The Business and Technical Assistance Center (BTAC) is excited to host the First Annual Carbon & Emery Small Business Resource Expo on Tuesday, May 16 from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Castle Country Radio was able to sit down with Helper City’s Mayor Lenise Peterman to get all the details.
This event was developed by conducting a survey in the Helper area and after seeing that not only businesses in Helper would benefit from this information, officials thought why not share this information with all businesses in both Carbon and Emery counties. “So we met with the AOG (Association of Local Governments) and said hey, we’re thinking about this, what are your thoughts? They loved it so collectively a variety of people, the Chamber of Commerce, USU Eastern, and AOG, the Workforce Services, we all sat down together and said what can we do to really facilitate small business growth in our area, this includes Emery County as well. So we’re really excited to provide this to our small businesses owners as avenues to connect to resources they may need,” stated Mayor Peterman. Depending on how this is received by local businesses, it will determine whether this will become an annual event.
The survey that was conducted showed that many businesses needed assistance with marketing, funding, website and social media assistance. “So what we did was we went out and said, hey, who can we talk to and bring to the table and have available for these business owners. So that includes the Utah Microloan Project, they loan to small business, small start-ups, they’re non-profit, they’ll be present. The SBDC will be present. So we just, again, we’re looking for those parties who can provide those services and allowing the business owner to not have to deal with presentations and listening to things that weren’t relevant to them, but allow them to walk up, and say, hey I need marketing assistance,” explained Mayor Peterman.
The other resources that are scheduled to be at the expo are as follows:
-Women’s Business Center of Utah
-Utah State University
-Business and Technical Assistance Center
-Utah Microloan Fund
-Department of Workforce Services
-Carbon & Emery Chambers of Commerce
-Small Business Development Center
-Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments
-Southeastern Utah Economic Development District
-Veteran Business Resource Center
-Main Street America
All businesses owners/operators are invited to this event which is being held at the BTAC on 375 South Carbon Avenue in Price. “You know the timing was actually based on feedback from the surveys. So a lot of the business owners need to come at the end of the day. We’ll have light refreshments and drinks because you know at the end of the day, they may need a snack, may need a bottle of water. So that they can talk to the people that they need to talk to, to facilitate their business and the growth of it or again starting it up. We’re open to all of those things and again connecting those resources. So it will be from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm, Tuesday, May 16 and we’re just excited to see what folks can do with this,” stated Mayor Peterman.