Member Resource Hub

The Chamber's website allows all members to have a directory listing on the site and we hope you take advantage of this listing opportunity.

Why is it important?

• The more robust our directory, the more useful to prospective clients. Add products, menus, brand names, etc.
• Adds citations/links to your website to improve your Google ranking.
• Personalize – people buy from people – your advantage – you are a local business.

Below are training videos to help you update your listing.

Training Videos:

• Update Your Company Profile and Directory Listing
• Add Your Own Member Discount
• • once you submit your discount, it will need to be approved before it appears on the external website so allow 24-48 hours for approval

Need Help?

If you need any help with your directory listing, please contact Brigid Gisolfi

Love Larchmont Facebook (9,600 members) and Love Larchmont Instagram (4,500 followers) are highly effective tools for reaching your customers.

Our audience and post engagement continues to grow – keep in mind that even if you don’t see “likes,” the admins are seeing hundreds of hits on your posts on each of these sites. These Love Larchmont posts are also a great way to build your own followings on Facebook and Instagram.

The functioning of each site is different. Keep in mind that:

• Facebook’s format allows for more ad copy (text)
• Instagram is more visual (photos/videos, and fewer words).

Below in a nutshell are the guidelines and suggestions:

LL Facebook

• When you submit your post, an admin will approve it. Please allow 24 hours for admin review, so keep this in mind if your ad is time-sensitive. The limit is one ad per day. (Note that real estate listings are not allowed.)
• You can create a post specifically for Love Larchmont, or you can share a post from your own Facebook page. Tagging your business [#mycompany] encourages viewers to click on it, and see your business page.

LL Instagram

• Our Insta stylist (Maddie Scarpa) creates one post and several stories each day, Monday-Friday.
• How this works is that one of your business’ Instagram posts or stories will be used, and restyled with some new text, info, or GIFs, etc. Each weekday has a theme, and each member business is assigned to one of those days. Check with Maddie if you are not sure which day pertains to your business.
• Your business will be featured -- on a rotating basis -- throughout the Chamber membership year, to be fair to all. At least one story for each business will be kept in the “Highlights” section, under the appropriate category. Below are the daily themes:
  • Motivation Monday (fitness, wellness, psychology, children’s activities, charities, etc)
  • Transformation Tuesday (home-related: art and photography, design, home furnishings,
    construction, real estate, moving, etc)
  • Wonderful Wednesday (“indulge, pamper”-- beauty, travel, pets, floral, collectibles, etc)
  • Foodie Thursday (restaurants, food purveyors, chocolates and bakeries, wine/liquor)
  • Fashion Friday (clothing for all ages, jewelry)
  • Saturday and Sunday (special events, local lore, amateur photos of Larchmont, and other items to drive interest to the site)

Need help?

Any questions or comments, please reach out to madeline.scarpa@gmail.com or
megan.mccarthy@coldwellbankermoves.com

If you'd like to access meeting minutes to previous member meetings, login to your account, and then click on the Resources link on the left hand side (see screenshot below).

Once on the resources page, you can filter by which type of resources you'd like to see, including meeting minutes and other materials.

 

We are fortunate to live in a community rich with resources to help our local business community thrive. We share the below resources with you in hopes that they may benefit your business.

• Catalyst - Westchester County Economic Development site offering resources to local businesses. Sign up to keep informed of the latest information, opportunities and programs to help your business.
• Visit Westchester NY - Tourism site for Westchester County. This site may provide opportunities to engage in county-wide tourism efforts and marketing opportunities.
• Westchester SCORE - SCORE is a national non-profit association that provides advisory and small business mentoring services for people looking to start or grow a small business. SCORE Westchester is not only a resource for Westchester business owners to gain knowledge;  it is also a place where long-standing mentor relationships are born. SCORE offers many FREE trainings and workshops.

The pandemic has changed consumer behavior, and maintaining a strong online presence is critical to strengthening and growing your business.

To help you reach your online goals, SCORE has partnered with Grow with Google to launch a four-part, free digital readiness series designed to help you develop the skills to succeed online and grow your small business. You’ll get a digital readiness badge for each module you complete.

Get Started Today!

Business Owner Employee Parking Summary

Parking FAQ

Check the VOL website for the most up to date parking information. Below is some more information sent to us by Mayor Walsh:

Pay Stations:

·       Pay Stations are located at most street corners and in parking lots. They are quick and easy to use once you have gone through the process once or twice. The Village is monitoring use and gathering feedback. We will consider making changes once the system has been in place for a reasonable amount of time and we can get a more seasoned appreciation for issues that need to be addressed. This may include adding some more machines mid-block on certain streets.

·       At Pay Stations parkers can pay $0.25 for 15 minutes. Unfortunately the machines installed in the parking lots did not have the coin slots installed. These machines will be retrofitted within the next 2-3 weeks and thereafter ALL Pay Stations will accept coins, bills and credit cards.

·       The Village will create a video on how to use the Larchmont Pay Stations to assist those who have been finding it difficult and this will be circulated through social media, email and on the website.

 

Passport App:

·       The benefits of using the Passport App are: convenience, speed, session time notifications, allows user to remotely add time without leaving their location, stores multiple license plates on one account, provides a free 10 minutes to every parking session.

·       Why Passport? We met with and received proposals from several parking app providers. Passport had recently acquired Complus, the vendor for the Village’s enforcement/ticketing system. This meant that using the Passport App would allow for real-time data transfer and easier back-end operation. In addition, Passport provided the Village with the online parking permit system at no cost (a savings of about $12,000/year).

·       All parking apps charge fees to the user. Many charge a fee that is applied to every payment or addition of time. Some charge a percent of the cost, which can get high for the longer term parkers. To clarify, Passport’s fee is $0.30/transaction (or parking session) – not per hour. So if you park in a lot for 4 hours, you pay $4.30. This has been advertised in every communication by the Village and on the app is noted at the bottom of the payment page and on the final checkout page.  

·       We are going to be adding a function which allows users to set up a Passport Wallet – a pre-paid balance to be drawn down anytime the app is used. Those who use the wallet feature will pay the $0.30 fee only when they replenish their wallet, not on each parking transaction, thereby reducing the cost of using the app to almost nothing.

·       In addition to the wallet function, using the app adds a complimentary 10 minutes to each parking session, which is worth about $0.17, thereby cutting the fee in half.

 

Signage:

·       Additional signage for zone numbers, Pay Station locations and parking lot locations has been ordered and will be installed soon. We will also be adding additional informational stickers to the Pay Stations regarding where to call with problems, hours of operation, etc.

 

Part-time Employee Parking:

·       This depends on what is meant by part-time. For those who work ½ days, there is plenty of 4-hour free parking on most Village streets from 8am-6pm. Therefore an employee could park from 7am-12 or from 2pm-2am legally and at no cost. For those who work full days but not every day, a business meter permit for lot 3 would allow full-day parking at $7/day only when used. Two alternate day employees could share a business parking permit – they would have to change the license plate in the online portal to match that day’s use, but that is quite simple to do. There are also 4 and 8 hour on-street meters which can provide paid parking. Finally, there is limited 8-hour free parking on Palmer across from DeCicco’s and on Post by Kane Park.

·       We are looking at whether we can make the business parking permits valid at 8-hour on-street locations, to provide more flexibility and keep the lots active.

·       Business parking permits are $383/year for all-day parking (about $1.50/day for a 5-day work week) and $60/year for the lot 3 meter permit (+$7/day used). For reference, Mamaroneck Village business permits cost $650/year.

 

Chatsworth School:

·       For those who hear complaints from Chatsworth parents, if they are not “dropping off” but rather walking their kids to the school, they can park on Chatsworth and Larchmont Avenues north of Forest Park for free. They can also park in the CVS lot for free.

 

Restaurants in Street:

·       There are slightly more than 1,000 on-street parking spaces in the two commercial districts of Larchmont. If you add in non-commuter lots, the number of parking spaces increases to about 1,500. There are approximately 43 street parking spaces occupied by restaurants (for which they pay a fee). That’s only 3% of available spaces being used. The street dining has been bringing people into Larchmont from all over the sound shore area and wider county. This increase in visitors results in greater foot traffic and, ultimately, will make Larchmont more of a destination for those outside our Village. We need this increased exposure to survive.

 

Enforcement:

·       While we are in this introductory phase, enforcement of meter parking is with warning tickets only. Once we have all the outstanding issues resolved and people get a bit more familiar with the system enforcement of meter parking will begin and violations will be issued. We expect this to take another 2-3 weeks.

The Chamber Board is here to help you get the most out of your membership. For general questions, please contact info@larchmontchamber.org

For more specific questions, please contact any of the following volunteer board members and liaisons:

• Social media questions - Megan McCarthy
• Chamber directory page questions - Brigid Gisoli
• Membership questions - Sanjiv Jaswal
• Billing questions - Edward Lieber

Click here for a full list of board members and liaisons.