Grit and Community: The Two Essentials for Every Small Business

By Tim Cahill, President and CEO, South Shore Chamber of Commerce

Running a small business is never easy. As a former small business owner myself, I know how many hats you have to wear and how often you’re asked to do the impossible with limited resources and little margin for error. Every day brings new challenges, and it takes a special kind of determination—what we often call grit—to keep going, growing, and believing in what you’ve built.

But grit alone isn’t always enough.

What truly sustains a business, especially during its toughest moments, is something just as important: community.

No one has shown that more clearly in recent weeks than Liz Lima and the incredible team behind South Shore Select Soccer Club and the South Shore Sports Center. When a devastating fire destroyed their Hingham facility—a place that had long served as a hub for athletes, families, and local programs—they didn’t fold. They got to work.

Liz and her team brought grit in full supply. They reorganized, reassigned, reimagined. They kept programming going for thousands of kids. They didn’t just hold the business together. They kept the heart of the community beating.

But what has truly inspired me, and so many others, is what happened next. Families brought meals. Volunteers organized thank-you visits for first responders. Former staff came back to offer help. And here at the Chamber, we were proud to offer our office space as a temporary home base for their displaced staff.

This is what community looks like.

When you combine inner drive with outside support, something powerful happens. You get not just resilience, but renewal. You get businesses that don’t just survive hardship—they emerge stronger, more connected, and more rooted in purpose.

At the Chamber, that’s exactly why we exist. We are here to help small businesses grow and thrive. But we are also here when things go wrong—when a fire hits, when challenges feel overwhelming, or when the next step feels uncertain. That’s when being part of something bigger matters most.

Liz and her team will rebuild, of that I have no doubt. And they will do so with the same grit that made them one of the top youth sports programs in the country. But they will also rebuild because their community showed up, stood beside them, and reminded them they are not in this alone.

Grit and community. Your inner strength and the people around you. That’s the formula. That’s the future.