Why is There a Labor Crisis in America?

 I am an active member in my local Chamber of Commerce and have been since joining in October 2019. Check out one of my first episodes from Dec 2019 called, "I'm the Only Cleaner", where I shared my initial impression of joining my first-ever chamber in 15 years in business at that point. Also check out the episode, "Get a Name for Doing", where I was mentored by fellow chamber member and leadership coach Ken Byler of Higher Ground Consulting. Ken taught me how to add the most value to the chamber and make the greatest difference. Ken was SO right. I dove in right away and was able to make a big difference during Covid. I developed a reputation and name for doing. I've never taken my foot off the pedal in my goal to get a name for doing and adding value. Last fall, I joined the Membership Committee and immediately helped them determine how to have greater impact with the current membership as well as how to add more. I suggested that we, the membership committee of 8 members call the entire membership of 300 to connect with them and ask them some questions. Here's what we asked.

1.      What is your business's greatest struggle?
2.      How can the chamber help you in this struggle?
3.      What is the chamber's blind spot? What are we doing that we shouldn't and what aren't we doing that we should?

The list of members was sent out and we each selected who we would volunteer to call from October through December 2022. I was a little ambitious and selected 60. The others teased me a little, but they were impressed. I then took time each week and emailed and called every single one of the 60. Most were difficult and unreachable. I made contact in some form with over 20 and had meaningful 30+ minute conversations with 15 members. It was amazing! I had so much fun and met some great fellow members of the chamber. After I was done, I created a report and submitted it to the chamber office. I had no idea that this report would become the basis of the 2023 5-Year Chamber Strategy Session. I was invited into this board-only process as a special guest. The work I did for the chamber and the growth we had in Carfagno Commercial Cleaning (C3) locally made our cleaning company the unanimous choice for the 2022 Cornerstone Award. This is a prestigious award for Small Business of the Year in the Indian Valley Chamber. It's amazing to see this play out now. I simply did what Ken Byler advised and it earned me the top reputation among all companies in my local community. This is leading to tremendous influence and business growth.

That first part was an update and sales pitch for WHY you should join your chamber, especially if you're in commercial cleaning. Let's switch gears. We, as a membership committee, learned through actual data and 1-on-1 conversations that the #1 struggle our members are facing is hiring. They were very concerned with how to find quality applicants, how to retain them, and what's going on out there in our culture? Why don't young people want to work? Where's the ambition?

The chamber of commerce is an international organization. They operate independently, but are well connected. Our chamber executive director, Steve Hunsberger, is very plugged in at the local, county, state, and federal levels to learn and bring back to us, the small business owners in the community. Steve is seeing similar struggles nationwide. The workforce is declining. Businesses are getting nervous. They are having more trouble picking up clients as hiring is affecting them and both their clie