Being in business is challenging.

And these days the challenges are greater than ever.

Whether you are on your own, in a small team or having to shoulder the responsibilities of a sizeable business, life could hardly be tougher than it is today.

Christchurch Chamber of Trade and Commerce is an association of local businesses whose purpose is to support one another and represent our combined interests in the community.

We have members from across the spectrum of business. Sole traders, partnerships, small to large companies covering retail, service, hospitality and manufacturing industries, and everything in between.

Although some of us may be in competition, the shared problems we face give us much in common and there are many ways we can help each other.

One of our important roles is to represent the business interests to the powers that be – whilst disseminating the fast-changing rules under which we have to operate. We regularly attend meetings with the BCP Council departments and work closely with the BCP Economic  Development Services, the local Tourism and Hospitality organisations and a number of other strategy committees and other local organisations to ensure the voice of Christchurch businesses is heard. These bodies are often keen to listen to the real-life problems that we are facing.

We were active in forming the Christchurch Business Improvement (BID) which supports the town centre businesses and work closely with them – if you are a BID member you are entitled to become a member of the Chamber.

We are an Associated Town Chamber of Dorset Chamber, accredited by the British Chambers of Commerce.

We also deliver events such as the very successful series of free lectures we recently ran at the Captain’s Club Hotel in Christchurch. We produce a regular newsletter – the Christchurch Chamber Chat – that we deliver to businesses in the Christchurch Borough (as well as electronically to our members) so you can keep up with what is going on. As a member, we will be happy for you to contribute to that newsletter.

And, of course, we run some excellent social events so we can meet and get to know each other. Look out for our summer socials, our Christmas celebrations and our renowned social and networking get-togethers.

We work closely with the Christchurch Business Improvement District (BID) which we were active in forming to support the town centre businesses.

We are a non-profit making company run by our members, for our members. Membership is by application and we charge an annual subscription to cover our running costs.  Our executive is made up of local business people with wide business experience. We are non-political which means we are free to support or oppose proposals as we see appropriate.

And the annual subscription to get all this? It starts from only £40 per annum for businesses with 1 to 5 employees – see the Join CCTC page for more details. So do apply to join us and become part of our local Christchurch business community.

When we say Christchurch we mean all of the former Borough of Christchurch so we include all Highcliffe, Mudeford, Stanpit, Somerford, Burton, the town centre, Bargates, Barrack Road, and Fairmile up to and including Hurn and the airport business park and all industrial estates and retail units in the Christchurch conurbation.