Are you a retailer, restaurateur or small business owner? Or are you about to become one? Are you trying to figure out how to get the biggest marketing bang for your buck?

The Community Center for Entrepreneurship at Bunker Hill Community College Cordially Invites You to Attend:

Marketing on a Shoestring - Strategies for positioning, presentation and promotion in tight financial times

• Marketing Thinking: Knowing yourself, your customer and your competition
• Marketing Strategies: A creative plan to help you achieve your business objectives
• Marketing Communication: Tools to get your message out, from the simple to the sublime
• PR: big presence / little expense
• Advertising: what kind and when
• Your environment: image and identity
• Websites , blogs, social media
• Direct and e-mail blasts
• Promotional tools to attract prospects

The next meeting of the Charlestown Business Climate Committee is set for Wednesday, April 8th at 7 PM in the Upper Hall of the Knights of Columbus Hall.

On the agenda:

Also, please remember that there are two upcoming meetings that are important for you to attend:

1. Monday, March 23rd from 6 PM - 8 PM at the Knights of Columbus Hall -- a review of the City's design alternatives for Austin Street, City Square, and the Rutherford Avenue corridor south of Sullivan Square. Your participation is essential for guiding future work, and we hope you will attend this important meeting.

2. On Wednesday, March 25th at 7 PM at the Knights of Columbus Hall there is a Charlestown Neighborhood Council Basic Services Committee meeting to assess the community's interest in having or not having a pawnshop business in Charlestown. This is another meeting that it is important for the community to attend!

Our annual dues bills are going out in the mail shortly. You can pay the bill by check and mail back or pay on our website. If due to economic hardship you are unable to pay this year's bill we can review your case please contact us at info@charlestownbusiness.com. We hope members will continue to support our newtorking and promotional organization. We offer many great benefits that can be found on our website at http://www.charlestownbusiness.com/benefits.html

The Charlestown Business Association (CBA) held its annual membership meeting at the Cooperative Bank February 26th, 2009. First on the agenda, Tom Coots (The Cooperative Bank), CBA Co-chair, outlined CBA programs from last year and programs scheduled through June.

April’s CBA member event will be “Lunch with the Senator” on Wednesday, April 1st from 12 – 2 at the Navy Yard Bistro. Senator Anthony Gallucio will speak and take questions from attendees. The cost is $25. Please RSVP on the CBA website www.charletownbusiness.com.

The next luncheon will be a“Emergency Preparedness in Boston” hosted by MGH Charlestown on Monday, April 27th from 12pm – 2pm. Dr. Amara, Principal of the Warren Prescott School, and Patricia Simpson, a leader in community emergency preparedness will talk about Emergency Preparedness for Businesses in Charlestown. Please RSVP at http://www.charlestownbusiness.com.

In May, “Recession Proof” your business will be the topic. Date and located are to be determined. And in June, the CBA will hold it’s annual Tavern on the Water year-end Networking Party with date to be determined.

Next on the Agenda, Mike Obal from the Entrepreneur Center at Bunker Hill Community College discussed the goals of the Center and their desire for community involvement. Mike invited attendees and CBA members to it’s upcoming series of Small Business Seminars.

Finally, Charlestown Business Climate Committee Members Jeanne Finnerty and Kara Halas presented details on the Boston Community Change Program which is a discount card for local businesses. This program is considered “cause marketing” and allows the card holder to designate that a percentage of the purchase price go to a specified local school or charity. For more information, please see www.bostoncommunitychange.org.

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