March 12, 2014

By Rumasa Noor

Student Chamber of Commerce (SCoC) is an organization that connects students and small businesses in the Whitewater area. It provides a platform for small businesses to advertise on campus. UW-Whitewater is the only school in Wisconsin to have this program within the university.

“Student Chamber of Commerce is a really unique opportunity for businesses in the local Whitewater area to come in and advertise on campus,” Chair of Chamber of Commerce Nathan Perry said. “They pay a fee, and then we take that money and give it back to student entrepreneurs.”

SCoC was founded by Dan Fink, Abbie Murphy and Patrick Johnson in fall 2012.

“We just actually launched our website so that businesses can register online, and they can know all about what we do and why we are focusing on students,” Perry said.

Fink said SCoC offers its services now by allowing businesses to market on campus, which was not possible before, due to UW-W system rules and regulations.

“There are a lot of student businesses on campus that they need a little marketing help or they need a little legal advice,” Perry said. “They don’t know how they should file. They would just like a few tips, so we want to provide that to them for free.”

SCoC is making new changes to expand the benefit their organization offers. Perry said they are working on contracts with consultants who can potentially provide consulting to students to help them grow their businesses.

“We are going to get consultants in for legal advice, for financial advice and for marketing advice,” Perry said. “They can help students grow their businesses and make them more successful.”

Along with looking into providing consulting, SCoC also is working on giving grants to student businesses, Perry said. They are currently trying to work through some legal issues in order to be able to give grants.

Fink said originally SCoC was focused on giving micro loans for students, but the group does not do micro loans anymore due to the legal issues that come with it.

“If you are a student, our membership is heavily discounted; we don’t even make any money on it,” Perry said. “If you are an outside business, obviously we need to make a little bit of money, and that money then goes through bringing in people to teach students skills so they can run their business.

Students have to pay $50 a semester in order to become a member of SCoC; local businesses, however, have to pay $100 a semester.

For more information, students can visit this website: http://uwwhitewaterchamber.com