Kyle Knapp With Saxonburg Area Business Association

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the business radio studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:17] Lee Kantor here another episode of Association Leadership Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show, we have Kyle Knapp and he is with the Saxon Berg Area Business Association. Welcome, Kyle.

Kyle Knapp: [00:00:30] Thank you, Lee. Great to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:31] Well, before we get too far into things, tell us about the Saxon Burg Area Business Association. How are you serving, folks?

Kyle Knapp: [00:00:39] Well, we started about 30 years ago, and we are focused on local governments, working with local governments to enhance the business environment for our members, as well as bringing consumers into the area through events and promotions for our members.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:00] Now, what was kind of what did something spur this 30 years ago that said, hey, you know what, maybe all the business folks should get together here and work together to for the greater good.

Kyle Knapp: [00:01:11] There was just a couple of folks that had stores and just really wanted to work together with the other people in the in the area to promote their businesses and to promote our town. We have a long, rich history, so we like to bring people in so they can see all the historical sites and visit our locations.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:34] That was that not being kind of those services, not being delivered by a Chamber of Commerce or other type of associations that typically form.

Kyle Knapp: [00:01:43] Yeah, we do have a Chamber of commerce and actually a tourism group also in our county. However, there’s a lot of history in our area. So yeah, we felt that we were a small piece of a larger pie. We really wanted to kind of take the bull by the horns and really promote our town on our own, in addition to the support provided by the Chamber and the Tourism Bureau.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:10] Now, how do you kind of see the the differences between a business association and a chamber?

Kyle Knapp: [00:02:16] The chamber is usually a larger geographic area, and they work with kind of county governments and maybe even the state governments in some sense. Whereas I think the business association is operate more on a local level. We can really get to know our members and work with our local government as far as the regulations and things that they can do to help our businesses prosper. And we also help to promote building owners to fill any open spots because it’s. Tourists, I think, like to see a bustling town and area and have a lot of things to do rather than see, you know, half of the the shops boarded up because no one’s operating out of it.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:07] So when you say that and it seems like you’re very collaborative, that everybody is kind of working together in this way. What drew you to this leadership role? I mean, what’s your day job?

Kyle Knapp: [00:03:20] My day job is running a company for offering I.T. support, computer support to small businesses. I started my company about four years ago, and the Saxon Burg Area Business Association was the first group that I joined. I thought that it made the most sense that they’re a local group. I already knew a lot of the people that were within that, and so I joined. I enjoyed the networking opportunities and within about a year and a half, I was elected as president of the organization. So I got to make a good impact on our town.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:56] So what’s kind of your dream like? What? What do you want more out of the like what kind of outcome do you desire from being the leader of this organization?

Kyle Knapp: [00:04:07] The outcome I desire is to see a robust economy in our local area with a lot of events that people can participate in that bring in outside consumers. Because our town is kind of in the middle of a triangle of major highways. So there’s really people don’t just come through. Saxon burg you don’t there’s just no three ways through. So we have to really have something, a destination, a reason for them to come visit. So I’d like to see all of our local businesses having events working together in just promoting our area.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:51] Now, for the business folks that join or should join, what are some of the reasons, the compelling reasons why, if you’re a business owner in the Saxon burg area, that this should be a must join group.

Kyle Knapp: [00:05:10] You know, one of the main benefits that we provide is promotion advertising. So we have a website. We list all of our members, all of our members information. We have a Facebook group where we promote our members. We’ll do spotlights periodically, where we talk about a business in our area, a little bit of their history, what they’re currently doing, what they’re offering. And then we actually do some paid ads or boosts on social media to yeah. To get the word out. The the networking opportunities are great with our our business is really work together a lot and try to patronize each other’s businesses rather than going outside, if possible. A lot of my clients have have come from joining the group and just being able to talk about what I do and in offering that service to the local businesses.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:07] Now, when you’re in the kind of the town environment that you’re in, a lot of folks are like, Well, why should I join the Business Association? Everybody knows who I am. It’s a small town. Everybody knows everybody. So is there is it worth the dues or the, you know, the time commitment to to actually be part of an association? I think that for most people, that that’s some consideration for people who are members of associations. And like you have leaned into this leadership role, it becomes a this is just kind of being a good corporate citizen. This is something you should be doing and you should be supporting everybody here because we’re all in this together. And and if we start failing individually, then as a collective, we’re all going to fail. So how do you kind of help make that case for your other business people that haven’t yet joined it?

Kyle Knapp: [00:07:01] Right. So, I mean, we really try to keep our our dues low just for that reason. I mean, it just make it an easy, easy entry for our new members and current members to remain. But one of the biggest things we do is we we leverage the group power to expand our influence further than we could as individuals. So we do some advertising through billboards, magazines, things that a an individual business on their own probably couldn’t afford. So this allows us to not just market to our local people who, like you say, a lot. A lot of the people in the local town know everybody knows everyone. But this expands our sphere of influence by. Standing together in using the power of of the group.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:58] Now, are you finding that you’re getting a lot of folks that are first time business people, like maybe they had a corporate job or a more worked for a larger enterprise and then they’re kind of going out on their own nowadays.

Kyle Knapp: [00:08:13] Yeah, we do have some of that. We have some some folks who have opened up stores. Maybe they retired from their their day job and this is just something to do in their golden years. But we also do have people who are currently even working in a another job, but they’re moonlighting and kind of testing the waters to see if their business idea can can take root and can become a full time venture for them.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:45] So is that something where the association can help them kind of learn the ropes of getting started in business?

Kyle Knapp: [00:08:52] Yeah, definitely. We have a lot of small business owners who have started on the business on their own. We can definitely provide feedback and advice, and particularly with resource other resources that businesses can use that they may not have known even existed before joining in getting the first hand knowledge. There’s just there’s so much information available on the on the Internet. It’s hard to filter through what’s really worth it or not. So I think having the advice of someone who’s been through that and who’s tried out different resources on what work best for them is really invaluable to a new business owner.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:36] Now, any advice for the people in a similar situation that you’re in kind of a smallish town? It’s super important the work that you’re doing, but it’s just you’ve got to kind of struggle to get the word out every day. You know, you’ve got to, you know, be present. You have to create events. There’s a lot of energy. You have to invest into this group that maybe isn’t appreciated by everybody, but it’s kind of like that unsung hero in the community that’s doing important work that maybe it isn’t at the forefront of other people’s minds.

Kyle Knapp: [00:10:09] Yeah, there can be some of that. But I mean, really keeping an eye on the on the bigger picture, what the reason or the purpose that you’re in that organization. And I also find that partnering with or at least making connections with other. Business associations and even even the chambers to to to work together in the when you find other people who are doing similar work and they have the enthusiasm enthusiasm it it compounds everyone’s enthusiasm kind of builds. And even if your organization does not have a lot of active members, just being involved with other people can share their, their, their passion for what they do. And there will come a time there will be people that ebbs and flows of people within the group that are organizing events, but keeping a steady hand on it will get you through the dips until you get some periods of high activity.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:14] So what’s been the most rewarding part of the job for you thus far? Has there been a moment where you’re like, Wow, this is really paying off? I can really see the impact I’m making, I think.

Kyle Knapp: [00:11:27] After COVID. I mean, during COVID, we all of our events, which were all in person where we did not have any that first year, the second year was very, very light. But this this past year, going into this year, we have basically revived and added new events. We so we’re we’re going stronger now than we were before COVID. So I think that that just shows the resiliency of everyone. And we also going into COVID had several storefronts that were empty, businesses had closed or moved, and we were able to get to 100% occupancy after COVID. And I think that’s just a great sign of the of how our our local community is thriving.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:16] Well, congratulations on that. That is a big achievement. And you can see that the impact is real. I mean, it takes that whole team in order to keep that going. That wouldn’t have happened by itself.

Kyle Knapp: [00:12:30] Absolutely. It’s nothing. Nothing happens very little. It happens by accident. I mean, you do have to put in some effort, but it is very rewarding to see the outcome when when it happens.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:46] Yeah. And you can see that people are really hungry for that sense of community and the working together and getting back to that some sense of normalcy of everybody’s in person, you know, looking each other in the eyes, shaking their hands.

Kyle Knapp: [00:12:59] Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:01] So what do you need more of? How can we help you at Saxon burg and also in your day job? Business vegetarian?

Kyle Knapp: [00:13:09] Well, I mean, any any opportunity to promote our town and say, hey, we’ve got a great little community here. We have a lot of shops, a lot of great restaurants to visit. So if you if you’re in the area where in the greater Pittsburgh area, just northeast of Pittsburgh. So if you happen to be in Pittsburgh and you have a data that you want to take a look at, some some great American history, we have that to offer. And for my my day job, I work in cybersecurity for for all businesses. And it really doesn’t matter where they are. A lot of my work is remote, so if anyone is having difficulty finding a provider or just wants some feedback, some maybe a second opinion on what they can do to secure their local networks, I’m happy to have a conversation.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:01] All right. Well, if somebody wants to learn more about Saxon Burg Business Association, what’s the website?

Kyle Knapp: [00:14:07] The website is WW dot Saxon business dot org.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:13] Good stuff. Well, Kyle, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Kyle Knapp: [00:14:19] Thank you, Lee. I appreciate it. And. Thanks for having me on the show.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:23] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Association Leadership Radio.