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survive isn’t very profitable (only a third generate more than $10,000 in annual profits); and “people who run their own businesses typically work longer hours than those who work for others.” Doesn’t sound so good, huh?

According to Andy Jenkins of Stompernet, you’ve got a 21.6 to 35.1 percent better chance at a Vegas blackjack table than succeeding in busi-ness.

But wait — before you crawl out on that win-dow ledge and make a complete fool of yourself, there is help. And it’s right here in your town. What’s really crazy, according to the people who actually know about this sort of thing, is try-ing to run a small business without belonging to your local chamber of commerce.

“The return on invest-ment is huge,” says Debi Mollahan, CEO of the Tigard Area Chamber of Commerce, pulling out some statistics of her own. “In an independent study, 63 percent of adults surveyed are more likely to purchase from a small business who is a chamber member than those who are not, and 44 percent would rate it more favorably than a non-member business.”

That research she’s referring to is a third-party study done by The Schapiro Group of Atlanta for the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (see page 32) which found over and over again that a business that belongs to a chamber is more high-ly thought of by consumers, is believed to have better products or services, is more honest and trustworthy and is more involved in the communi-ty.

or Dave Bax, it all started with the question, “What do you do when you want to get rid of your computers?” Both he and his wife Frankie already had logged years of experience in computers. She had parlayed her computer programming degree into a network administra-tor position; he had a background in the medical field that morphed into IT administration and eventually become an IT manager.

In their spare time, the California transplants who set-tled in Beaverton’s Greenway area started building com-puters out of old parts in their home, as sort of a hobby. “At one time,” says Frankie with a smile, “We just rebuilt computers and gave them to our neighbors.” But that nagging question — about what we, as a soci-ety, do with all this old gear when we replace it with new stuff — finally pushed them into the idea of starting a business.

It’s EcoBinary (“Electronic recycling, reutilization and resale”), and since January, it’s been operating in a new location, 8240 S.W. Nimbus Ave., Building 3, Beaverton 97005 (503-352-4991). It’s a two-part business.

Out front is the resale store that customers see: shelves filled with all sorts of computer components and related electronic doo-dads.

“We carry a little bit of everything,” says Dave. “Servers, network switchers, routers, general electronics,

stereo equipment, printers, laptops.”

In the back, though, is where the action is. Pallets of unwanted high-tech gear come into the warehouse through a garage door from an assortment of clients that the folks at EcoBinary won’t divulge for security reasons.

“We’re very protective of our businesses,” says Dave, standing next to huge piles of computer parts. “The com-petition would love to know who our clients are.” The list includes medical clinics, high-tech firms and all sorts of companies and agencies, he says, adding that EcoBinary has clients from as far away as Corvallis and Eugene, well into Washington to the north and east of the mountains, too.

“Every client is different, and our agreement with each one is different.”

EcoBinary gets referrals from Metro, the city of Beaverton and other big organizations, says Dave, explain-ing that “We’ll get a call from a client wanting 10 com-puters, so we’ll get them all built and ready for them.” In the warehouse, the recyclable gear is sorted into four groups: printers, plastics, all wire and circuit boards. And what doesn’t come into the store for resale is sent out the back, to a processing center where it’s broken down even further for the raw materials.

“We break it down by metal, plastic, wire and circuit boards, so technically we’re a collector and a recycler, says Dave.