NewsFlash Summer 2018

Million Dollar Challenge Client, Bi-Lingual Training Officer, New Facebook Hacks, Entrepreneurship 101 Grads, and more...

From Refugee to Restaurateur – Meet Workye Ephrem When Workye Ephrem fled war-torn Ethiopia in 1974, she couldn’t have imagined that she would someday be the owner of two restaurants featuring her authentic Ethiopian cuisine. But thanks to her talent, passion, persistence and a little help from UCEDC, that’s exactly where she finds herself today. After a career at the UN, Workye opened her eatery, Ghenet (Paradise) in NYC in 1998. With rave reviews and a seasoned staff, Workye was ready to open a second location in her hometown of North Bergen, NJ. But despite her successful track record, Workye could not get the financing she needed for renovations. Enter UCEDC and The Million Dollar Challenge – a partnership with the Hudson County Economic Development Corporation (HCEDC).  With the aim of injecting $1 million in affordable capital into Hudson’s small business community, the Challenge provides direct lending along with help in securing conventional financing.   Read the full story.

Yes, that's Workye with Martha Stewart and celebrity chef, Samuel Marcussen. Check out this video of her appearance on Martha's tv show. Watch it No w 

And Speaking of the Million Dollar Challenge: With three months still to go on our contract, we’re proud to report that we’ve surpassed our goal and helped secure $1.24 million in financing to small businesses throughout Hudson County. Want to learn how we may be of assistance to you and your business? Contact Andy Gaffney, UCEDC loan officer, at 908-858-2365 or agaffney@ucedc.com .

Say Hello to Ed Ramirez, New UCEDC Training Officer  Ed has enjoyed many different types of professional opportunities throughout his career, but the common thread through all has been leadership management and service to others. A 12-year Army veteran, Ed had a long career in small business consulting and accounting services.   He also spent six years in higher education, helping a small college through the national accreditation process. Proving that you can never stop learning, Ed is currently working on a Doctorate in Business Administration.  Ed will offer training workshops in Spanish as well as English and is busy developing new curriculum to broaden our array of topics. Check our calendar for the inaugural session of "Year-End Tax Prep for Small Businesses" sometime in the Fall. You can reach Ed at 908-527-1166 or eramirez@ucedc.com .

Our Latest Entrepreneurship 101 Grads We work with community partners throughout New Jersey in order to bring our services to the largest and most diverse audiences possible. Our latest session of Entrepreneurship 101 i s a great example of how that works to everyone’s benefit. Dominic Macharia, pastor of Kingdom Ambassadors Church in Edison, contacted us to explore how our training services could benefit the small business owners and would-be entrepreneurs in his congregation. We were happy to conduct our 6-week workshop at his church; Rev. Macharia was pleased to encourage his congregants to take advantage of the opportunity; and the participants enjoyed learning in a familiar environment with their fellow worshipers. Interested in attending or hosting an upcoming Entrepreneurship 101 workshop? Contact Erich Peter, training director, to learn more: 908-527-1166 or epeter@ucedc.com .

This Caught Our Eye: The Decline of Organic Facebook Reach If you're as baffled about how Facebook treats posts from your business page as we are, you must read this super-informative article from HubSpot: The Decline of Organic Facebook Reach & How to Adjust to the Algorithm. Changes to Facebook's algorithm to favor person-to-person interaction versus content consumption has made it increasingly difficult for your business page posts to show up on your fans' News Feeds. And it doesn't matter if you have 20 followers or 20 million: social media giants are suffering the same as the local frozen yogurt shop. While the bottom line appears to be that we should consider Facebook a pay-to-play platform, there are some content tweaks you can make that will help you get seen by more than just a handful of readers. Check out the detailed suggestions and instructions.

Hablamos Espa ñ ol And 100 other languages! We added the Google Translation app to our website so everybody has access to its information and resources. Just look for the orange translation bar at the top of every page. We now have three staff members who are fluent in Spanish to assist clients (see our latest addition, Ed Ramirez, in story above). And our CFO, Greg Fabijanczuk is ready to help anyone who wants to conduct business in Polish!

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