Industry sign banking new jersey ppt myself
should introduce myself i'm nina tucker president of north essex chamber and i am happy to welcome melanie wilby the executive director of the new jersey business action center and uh irene crespo who is the business advocate for essex county so we it sounds like we will get to know her very well and the business new jersey business action center is a business first resource that can help you get answers from government agencies direct you to appropriate officials or contacts facilitate meetings and follow-ups with regulatory agencies and so much more all at no cost and strictly confidential so uh i think we're all waiting to hear more i'm gonna turn it over to melanie well thank you very much nina and now let me bring up uh the powerpoint on there we go there we are okay um so uh i really want to thank everyone for uh my opportunity to be here today uh so let me introduce the business action center just a little briefly to those of you who are not familiar with us we have been in operation for over 30 years and we are now part of the new jersey department of state and we have back team experts who have developed expertise in government programs they really understand government bureaucracy and they have developed many government contract context over the years so that they really can dig deep into the bureaucracy of the government to be able to get to the solutions that you need if you're having any problems in any agencies and you get to work one-on-one with our team like working with irene crespo who is there for you in essex county and you can call 1-800 jersey seven to be able to be connected to a business advocate so we have three offices actually that are there for you we have our office of business advocacy which is what irene is part of and she's really on the on the ground but now virtually for the most part um where she's going to help you find a real estate site if you are looking to relocate or to expand just going to help you with your permitting your workforce needs going to help you find financing she is going to help you with perhaps county and municipal level problems that you might be having um and we also have an office of small business advocacy which actually helps all of our tiny businesses they help the startups everybody on main street um and they look at helping them with mentoring they help them with their licensing and professional certifications procurement assistance and also of course always navigating the the regulatory processes so our office of export promotion right now um is one that i really want to highlight because they help you um to expand your business by uh exporting your product globally now we have actually helped from one person who had one product that he was able to sell at an international trade show which helped him to become a major manufacturer and that's what we like to do in helping companies grow and we have a one million dollar grant right now that is available uh that provides financial awards on a first-come first-served basis uh to businesses to help you export doing everything virtually now you do not have to go to dubai with your product you can do all the virtual trade shows and the money is to help you with putting up a great website is to help you with your translations we'll help walk you through it develop your export plan just have to get in touch with our our export promotion team so you call them one eight hundred jersey seven and ask for a member of the export team and they'll put you in touch so let me just give you just a little bit of what the back can do in providing you with the kind of assistance that will give you a flavor so we give you fiscal stability and business continuity assistance we help you with guidelines for operating your business safely we can identify where you can get the ppe we can actually help clarify state required mandated employee benefits and remember during this time of covid there are so many more mandated employee benefits that you have to know about um we can help you in licensing and certification requirements and and really and really so much more and i'm also going to give uh the slides uh to nina so that she can get them out to your members as well uh so that they'll have the slides and also they'll have the have the recording so now let me talk about the um financing grants that's really what businesses are looking for and i know that right now the eda uh grant uh has closed uh and so you had to pre-register and so if you didn't you're not able to access that grant but there are other opportunities we do have municipal grants there are grants within the counties i looked at what essex county has right now and there really isn't anything that i'm aware of that essex county has on the municipal or county level but i want to highlight the community development finance institutions field because we at the back work very closely with them and they do provide really very low interest financing um and we think of those as sort of like our micro lenders um and so when someone comes to us looking for dollars um we basically try to see if we can fit them with one of the micro lenders um and so what's one of the things about the business advocates is that we try to find for you what it is that is going to work best for you so we also partner with the new jersey small business development centers there's 12 of them throughout the state and they provide individualized one-on-one counseling also it's free and it's paid for by the sba um so this is another service that is available to you and we like to match you up from the business action center depending on what your needs are so if you need a business plan we'll help match you if you need some financial data to determine how much uh you'll be able to be able to to uh get as a loan we'll be able to help you uh match up with the right sbdc person and then through their main office in newark fortunately you're in essex county they offer procurement assistance they have an e-business webinar set up program they have technology commercialization green sustainability audits and export assistance which could really be helpful um right there with our one million dollar grant that you might be eligible for so let me talk about our covid website which has been up since march uh and this is cv.business.nj.gov cv.business.nj.gov i'm hopeful that a lot of you have already used it because over 43 000 businesses have and this is where you get the information on the on the covet safety protocols on the state government executive orders on the technical assistance available to you for recovery what to do if my employees have covid these are all important questions for you as a business who's trying to survive who is trying to recover and who is trying to sort through all of the protocols between the cdc and osha and what the state requires and perhaps you also have protocols that your own industry has put put down that we're going to help you with all of that because we have a live chat feature so when you go on you essentially look to the website but you also say oh look over in the corner i can just chat with someone who's real they're not a robot they're real um so hot off the presses just telling nina yesterday the governor signed an executive order uh 192 um and this executive order is because of the fact that cdc and osha have not been very specific um about what it is you have to do as an employer if you're allowing your employees to go back to the office now remember in new jersey we never prohibited people from working in the office the governor merely said that he wants you all to work from home if possible but so many more are now going back to the office that he felt it really important that he put down what the requirements are and so these are reporting requirements that are all going to be handled by the department of labor and they're all available on the cv.business dot they go into effect 6 a.m on november 5th gives you a little time but it's every business every non-profit government agency educational entity um and this is about all the requirements for your workforce that are physically present at the work site it's also for your customers and anyone who comes into contact with your operations now some of this is going to be familiar to you because you already know that you have to all be six feet apart everyone has to wear a face mask and this means everyone and what this basically says is that you can deny entrance to your business if you're an individual doesn't wear a face mask and that's whether it's an employee or whether it's a customer but you can deny access uh you also have to provide the sanitized materials for all employees and visitors at no cost to those individuals everyone has to practice good hygiene and all employees must be given break time for that purpose um you have to routinely clean and disinfect all high touch areas and this is in a in some cases daily but depending on the high touch areas it could be hourly so you really have to check the cdc guidelines on that you also have to do daily health checks of your people temperature screenings visual symptom checking self-assessment checklists um hopefully you know whether they've traveled out of state recently um and you cannot allow sick employees to enter the workplace and you have to notify all the employees if anyone had exposure to coven 19. and in some cases if they do you may have to shut down the workforce and the workplace um and sanitize and so that's all under the safety regulations um so quick point new jersey wage an hour says that no um for an employer you cannot deduct the cost of protective equipment from your pay of the employee so you cannot do that you're giving it to them for free there will also be an enforcement mechanism to receive complaints from employees for any employer they feel is not meeting these standards um we do not have the specific uh what will happen to the employer if you don't meet the standards yet um but that's coming um it'll be on the website so go to cv.business.nj.gov now you're all going to need that equipment right you're going to need that pp e so the njeda has put together a um program so so there are the opportunity for vendors to actually uh be designated as a manufacturer in new jersey or if you assemble it in new jersey uh where you can provide a subsidy for purchases of ppe uh which is which is if you're if you're making it uh you might as well get and sign on to be a vendor um you also as a small business can get subsidized ppe um product um and so this is i think important for small businesses especially since now there's a mandate that once you're in the office that you have to provide all this for free um so there is now a state program to try to help offset those costs now you can go to at the bottom of the uh of the uh slide you can see covid19.nj.gov that actually is the website that is for the general public and that is where the whole ppe process is and the wonderful thing about that is that you can go on there and there's a calculator that'll tell you exactly how much you need on a daily basis where you can buy it it's really a wonderful tool so i want to just introduce you uh to a brand new business website uh that we have created together with the office of innovation and the governor's office and the eda and it is um because of the fact that state governments websites can be a little clunky you might have noticed that um however business.nj.gov is the brand new website and this one is where we want to provide to business what it is that you need in order to be able uh to get your answers quickly and get off because time is money we know that so we have a robust search function we can get answers really fast we organized it according to how you are in your journey as a business plan start operate and grow we have business starter kits uh for those who've decided well the business i'm in right now maybe not so much um so maybe i'm going to start a new business believe me a lot of people have decided to do that so we have these starter kits we'll get you a jump start on it so we have them for food trucks and on the line commerce and cleaning services which is very big as you might imagine and even restaurants people are still starting restaurants we have over 100 faqs really detailing all the important uh services that are there for businesses from agencies and we have our live chat feature which is powered by our business experts which really makes getting in contact with business really easy i know that you may have experienced making a phone call to government and you are on hold you never get through not this not the case not the case with the back we pride ourselves on our customer service and so you go on the uh business website you get the live chat from monday through friday eight to five you wanna call us go to one eight hundred jersey seven you get right through and the other benefit um is the fact that we also have a spanish uh uh employee who can help if we have a need for someone who's in the business community who wants to speak in spanish also on the business website we have a couple of cool tools uh you can create your own business plan right there on the website uh there are the due dates for your important license renewals and your tax statements and it'll also walk you step by step on how to do procurement but if you in any time feel that you're not quite sure um and you have a question just go to the live chat and we will be able to help you so now in conclusion i want to give you all of the important websites and hotlines so here's the business action center website uh which is where you can find out all about the business action center then there's our hotline then there's the new business website uh which is really business friendly and easy to use our covid website and then here's my personal email address that you can get in touch with me and you can also get in touch with irene um by calling uh the 1-800 jersey seven number and they will put you in touch with irene or you can also get in touch with her by uh her her email which is irene i-r-e-n-e dot crespo c-r-e-s-p-o at sos.nj.gov now i'll just leave you with a cute little anecdote in the fact that some businesses always think that when they see sos that's because it's saying help me help me and it's really not um it's because we are are the secretary of state's office and that's where we are but it's such a cute little uh way for us to have at sos.nj.gov we love it we're not moving anywhere um so i want to thank you so much for this opportunity it's been great to talk to you and remember we're here for you uh i know when they say you know i'm from government and i'm here to help you that you go like not really but we mean we really do right thank you i appreciate it thank you melanie that was very helpful why don't we all put our cameras on and change the view so we can see each other there we go um thank you again melanie that was great um i don't know if anyone feel free to ask questions um i know i'm gonna contact your office because i got this uh strange annual report instruction form and it's not from it's not from a government agency though no no no you have to file an annual report i do but it comes a little later i get it towards the end of the year and i fill it out online and it's all just it's fine so i do have something i will reach out to your office about okay great all right perfect i just wanted to help you i'd like to say something to thank you melanie thank you michael um hey everybody else um i don't want to sound like a chill or i've been planted or anything like that but i i also represent a state agency and i've worked with another one of their colleagues over the last couple of years now uh we've worked in paterson we've worked up in sussex county we've worked in union uh we've worked in you know different parts of the northeastern part of the state and nothing in essence county unfortunately but irene maybe we can fix that um what happens is we get a lot of calls you know he gets calls my colleague gets calls and says they've got questions about energy programs about energy saving programs what kind of financing is available what kind of grants are available and as
part of their programs i mean we've been brought in by attorneys doing due diligence for an acquisition or for i mean just the range of opportunities that these guys represent it blows my mind i again like i said i'm not here as a commercial but i just want to say take advantage of the services that they have to offer because it definitely helps we've done things like done presentations you know joint present we've been on the desk doing presentations for different kinds of uh different groups whether it's an economic development council uh you know whether whether it's just meeting with clients take advantage of the situations they have to offer if they need to reach other aspects of state government they will they'll they'll bring in who they have to bring in case in point you know to talk about specifics the partnership it's meaningful i i'll tell you from my heart it's real and and it works okay it definitely works so please don't not listen to her take advantage of it okay well thank you very much michael i think of myself as the great connector you know everyone right everyone at the back that's what we do we know where to connect you to to get you the answer you need and we'll be dogged on that great um and while we have the opportunity why don't we go around and introduce ourselves and great share what our businesses are um i'm gonna just go across my screen because i know about no other way to do this so first i have someone with a phone number no name eight four seven three four seven do you want to introduce yourself that's irene oh that's irene oh okay sorry that's right there she is irene you know you can change the if you click on that you can change the name so we know who that is michelle would you like to introduce yourself yes hi my name is michelle i know some of you from chefs for seniors um we're a personal chef service for the senior senior as well as anyone who really uh wants it um senior service um and this was great and i am looking to um opening up uh my own cafe which will be happening over the next few weeks so this definitely gave me a lot of information i really do appreciate it thank you so very much you're welcome call us anytime thanks michelle thank you amy good afternoon everybody my name is amy neely sorry my speaker's probably not here huh can you hear me better now oh yeah okay perfect um my name is amy neely and i'm the client care marketing coordinator for new jersey elder law center at goldberg law group and so what we do is we do powers of attorney we do seat planning state administration um so if you need anything feel free to let us know i'm a great connector like you melanie i like to get people in touch with one another what we do is different than other law firms i'm the client care coordinator people come to us in crisis and i kind of hold their hands and guide them through the process and i make connections along the way michelle and i know each other don and i know each other so i know nina so uh it's all good um if you need anything if i can introduce you anything let me know and um thanks for listening have a great day amy neely new jersey elder law center goldberg law group awesome thank you thank you amy donna hi everyone oh this is wonderful wonderful information uh thank you um well right now i i work with a company called oasis senior advisors and i help seniors and their families find the right type of senior living arrangement my service is free but i can't go into more detail but i am thinking about doing maybe something different so well donna i'll give you a little secret uh don newman who handles our small business advocacy uh is really a great person to talk to in our office because he helps you think through what kind of business and goes through the pluses and minuses is that uh i wrote down his name but is that the he's our small business advocate so so if you um uh hit 1-800 jersey seven and ask for don newman they'll connect you to doc uh irene typically handles companies that are a little bigger um but i understand yeah thank you thank you well dawn talk to dawn i will call them tomorrow okay thank you you're welcome michelle where are you opening your cafe it'll be in wayne so um yes i'm the next couple of weeks are going to be very exciting so hi hi amy well let us know when you have a grand opening oh absolutely absolutely and there are a ton of seniors that'll be there as well as many other people so it'll be a good day so thank you thank you thanks donna uh michael you want to add anything or let people know i know you told everyone a little bit about what you do but why don't you uh just top it off sorry wait can we unmute yourself you don't want me talking for the rest of the day i'll burn up the rest of the time we have allocated here that's that's i got a motor mouth okay my name is mike manzik i represent new jersey's clean energy program my job i love my job my job is to help you get your money back okay with a straight face bill every month part of the bill you pay includes societal benefits charge that charge goes to fund clean energy programs can help you save energy save money and save the environment right here excellent i am david good afternoon everybody my name is dave labush i am with midtown commercial realty we are a full-service commercial real estate brokerage working on all types of commercial industrial properties and in all types of situations uh helping our clients through everything in addition i am actually looking at also starting a business doing some manufacturing i've actually done a little bit of legwork and uh research to investigate this and trying to take this to the to the next level i guess and actually get it started and moving forward and i'm also registered i got to be on tomorrow at 9 00 a.m to apply for uh phase two i got my little registration letter ready to go you're a micro business then david right yep right right okay good excellent but yeah at starting uh you know doing some manufacturing that'll start small but i think has the potential to grow large very quickly they've also had dave also has the capability of being a motivational speaker early in the morning too yes yes thank you and uh michael you should be getting a whole lot of phone calls i've given your name out i don't know how many people in the past couple weeks so when we can when we can have lunch at michelle's new restaurant it's on even though i can't do that because of the state you know well david if you need any help with uh dep permits okay not to irene all right and i i jotted down don's name so i'll give donna ring too so that's right right yeah don is uh is really good about starting the business but irene is the permit person in dep excellent great people david yes david i urge you to look at the video for the application for tomorrow okay it's if it's on cv.business.gov if you look at the program has if you click on the program it has a tutorial embedded in the program so what was that site again db.business.nj.gov here let me put it out here on the screen um are you you said phase two are you phase three whatever's tomorrow at nine a.m uh you're phase three okay okay you you can start preparing today what documents do you require okay that's right okay here we go theoretically i have everything on my computer theoretically yeah but you want to fly through it before you have any issues there you go okay tv.business.nj.gov that's where you want to go david wrote it down they got it thanks okay um and i'll tell you what about one thing i love about these meetings is people do put their contact information on the chats make sure you save them because you don't have to worry about writing them down you go back and everything's there i want you to know yeah so yeah i'm looking at doing some customized manufacturing here in jersey so okay you're not going to be exporting anything um if folks want to order if you eventually want to open up like an amazon store and be able to sell it through there so who knows where it'll go to all right
