Join us for a Ribbon Cutting ceremony and Grand Opening at 1 Connection located at 200 Williams St., Dighton on Saturday, May 21st at 10:00 a.m. Light refreshments will be served.

As a top Massachusetts dispensary, 1 Connection aims to provide the best quality Recreational & Medical cannabis, cannabis extracts, and infused products available. We hope to see you there!

Taunton Area Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Meeting & Awards with guest speaker and author Dave Wedge will air on TCAM TV on Wednesday, May 18th at 1pm, Saturday, May 21st at 9pm, Saturday, May 28th at 11:30am, Sunday, May 29th at 9:30pm, Tuesday, May 31st at 10pm, Thursday, June 2nd at 2pm

TCAM TV is Comcast channel 15/Verizon channel 22.

Join SBA TOMORROW at 12:00 p.m. for a virtual info session to learn more about the newly reimagined SBA T.H.R.I.V.E. program!

T.H.R.I.V.E. Emerging Leaders Reimagined program assists small business owners in growing their business, creating jobs, and strengthening their communities. This innovative program is an intense 6-month course that includes in-person, self-paced, instruction, mentoring, and class room time. Providing small businesses the opportunity to work with experienced professionals at no financial cost. Learn more here. Apply online here.

Register here.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo recently announced that the Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding SEED a $3 million grant to capitalize and administer a revolving loan fund. This grant is funded by the American Rescue Plan.

This grant will be used to provide gap financing to small, local businesses in Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Essex, Nantucket, Norfolk, Plymouth and Suffolk counties as they recover, grow, and create new employment opportunities. This EDA grant will be matched with $750,000 in local funds and is expected to create 100 jobs, retain 150 jobs, and generate $7.5 million in private investment, according to grantee estimates. Contact SEED for more info. at 508-822-1020.

Applicants to MassDevelopment's Collaborative Workspace Program will now use the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Community One Stop for Growth application portal — allowing for a combined review of applications to other state community development funding programs. The application deadline is June 3, 2022.

The Collaborative Workspace Program provides grant funding to innovation centers, incubators, makerspaces, artists’ spaces, collaborative kitchens, and co-working spaces to accelerate the pace of new business formation, job formation, and entrepreneurial activity in communities. Owners and operators of collaborative workspaces may apply for either fit-out grants of up to $100,000 for new equipment or building improvements, or seed grants of up to $15,000 for planning money to advance the development of new collaborative workspaces. Learn more here. View the virtual training sessions here.

SEED presents Marketing Trends for Small Business Owners in 2022 on Thursday, June 2nd at 10:00 a.m.

This free virtual workshop will cover everything small business owners and entrepreneurs need to know about marketing their business in 2022. The instructor, Tricia White of T. White Creations, offers insight gained over 30 years of working with small businesses in many marketing and branding capacities, as well as her experiences as a small business owner herself. Marketing trends, strategies, and much more will be the focus of this session. All attendees will receive a free business plan guide and will be introduced to free and confidential business assistance resources available to them locally and regionally. Register here.

Does your town host a Wine Walk, Holiday Stroll, First Friday, or other downtown event where they close off streets and encourage people to get out and support business? If so, you may know that those events often bring the crowds but also bring “tire kickers,” people who are just out for a stroll, not really interested in what you sell. They’re just going into each business, poking around, and usually leaving empty handed.

The hard part of that is that you likely brought in full staff to ensure you had enough coverage only to deal with a lot of “lookers.” But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are a few suggestions on how to transform your looky-loos into looky heres.

Join us for this informational webinar via Zoom on Tuesday, May 24th at 12:00 noon.

Presented by Dean Kramer, Retirement Plans Regional Consultant Wealth Management Solutions, Ameriprise Financial.

Taunton Federal Credit Union will be hosting a Business After Hours on Wednesday, May 25th from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. Stop by and see their new branch at 403 Winthrop Street in Taunton. Co-sponsored by Brownstone Realty Group.

The MA Health Connector will be hosting a public informational webinar session on Wednesday, June 8 from 12:00-1:00 p.m. This information session will focus on health insurance options available to small employers and their employees through Health Connector for Business at www.MAhealthconnector.org/business. They will also review available options for sole proprietors and owner-only groups who do not yet have the employees to qualify for a small group plan through the Health Connector for Business.

Health Connector for Business offers quality, affordable health insurance options to help small businesses (with 1-50 full-time employees) save on their premium costs.

How can this session help you? Learn about:

Mayor Shaunna O’Connell recently announced the City of Taunton will be opening a new outdoor seating area Downtown this week. The City received a $40,000 grant from MassDOT’s Shared Streets and Spaces program to implement a temporary open space seating area for the community to enjoy. The new seating will be located Downtown in the area adjacent to the sidewalks between School Street and Knotty Walk. Read the press release.

Let SCORE business advisors help you navigate the SBA Debt Relief Programs or the start-up and growth of your small business. All services are FREE and CONFIDENTIAL. If you are an existing SCORE client, please send an email to your SCORE counselor to schedule a phone call or Zoom conference. If you are new to SCORE, please complete the Request a Mentor form and someone from SCORE will contact you via email to schedule an appointment with an advisor. Sign up for SCORE webinars here. View upcoming webinars here.

TONIGHT! | 7:00 - 8:00 PM 

Ready for a new website? Whether you're building it yourself or you decide to work with a pro, getting organized is the key to your website's success!

• Define your audience.

• Set your website's goals.

• Determine key functionality and features.

• Plan your website content.

• Get your accounts and logins in order.

After this webinar, you'll have a comprehensive plan in place for your business's website. Attendees may also request the free workbook upon completion of the webinar.

Presenter: Jessica Baldwin, Co-Founder of Cardsetter

Register here.

This year, during an unprecedented national health crisis, small businesses needed help more than ever before. In order to support these business owners when they needed it most, the SCORE Foundation provided funding for SCORE’s Small Business Resilience program. This platform allowed SCORE to pivot their mentoring and educational services onto virtual platforms, where clients could easily access the pandemic-related information, guidance and resources they needed to survive and thrive. Learn more here.

Are you looking for ways to help your small business community? Would you like to grow your network or develop professionally? As a SCORE volunteer, you get it all!

Join the SCORE network of 10,000 volunteers. SCORE relies on volunteers to help small business around the country thrive.

Interested? Visit the volunteer web page to find about the many benefits of volunteering and the right opportunity for you!

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