Invest in Marathon, and Marathon will invest in You!
This is our community, our town, our Middle Keys and Marathon! Locals take a lot of pride in this attitude and mantra (as do I), and they should, as our community is a wonderful place to live and work. But our community is only as good as its citizens and in the Marathon Chamber’s case only as good as our businesses.
So the mantra of my letter this month is essentially like your Chamber membership, in that you get out what you put in. By investing in your membership and utilizing our benefits you in return will get more out of your membership. Whether it is referrals, recommendations, connections to needed resources and/or assistance, or networking; the more effort you put into us the better results we can deliver to you and your business.
So the same goes for our town/community. Investing in your community comes in many forms such as: donating monies to non-profits that provide a useful, needed service to our community, investing in your personal real estate properties (residential and commercial), expanding your education; learning new or enhancing your skills, and of course just getting involved with various initiatives that benefit our community. Involvement can be serving on your Chamber’s Board, or another Board, a City committee, or even running for local office.
The end-game is the ROI or Return on Investment you will receive from these actions. I like the quote from the movie Field of Dreams where the voice in the sky says “if you build it they will come.” Well, if Marathon/we build it they too will come. By “they” I mean tourists and more residents. We lost a lot of residents after Wilma and the recession; we also lost a lot of hotel rooms and some businesses over the last ten plus years. Now we are seeing a growth pattern with new hotels slated for construction, new businesses, restaurants, attractions, etc. By investing in Marathon more people will indeed come; thus paying back the investment full circle.
In a nutshell when you invest in your community the community finds a way to pay it back to you; either directly (more customers, visitors) or indirectly (better quality of life for your family). Research shows that for every $1 invested in a community’s main street/corridor the ROI is about $13.00; now that’s a nice return. So whether you decide to enhance your commercial property, expand your business, or support other businesses and non-profits, be sure to invest in Marathon; and Marathon will surely find a way to invest back into your business and quality of life.
Have a great and happy 4th of July everyone; see you all at Sombrero Beach for the amazing Marathon Rotary beach party and City fireworks show. Be sure to contact us for any business assistance, needs, or services you may need either directly from us or from someone else we can connect you with. Our doors are always open and no request is out of bounds.
Most Respectfully,
Daniel Samess
CEO
Greater Marathon Chamber of Commerce
(305) 743-5417
ceo@floridakeysmarathon.com
www.FloridaKeysMarathon.com
www.RelocateToTheFloridaKeys.com
www.MarathonSeafoodFestival.com