South Fairfax, Occoquan businesses network in a new wayBy KIPP HANLEY
Published: January 21, 2009
For many years, South Fairfax County — especially Lorton and Fort Belvoir — conjured up images of industry, military security gates and prison fences.
But a more diverse commercial base sprouting up among these relatively new neighborhoods has created a need to represent those businesses. To address that need, a trio of businessmen recently created the South Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce.
The SFCC was born last September, representing Lorton, Laurel Hill, Newington, Fort Belvoir, South Springfield, Burke, Fairfax Station, Clifton, Occoquan and Woodbridge. The emphasis of the SFCC is utilizing the Internet to create and maintain relationships with other businesses instead of paying a hefty fee at a larger chamber where meetings are many and sometimes difficult to attend.
The SFCC was a perfect fit for Patrick Barney, co-owner of 4 More Travel and Tastefully Yours in Occoquan.
Barney used to belong to the Prince William Regional, Fairfax City and Springfield chambers before moving from his Springfield location to Occoquan in 2006. But the lower membership costs with SFCC and his desire to both keep his former contacts and establish new ones in South Fairfax led him to drop his two county chamber memberships.
“It’s one more way of reaching out,” said Barney, who estimates his customer base is an even split between Fairfax and Prince William residents. “It also gets you involved in not only the social but the community activities where you do your most networking. Anything that saves you the time of going over and knocking on every door. Somebody puts all the doors together, hey, that’s makes it a lot easier.”
For approximately $125, each company can join for two years and will be provided a Web site maintained by a chamber contractor. Various advertising opportunities are also available on the chamber’s home page as well as services like calendar item placements.
The first chamber meeting will be held at Pane e Vino in Lorton on Feb. 19 at 6 p.m. According to chamber vice-president Peter Weyland, there will only be a handful of meetings each year.
Weyland said one of the biggest expenses for chambers outside of rent and staffing is the printing of a membership directory. With everything online and a plan to only have one part-time administrative assistant working in the new chamber office, Weyland said the overhead will be greatly reduced.
“We can take that money and put it into programs for local civic groups,” said Weyland, who cited a recent donation of $800 to go toward the formation of a community farmers market.
NetStrategies president Rodney Loges wanted to have a greater voice in the southern Fairfax area when he moved his office from Alexandria to his current northern Woodbridge location next to the Prince William Marina on the Occoquan River.
A resident of Mason Neck, Loges was growing tired of commuting north to Alexandria. Eventually he found the marina site and now kayaks to work some days.
“South County is changing very fast and I wanted to step up and have a voice,” Loges said. “Not having a bunch of cocktail hours is absolutely fine with me as long as we are doing what is good for South County and building that common agenda.”
A SFCC member, Woodbridge-based Jewelry By Design owner Jennifer Caro moved her business from Lorton 10 years ago and managed to hold onto about 20 percent of her clientele from Fairfax County.
But more important than tapping more traffic from South Fairfax was re-establishing contacts with a community that has grown by leaps and bounds since departing her original location at Gunston Plaza.
Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-878-8062. More >> Wednesday, January 21, 2009
|