re-direct the 6% employee contribution into the pension plan,
and spread out ‘fi nal average salary’ over fi ve years instead of three
years. Th e concepts in both bills are heavily supported by school boards,
local government and the business community. Th e bills are strongly
opposed by the unions.
Predictive Scheduling (SB 828) is a HOT issue, it aff ects both the
employer and the employee. Proposals are currently fl oating in Oregon
and in municipalities around the country that would require employers
to provide employees with work schedules at least two weeks in ad-
vance, compensate workers if changes are made, and off er penalty wages
GET YOUR RHODY BUTTONS TODAY!
Honoring Grand Marshal US Coast Guard Siuslaw
Station. Show your support to the Rhody Court!
ONLY $3! Available at these locations:
Aloha Shushi
Banner Bank Mapleton
Banner Bank-Florence
Big Dog Donuts
BJ’s (both)
C&M
Chen’s - Sponsor
Cheveaux Salon
City Lights Cinema
Copeland Lumber-
Dairy Queen
Deadwood Tavern
Dr. Clement DDS
Dutch Bros
Florence Antique
Florence Feed Store
Florence in Bloom
Funky Monkey
Grocery Outlet-
Heceta Beach RV
Homegrown
Ixtapa
Jeff Metzler Plumbing
Los Amigos
Mo’s
New Concepts Salon
OPB- Sponsor
Pink Parlor
Polished
Pop’s Smokehouse
Randy’s Riverview Market
Regency- Sponsor
Shippin Shack
Siuslaw News
Surfside Restaurant
Theresa’s Coffee
The Barber Shop
True Value
TR Hunter
US Bank
Yamaha
