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JOHNSTOWN — Small business owners in Fulton County will get the opportunity to avail themselves of expert advice from a host of nonprofit and government agencies at the Fulton County Small Business Symposium on June 13 in Johnstown.
Hosted by the Fulton County Center for Regional Growth (CRG), the information session for local small business owners will be held from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the Holiday Inn at 308 Comrie Ave.
The free event is the first countywide symposium the group has hosted, with Jennifer Donovan, CRG Downtown Development Specialist, noting that the event will also include vendors from Montgomery County.
Donovan said that the event will provide copious network opportunities for attendees.
“People will visit vendor tables and get to know one another,” she said. “You never know if there’s another business out there where they can help you and you can help them build off of that synergy.”
Fulton County Administrative Officer Jon Stead praised CRG for its efforts in helping small businesses get off the ground.
“Our Fulton County Center for Regional Growth has done a good job, particularly in helping small businesses in the last four to five years and in coming out of COVID,” he said. “They’ve spent a lot of time on developing grant programs and administering grant programs, particularly for small and fledgling businesses.”
Attendees will be able to speak with representatives from state and local agencies, including the Fulton-Montgomery Chamber of Commerce, Empire State Development and the Mohawk Valley Economic Development District.
“Sometimes people don’t know how to start a business,” Donovan said. “The Albany Business Center can help with business plans so they can start to think about projections and goals, and they’ll have someone in the room that can help them to discuss different grant programs. So the idea is to just try to get everybody in the same room. So if you’re trying to start a business or expand your business and you’re not quite sure what the steps are, it’s easier to go from table A to table B than to pick up the phone and go through the list.”
With the pandemic receding, Stead said he hopes that small businesses will thrive in the Fulton County region.
“That does seem to be the trend,” he said. “I think many of us were surprised that our retail and tourism and outdoor recreation sectors actually came out of the pandemic fairly strong. We were very concerned that they’d be damaged severely. But particularly the outdoor recreation and tourism sectors and housing rentals, that has maintained and been quite strong. So I think it’s good timing to get out there with people looking to start new businesses that have some growth potential, and also it should help some of those businesses that struggled through the pandemic, particularly restaurants.”
The free June 13 event will include presentations from Greg Chanese from the Small Business Development Center, and Betsy Emery from Emery Designs.
Small business owners are encouraged to RSVP to the event by emailing Donovan at [email protected] or calling (518) 725-7700 ext. 4.
Contact Ted Remsnyder at tremsny[email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @TedRemsnyder.
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