Richmond, Virginia Chamber of Commerce Richmond, Virginia:

The Chamber of Commerce

The city of Richmond, Virginia's Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1867, and focuses on shaping the financial, educational, and civic well-being of its region (GRCC, 2011). With 1,500 members, the Chamber seeks to guide such members to success through involving them in the community, connecting with others, educating them, and saving them money (GRCC, 2011). Such is done through their four key Greater Richmond Chamber Priorities, e-newsletter, dedicated team and volunteers, and reports. Despite such efforts, there is always room for improvement on business-enhancing strategies, which will be displayed.

The most accessible resource for the web-community is the four key Greater Richmond Chamber Priorities. First, the Chamber advocates and supports positive change in their community. Second, they offer members of the Chamber to get involved by participation in committees, councils, networking events, and educational workshops. Thirdly, the Chamber claims to understand the need of a strong workforce and business development initiatives, and has centers to provide such training. Lastly, the Chamber states that it builds groundwork for success via services, tangible value, and a return on investment for the purpose of sustaining the capacity and viability of the organization (GRCC, 2011). These four key priorities provide insight for its audience into the desires and initiatives of the Chamber, and how it may benefit a business owner in the event that one decides to become a member of the Chamber.

It is obvious that the Chamber's goals focus on business success for its members. This proves true through their four key priorities and overview pages. The stakeholders and audience of the website appear to be...

The "Events" section of the main page reviews upcoming events, including a networking breakfast, how to start a business, Facebook business training, and LinkedIn training.
The Chamber demonstrates through its priorities and advertisements on its page that it believes that its members are educated, well respected, and financially and communally intelligent and sufficient. The Chamber demonstrates an attitude only to be a source to fine-tune a business' needs, as well as provide excess tools to better equip the business. Lastly, the Chamber is to be used as a networking resource, allowing its members to connect through its involvement with the Chamber (GRCC, 2011).

Other documentation clarifies the demographics and geography of the Richmond community. The Richmond community has a population of 197,790, made up of 46% male and 53% female. The largest demographic of age, at 16.62% are aged 25-34 years old, followed close by 35- to 44-year-olds, and then 45- to 54-year-olds. The highest race population is African-American, at 57.19%, followed by the white population at 38.3%. The householder population is 42.75% of the population. Of those above 18, 80% hold a high school degree, and 32.5% hold a Bachelor's or higher (AreaConnect.com, 2011).

The business demographics also prove to be quite interesting, as a fifth of firms are held by African-Americans and over a quarter are held by women. It is obvious, however, that the Chamber of Commerce does not hold relationships with many of these firms, as there are over 120,000 firms, and the Chamber only has 1,500 members. Geographically speaking, Richmond has much opportunity for business growth, as it has over 3,400 people per square mile of its city limits,…