As we finish the second month of 2016 I find myself wondering, “wasn’t Christmas just yesterday?” The first quarter is nearly over and it seems we’re still finishing 2015! SBMC is ramping up to our civic and Charitable involvement with our Youth Achiever Program next week followed shortly thereafter by our day working for Habijax building a house in April. In drafting something else last week I got to thinking about the various aspects of our club. We’re the oldest Business and Civic organization in town with a little something for everyone. But the Civic side is what you can always count on to yield results and leave you feeling accomplished. A club like ours is best utilized focusing there first as we’re not a BNI or a Chamber Council, nor are we a social club or national endeavor with strict attendance requirements nor do we frown upon seeking out business opportunities. The best way to achieve results at SBMC is to focus on the Civic, let people get to know you in a relaxed environment and appreciate your work ethic. Sometimes you have to ask for it but I can almost guarantee business acquired from these efforts is far more valuable, better quality, and likely recurring than datamining as is common in other outlets.
In continuing with our theme of local leaders David Sillick, Publisher of the Jacksonville Business Journal, spoke to us last week regarding changes in marketing from their perspective. While many think the print media is slowly becoming a periodical of the past, according to David they’ve actually seen an increase in their print subscriptions. In speaking prior to opening the meeting he explained they’re currently up significantly over the prior year and have found great ways of diversifying their income from reliance on print to several other outlets. On the local side it often appears print publications have difficulty making transition to digital, but that’s not the case with the JBJ.
This week Steve Grossman, CEO of JAA will tell us about many exciting developments for Jacksonville with respect to air travel. He’ll cover recently added airlines to JIA and the impact that’ll have for our primary airport; also many new routes out of Jax with our existing airlines. Additionally, Steve will advise on changes over at Cecil Air & Space Port. Most importantly to many of us, he’s going to cover how he’s running JAA like a business.
