The FBA Supports Small Business and Lower Southampton

The association that has about 100 members is an “organization that has grown and works to raise funds for local charities and to help local businesses prosper” since its creation, said Dennis Markowitz, president of the Feasterville Business Association.

Membership in this organization is open to anyone who lives, works or does business in Lower Southampton, Markowitz said. He added that a business does not have to be based in Lower Southampton to become involved in the association as long as they do business in the area.

One of the main focuses of the business association, according to Markowitz, is to “foster and encourage growth and betterment of the community.”

Each month, the members get together for dinner meetings, but not to discuss business per se.

“We get together on a social level to get to know each other and what we do,” Markowitz said. Sometimes there will be a featured speaker at the monthly dinner meeting that discusses a business-related topic, but the focus of the meetings is to network with each other.

This networking among small businesses in Lower Southampton has become even more crucial with the state of the economy.

“It’s been very tough economy times for small businesses,” Markowitz said.

“It’s been extremely difficult to get financing,” he added.

Markowitz explained that the government gave the bailout money to big businesses in hopes that is would filter down to small businesses – but that never happened.

“When you give big businesses money, they just sit on it. Small business owners would spend it,” the association’s marketing and public relations director Stu Coren said.

To compound that issue, Coren said that small businesses cannot the promotional money or resources to drive people to their websites on a continual basis.

In order to combat the tough economic times, the business association tries to “keep the bucks in bucks and Feasterville,” Coren said. Specifically, they promote the personal service, friendly smiles and competitive prices at the small businesses in the area.

The Feasterville Business Association also has an advertising program for its members in its newsletter and a cooperative full-page advertising program that features several members’ businesses in local newspapers.

To further support each other, Coren said that members will refer business to other members for goods and services. They’ll recommend each other within the association. 

“We’re a small group that is very tight knit,” Coren said.

The business association doesn’t just support its members’ businesses, it also supports the Lower Southampton community, Markowitz said.

The organization annually hosts an Easter egg hunt and holiday gift baskets for needy families. It also offers scholarships to two graduating high school seniors that reside in Lower Southampton, Markowitz said.

Based on residency, academic performance and extracurricular activities in the community, the two recipients receive $1,200 if chosen. Currently, the association is accepting applications for the scholarship program until May 20. At the end of May, the two candidates will be presented with checks and are honored at the Lower Southampton Fourth of July parade.

The business association also holds an annual blood drive and an adopt-a-highway program cleanup. It also sponsors a blue light lighting at the and to honor police officers killed in the line of duty.

A golf outing is also sponsored each year by the business association to raise funds for about six local charities in the lower Bucks County area.

For more information about the Feasterville Business Association and its local efforts, visit its newly redesigned website.