Anyone a member of the chamber of commerce and wonders why?

[bacon]

I didnt give notice to cancel mine so again paying nearly £300 for this pointless expediture.

Unless you have endless free time to pay for 'network' breakfasts, and all these dinners I just cant see the point at all.
The services they offer are of little use - unless your a service ind provider. Free legal advise - you get this with most things these days.

The over glossy magazine seems to be biased towards IT, solicitors, PR companies not specialist small enterprises. These companies can afford large page spreads and have PR depts to do this.

I recently sent in some PR on us and it was so small and written so awful, no photos - I did complain but nothing came of it!!!!

Really, is it a pointless expenditure - I could spend £20 every quarter on the local community book and get 1 job! £300 could be better spent on leaflet drops, uniforms etc.

Anyone else dropped out or decided not to bother?

Member of the FSB not the chamber of commerce

Yes, we did FSB too as we got a discount on Streamline card payments, but haven't bothered with either for last few years. Thanks for the heads-up as I was looking at becoming a member for new business I'm starting but prob won't bother now!

Whats your opinion of FSB then? is there any benefit? £300 is really bothering me now, have cancelled the NFU membership too as that was £400 and have no idea why we've got it.

These discounts are usually rubbish as you can receive discounts on so many things if you push it.

I think with all of these things, if you're into networking and business-to-business stuff its probably worth it for the local contacts. For us as retailers it wasn't, but the annual fee was offset by the Streamline saving. Other than that, can't remember any real benefits.