Q&A with Dubois County Chamber Executive Director Angie Sanchez-Hostetter
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In March, the Dubois County Chamber of Commerce named Angie Sanchez-Hostetter as its new executive director. Her role will focus on fostering community partnerships, community outreach and engagement, promoting business growth and enhancing quality of life in the area.
Sanchez-Hostetter spoke with Inside INdiana Business about her experience as a small business owner and the benefits of being a chamber member.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell me about your background and why you wanted to be the chamber’s executive director.
I started in small business. My husband and I owned a bagel/coffee shop named Azura for almost 20 years. We were based in Jasper. We did a pizza restaurant for a little bit, right as COVID hit. In 2022, we decided to close them and go back to what we had originally gone to college for. I started at Crisis Connection, which is a violence prevention agency, and I facilitated prevention education.
I understand what it feels like to be a small business owner. Dubois County is such a unique ecosystem for business, especially small business, having such low unemployment and multi-million dollar companies based in our county that it takes somebody who’s been there and done that to understand how it feels. That’s the reason I reached out to the chamber whenever this position came up.
I have some nonprofit experience as well. Like I said, I went to Crisis Connection once I stepped away from our business. I’m currently helping at Purdue Extension. At the moment, I split my time between the chamber and Purdue Extension.
What is the chamber’s mission?
I’ve had some conversations with my board as far as where we want to focus, and we feel our main focus needs to be small business. There’s a lot that goes into small business. They need more help than a larger corporation that has lawyers, executives and people in other states and countries. You don’t get a lot of those resources when you’re small.
We don’t want to forget that we’re very lucky to have large corporations based in Dubois County. But we can do so much more and have a bigger impact with those smaller businesses.
Why should a business join the chamber?
[The chamber] can be an advocate for businesses. There’s so much that goes on when you are running your own business. You don’t have time to try to keep up with all the different laws and help and everything else that is available to you. It helps to have somebody there, and that’s what they’re focusing on.
The chamber can focus on something new happening that you need to be aware of, or this opportunity is coming that will help you out. It’s a backup for that business owner and also creates more networking opportunities. There’s so much to learn about business. Every business is so different. I’m not going to say that I’m somebody who knows everything there is to know about business, but I’m not afraid to ask.
What are your goals when it comes to promoting business growth?
Our main challenge has been finding people. Anytime I talk to a business, whether it’s a large business that hires hundreds of people or someone who needs part-time help, finding that good, qualified, reliable person is the hardest thing to do around here.
How do we attract more people and attract the people we have here? How do we convince them to get back into the workforce and help out these businesses with plenty of customers coming through their door and plenty of things to do, but they don’t have anybody there to work?
It’s a big goal to get people back to work and do what they’re supposed to, but that’s where I feel like we need to be digging in and finding some of these answers.
What about enhancing quality of life and fostering community partnerships, community outreach and engagement?
A lot of the studies say how you attract people is having that quality of life. We hear that a lot when it comes to employing people. How do you get that quality of life? What makes people want to move, work and live here and open a business? Do we look at our parks? Do we look at our schools? How can we make this a more desirable place to come, grow, settle down and stay?
As far as other community engagements, it’s trying to find networking opportunities for these businesses so they can talk to each other. When we had our own business, we said we had a small restaurant club. There were a few of us who all had similar businesses that would get together and hash out what was going on. “How are you doing this? Are you having problems with this distributor? Oh, you don’t use them? Who are you using?”
There’s so much you can do to help each other out if you have the opportunity to meet that other business owner and hear what they’re doing.
What challenges do you foresee in facilitating these initiatives?
The main challenge is getting out there, getting my name out, saying, “Hey, I’m here. I’m ready to help and learn. Please come talk to me and tell me not only what you need from me but what you would like to see happen.” I’m well aware that other things are going to pop up as I progress in this role and dig down into what the chamber is and how we can help our community.
What should people know about the chamber that they may not be aware of?
One thing that I wasn’t aware of when I first looked into this position is that we work a lot with grants to help businesses. If somebody is starting a business or is running a business that needs help, there are grants that we can provide as a chamber and grants that are available in our community.
We’re lucky to have a philanthropic county. There are lots of organizations that will help people out when they need it. So being able to come to the chamber and say, “This is what’s going on. I would like to have some kind of grant or help with this. Where do I go?” And, hopefully, we can get them in touch with somebody who can.
Anything else you’d like to add?
We are putting on a Garden Gate Festival. It’s a jazz and wine fest in downtown Huntingburg at Market Street Park. It’s April 26, starts at noon Eastern time until about 6:00. We have a couple of bands. We have a lot of local breweries and wineries coming. You purchase a wristband—if you are old enough to purchase alcohol—and hang out, listen to bands and see what’s available here.