About Our Chamber
The Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce is a local non-profit business organization representing the interests of our local businesses of all sizes.
Our members range from mom-and-pop shops to local churches, individuals, charities, medium and large industries and corporations. They all share one thing—they count on the Chamber to be their voice and connection to our community and beyond.
Our Chamber is a member of the Georgia Chamber and has obtained a four-star accreditation with the US Chamber. Our vision is to be the leading member organization, creating a positive business climate, facilitating tourism, and developing the economy as we promote the outstanding quality of life in the community. Our mission is always to serve, promote, and protect every member of the Chamber of Commerce to help them grow and prosper.
In the effort to always push toward our mission our Chamber remains focused on:
Increasing Local Business - Marketing our community to invite new business and help grow local business
Support and Strengthening of our Local Businesses through Networking, Education, Leadership and Workforce Development
Tourism – inviting the world to Visit Toccoa-Stephens County and discover all we have to offer
We were presented the opportunity to partner with NextSite, a consulting firm who has established relationship with Georgia Power in the effort to help develop the rural communities of Georgia. Georgia Power is making it possible by footing a large part of the expense so that smaller communities can afford to tap into the available resources NextSite gathers on their behalf.
The focus of NextSite for our community is to provide unparalleled research, market analysis and mapping support, assist in the identification of real estate opportunities for retail development and redevelopment and then connect these opportunities to the appropriate retail real estate decision makers. We are grateful to our City and County Commissions who have chosen to support this effort. We are looking with great anticipation to all this effort brings for Toccoa-Stephens County.
In addition, The Chamber has a Retail Marketing Task Force whose approach is more of a grassroots effort to personally invite business we frequent in neighboring communities to consider expanding their operations to Toccoa-Stephens County. We have produced a cutting-edge booklet which tells our story in print to give to the business owners to review at their convenience.
The Chamber supports and helps strengthen our local businesses by offering educational Lunch & Learn events with relevant topics for our business and industry employees. We present networking opportunities because people prefer to do business with people they know.
Through our Leadership Toccoa-Stephens County program for Adults and Stephens County High School Seniors, and our Chamber Education Committee our focus is to help educate the adults, teachers, and students about the opportunities available to grow and thrive in our community. That not only helps strengthen our leadership on all levels, but it also takes our workforce development to a new level. Bringing local industry and business to the forefront.
Tourism is another very important piece of The Chamber. We have the honor and privilege of showing off our beautiful community and all the assets it includes. We take that responsibility seriously. Our natural resources speak for themselves and our town boasts of many historical sites worth making a special trip to see. We welcomed over 15,000 folks through the Welcome Center doors in 2017. It’s our job to help spread the word about our town outside our county lines throughout the NE Georgia Region, the State and surrounding States. What we have here is exceptional and we don’t want to miss one chance to share it with the world!
This is your Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce in a nutshell. I’ve simply scratched the surface in these few words. I’m so humbled to be part of those sharing the good news. This is our community and that is something for which we should be quite proud! Let us choose continue to work through life’s challenges together and press on together to help grow our community. Toccoa-Stephens County is a great place to do business and an even greater place to do life!