Governor Phil Murphy • Lt. Governor Tahesha Way

Department of State
 New Jersey Business Action Center
 The Hon. Tahesha Way, Secretary of State

Chat with us or call us at 1-800-Jersey-7

Edition #38: 05/20/2025

Have A Business Need? NJBAC Can Help.

The NJBAC is offering no-cost technical assistance, training, and problem-solving – we are here to support all of your Business Enhancement needs. Whether you have a one-off resource question, are looking for a strategic assessment of a district, or could use some quick visualized tactical inspiration to foster visible and tangible change, NJBAC can help. Contact NJBAC Assistant Director Jef Buehler to start the conversation and move towards action.

Today’s email has information on assistance we can provide, as well as about technical and financial resources that may be a fit for your community or district. Please feel free to share this information with other officials, district management stakeholders, and businesses. To see all prior Business Enhancement Connection emails, click here!

 

Best Practices

Micromobility Parking – How To Make It Happen: Micromobility riders need a good place to end their ride just like everyone else — and cities can accomplish several goals at once by giving them one. Use this report from Oregon to learn how can cities provide the necessary parking locations and how can cities build parking in a way that addresses other considerations, such as cost-effectiveness and traffic safety: Here’s a set of best practices for different ways to set up dedicated parking for scooters, bikes, and other forms of micromobility in your community.

New Jersey Micromobility Guide: This downloadable guide gets into the details about micromobility, going over the types of devices/vehicles (bikes, scooters, segways, skateboards, etc.), what they are and how they are regulated in New Jersey in particular.  The guide serves as a resource for micromobility users across the state, collecting and summarizing the laws and safety best practices that can make riders safer. By providing tips, answering common questions, and clarifying how different devices are regulated, this guide serves as a resource that promotes the safe and legal use of e-bikes, e-scooters, and other forms of micromobility throughout New Jersey.

The Bicycle Blueprint: Designing your community for All Ages and Abilities when it comes to bike infrastructure and facilities has been a key way of enhancing local quality of life, supporting the local economy in mixed-use districts, and reducing car traffic and parking demand.  This classic (2017) foundational document about integrating bike facilities by NATCO (the same people who set the standard for vehicular-use roadways) focuses on building for all ages and abilities to make bike infrastructure safe, comfortable, and attractive to the widest variety of people. Broader than simply building a bike lane network, the goal is to build a bike lane network that offers biking as a mobility option to people of all ages and all levels of cycling experience, as well as those with physical, visual, auditory, and mental disabilities who wish to ride. 

A New Export Webinar Series for Businesses: The no-cost South Jersey Export Webinar Series, by NJBAC, will share information with businesses about the benefits of exporting, and how to get started with existing local resources. Both product-based and service-based businesses are invited to learn how to conduct international market research, start an export plan, and assess their company’s export readiness. All events are virtual and businesses can register for their county-specific one here:

Stay tuned for updates on the addition of other counties!

 

Featured Grants & Support

Last-Minute Disaster Recovery Grant Opportunity: The Backing Small Businesses grant program, supported by American Express, is accepting applications for a special round of Disaster Recovery grants, intended to support locally significant small businesses impacted by natural disasters. Eligible small businesses affected by FEMA-declared disasters on or after January 1, 2024, can apply for one of one hundred available $10,000 grants to assist in their recovery efforts. Grant applications are due tomorrow, May 21, by 11:59PM (Central Time), so have your businesses apply here if they meet the criteria: Main Street America Submission Manager - Backing Small Businesses Grant Program 2025: Disaster Recovery.

Levitt Music Series Grants – Grants and Webinar: Applications for 501(c)3 non-profits open May 1 through June 30, 2025, for the 2026-2028 Levitt Music Series Grants to activate underused public spaces and build community through the power of free, live music. There will be a live webinar on May 21, at 1 p.m. to learn about the exciting, multi-year matching grant opportunity of up to $120K ($40K each year) for towns and cities of all sizes to present a free outdoor concert series. This webinar will cover key details about the program such as matching requirements, three funding levels and scopes, and grant eligibility. There are three main grant opportunities: Levitt BLOC (for any community), Levitt AMP (for towns and cities under 250,000), and Levitt VIBE (for larger cities.) See the links for each for more details!

 

NJBAC Can Work With All the Businesses in Your Community

We are here to support your communities’ and districts’ businesses. NJBAC offers free online chat and telephone (800-537-7397) assistance in English and Spanish to any business in NJ – any size, any location, and any type. Businesses can always download the NJBAC Small Business Manual – a one-stop tool for many business concerns – online here. A Spanish version of the manual is also available here. Individual businesses or organizations can order a printed English copy as well by clicking this link or the Spanish version by clicking this link. For bulk orders of up to 25 printed copies in any language, please contact NJBAC’s Tracy Thomas directly.

Our NJBAC team can advocate for businesses, concierge them to funding and technical solutions, help them find locations for growth or developing export markets, guide them to navigating the commercial cannabis sector, and much more. Want to set something up online or on-site for your businesses? Reach out to NJBAC Assistant Director Jef Buehler to get plugged in to all of our business success services.

NJBAC’s Business Enhancement Services is online:  Now you can refer to Business Enhancement Services directly online with just a click!  Please favorite the website – it will be expanding over time as we add new resources and tools that support municipal and district revitalization and place-based business enhancement.