Mercer Keep It Local Celebrates 1 Year of Connecting County Businesses

Americas Small Business Development Center at The College of New Jersey (ASBDC at TCNJ), Mercer County’s recognized leader in delivering no cost business counseling and training programs to high growth enterprises and small businesses, recently celebrated the second year of its free business networking breakfast series "Mercer Keep It Local."

The networking event was held at Barnes & Noble at The College of New Jersey in Ewing within the newly developed Campus Town retail and residential complex. The ASBDC at TCNJ and Mercer Keep It Local are supported by the County of Mercer, the State of New Jersey and the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Mercer County Business Advocate Anthony Carabelli, Jr., Diana R. Rogers - Dir. of Economic and Industrial Development for the City of Trenton and Claudia Yarborough, Lender Specialist with the U.S. Small Business Administration NJ District Office joined ASBDC at TCNJ leadership, Lorraine Allen and Lilian Mauro, to help celebrate the continuation of this free networking series.

Business leaders and professionals who attend these free monthly events that take place throughout Mercer County and are encouraged by the ASBDC at TCNJ to enjoy casual networking with an opportunity to “shamelessly” promote their businesses by making a strong offer in their 30 second elevator pitches to attendees.

The Mercer Keep It Local networking breakfast series launched in April 2015 as a way for local business professionals throughout Mercer County to promote business-to-business support and partnerships; provide opportunities for businesses to meet; discuss like interests; share opportunities and receive referrals. This year, Mercer Keep It Local en Español was launched to help Hispanic business owners connect in a similar way.

Hamilton Business Owner, Marilyn Silverman of Word Center Printing recently said if it weren’t for Mercer Keep It Local events she wouldn’t have secured recent opportunities to do business with the county, “I attended several SBDC Mercer Keep It Local Networking events and through one of those events I connected with Mr. Carabelli. Our face-to-face interaction at the SBDC event led to me receiving an opportunity to respond to a request for quote. I am pleased to tell you our response got us that work. Thanks to ASBDC Regional Director Lorraine Allen, the rest of the ASBDC at The College of New Jersey team and well as its supporters for helping me make new connections to grow my business."

As Mercer Keep It Local continues into its second year, the next events are scheduled for June 16, 2016 at Collaboration Core in Lawrenceville and The Straube Center in Pennington on July 14, 2016 both from 8:30 am – 10 am ET. For more information about other events and to register to attend, please visit http://sbdcnj.com

Photo Caption:

From left to right: Barnes & Noble Managers Josie Taverez and Jen Waring; Anthony Carabelli, Jr., County of Mercer Business Advocate; Shakira M. Brown, Marketing Consultant, ASBDC at TCNJ; Lorraine Allen, Regional Director, ASBDC at TCNJ; Claudia Yarborough, Lender Specialist SBA NJ District Office; Diana R. Rogers - Dir. of Economic and Industrial Development, City of Trenton and Lilian Mauro, Asst. Director - ASBDC at TCNJ

###

About ASBDC-NJ at TCNJ

America’s Small Business Development Center – New Jersey at The College of New Jersey (ASBDC-NJ at TCNJ) is an accredited member of the ASBDC-NJ network, a network of 11 small business development centers throughout the State of New Jersey.

The ASBDC-NJ at TCNJ provides free and confidential small business management counseling and low-cost comprehensive training workshops to assist the small business communities in greater Mercer County.

For more information about counseling services and training visit http://sbdcnj.com.