Jessica Tullar, Executive Director, Matthews Chamber of Commerce

The biggest challenge for the Matthews business community is the labor shortage and the obstacle to growth it poses, said Jessica Tullar, executive director of the Matthews Chamber of Commerce. In an interview with Invest: Tullar also discussed the benefits of partnering with the chamber, and the opportunities and challenges for the local economy. 

What have been the significant achievements for the Matthews Chamber of Commerce over the past year?

The most significant achievement has been continuing to rebuild our membership after the pandemic. We are intentional about new members, but also retaining the 300+ members that we already have. We are also starting to build more programs and relationships with our regional partners, and focusing on the work we can do for our businesses at the advocacy level; all while maintaining a greater focus on our area programs. 

How has the chamber adapted its strategies to further support local businesses in the current economic climate? 

We have hired a consultant for our advocacy program to make sure that we are intentionally listening to our members and not trying to throw darts at a board and hoping something sticks. We’re working with Brian Francis of Lumin Strategies, building our advocacy group, listening to our membership, and doing surveys and touch points multiple times to make sure we are hearing what’s important to our businesses in terms of what they need regarding resources to grow, to keep doors open, hiring staff and what their pain points are.

How do initiatives like Women in Business contribute to the overall mission of the chamber?

Women in Business is a wonderful initiative. It has about 90 members who regularly attend the monthly events. We consistently celebrate our women-owned businesses by doing events and informational leadership sessions that focus just on our women. That includes making sure that we’re intentional about going to their place of business, doing tours, and figuring out what they’re working on. A lot of times, even our women business leaders have a side business and we work to incorporate that into our programming.

We’re trying to celebrate all the things that women do. But also, as people, how they contribute to the Matthews community, what they do with their kids, and how involved they are throughout our community.

In addition to our Women in Business, we also have a Matthews Young Professionals group. But these professionals, both men and women, are committed to making a difference in the community. I love that we are connected to all aspects of our business community. 

What benefits do local businesses receive when partnering with the chamber?

Membership in the chamber affords member businesses great visibility within our community. We hold several community events throughout the year. We do an excellent job of giving visibility to members who are not on the downtown strip of Matthews. We have a historical area, and it is beautiful and great to walk through, but not everyone’s business is there. We have intentionally created community events that focus on bringing everyone to the table. 

I sit down with our membership, and I get down to the details of how we can make people come to you and learn about your business. We have a great festival that is held each October. It’s called Fall for Matthews. We invite all different kinds of businesses to the event; chamber members and non-members have an opportunity to be vendors. It may be someone who has a small craft business that only sells at festivals, they do not need to be a chamber member to participate. This fun event includes families, activities for the kids, and getting all our members out to the community. We have music, pumpkins, and all the things that make a fall festival great. But it’s also about providing an opportunity for our membership to be visible. 

We provide opportunities to our membership through different events. We have shopping local campaigns that push out what they’re doing. And we also have tons of networking opportunities, through monthly luncheons, after-hour events, Women in Business, Young Professionals, and at least four events a month for our membership to engage in, not just member to member, but member to community. 

What are the challenges and opportunities that you foresee for the local economy? 

We posed this question in our survey, and we’re doing a deeper dive into this same question in our monthly luncheon with our membership. Among the biggest pain points our small businesses are facing is attracting new clients and keeping an engaged workforce. 

No. 1, our businesses want to consistently grow. But the labor shortage is hurting a lot of our folks right now. It’s not just small businesses. It’s our larger businesses, as well. They are all facing that very same issue. Even though it may not look the same on paper, the issue is the same. There’s a labor shortage and our businesses are struggling with that. 

Are there any partnerships or initiatives to support businesses in strengthening the workforce pipeline in the future?

We’re working on that right now. Part of that conversation is asking what that looks like to help our membership. What our restaurant owners need is different from what a retail employer or a manufacturing firm might need. Those are two quite different avenues of work. 

But what can our chamber do to help both of those pipelines? We are exploring that with our membership now. We are in the listening phase of our 2024 advocacy initiative. At our May luncheon we learned what each level of our membership needs as far as workforce development. Armed with that knowledge, we will work with our members to craft the best plan for their particular business rather than coming up with a “one size fits all solution”. Advocating for businesses in hiring situations and in retention of their staff is another big push. 

While working with our businesses now is important, we do not just stop there, we start young. For instance, I’ve done career fairs at local elementary schools to teach students about what it is to be a business leader and part of the chamber. It was an exciting conversation to have with the local elementary school. 

What are your top priorities for the next couple of years?

One of our priorities has always been being a voice for our small businesses. We will continue to have this focus, which is part of our mission, rather than just being a place to network. Even though we do these great community events, I want to make sure we are serving as one voice with our

commissioners, with our mayor, and working closely with our town. We have a great relationship right now, but strengthening those ties is important. 

The Town of Matthews also has the Economic Development Advisory Committee. I serve on that group, and I would like to see what partnership we can build from that. The chamber comes in and does what we can, where we can. I would like to see us, the chamber, continue to grow in that way. Finally, we want to continue to look for programs we can do that are going to benefit Matthews as a whole, and not just the chamber.