PHOTO: The Lakewood Development Corporation, Urban Enterprise Zone program in conjunction with the Lakewood Community Services Corporation held its second in a series of “Business Link” networking events on Monday, June 24th at the Historic Strand Theater.  More than 50 business owners and representatives were in attendance.  The two hour event included guest speakers:  Abraham Penzer, Attorney and Board Member of First Commerce Bank; Michael Ragusa, small business banking at Santander Bank and Rabbi Zisha Novoseller, Director of EIP Networking. The panel discussed financing options for small businesses as well as participated in a question and answer session with guests. Before and after the panel presentation, attendees were encouraged to network with each other in hopes of growing their customer base and to discuss their own personal experiences of operating a business so as to encourage a best practices approach to handling different business situations.

In late spring, the Lakewood UEZ recognized an opportunity that was not being met locally and decided to setup the “Business Link” as networking initiative to bring businesses together.  The UEZ program boasts membership of over 535 Lakewood businesses in a cross section of industries ranging from retail to professional services to construction, real estate and finance. Patricia Komsa, executive director of the Lakewood Development Corporation and UEZ Coordinator stated, “We had a great evening of networking with our businesses in a setting designed to encourage open and friendly dialogue. It is our hope to bring these types of events to our businesses going forward.”

The “Business Link”  was co-hosted by the Lakewood Community Services Corporation, a local, non-profit with a long-standing history of providing support and assistance to Lakewood residents and businesses.  Rabbi Moshe Z. Weisberg of the LCSC stated “This is a Lakewood for Lakewood event.  We encourage all Lakewood businesses to attend these events as an opportunity to make face to face connections with other local business people and further create opportunities for growth. ”

For more information about the UEZ program or the Business Link initiative, please contact Patricia Komsa at 732-364-2500 extension 5257 or [email protected]