Edition #39: 06/02/2025

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

Small Cities and Transit – Why It Matters – Webinar Workshop, June 4th: Discover how small cities and towns are incorporating transit into their transportation and community objectives and learn from municipal practitioners creative tactics and techniques for improving public transportation in their communities. Understand funding strategies for small city transit, including federal, state, and local sources. Register for this free online workshop here.

Municipal Finance Decoder Tool: Is your municipality financially sustainable? That’s a key question that the Strong Towns Finance Decoder Tool can help clarify. The tool is an online sheet that comes with online instructions and even an online graphics kit to use for making presentations about the results. Given the rapid change to ongoing uncertainty about Federal government policy and funding streams, it may behoove local governments to review their financial status over time so as to project and protect their communities’ futures.

The Pop-Up Placemaking Toolkit: Looking to try out some visible and tangible changes in a temporary way that may lead to something more permanent? This downloadable Pop-Up Placemaking Toolkit by AARP is a great place to find inspiration and ideas with a focus on getting things done in the real world.

Free Tools for Pop-Up Placemaking Projects: Looking to implement some of those placemaking interventions (see above!), enhance crosswalks, try curb extensions and parklets, or make other short-term pilot changes to your district’s streets and intersections? If so, check out the NJTPA’s Complete Streets Demonstration Library, which is free and available for statewide use. They assembled a collection of delineator posts, barricades, traffic signs, paints, stencils, barriers, traffic cones, and other materials available for loan to communities who want to implement a temporary demonstration. To take advantage of these free resources, you’ll need to coordinate with you regional Transportation Management Association (TMA) – see this TMA map for details.

A New Export Webinar Series for Businesses: The no-cost 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. The webinar has already been successfully offered Atlantic, Cape May, and Ocean counties to date. All events are virtual and businesses can register for their county-specific one here:

If you want to have a county-wide Export Webinar in a county not listed above, reach out to Sophie Werner at NJBAC to get the ball rolling!

Featured Grants & Support

Grants for NJ Artists – Spread the Word!: Due on July 16^th, the 2026 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowships ranging from $3,000 to $31,000 - are awarded to practicing New Jersey artists through an anonymous, competitive application process to help them pursue their artistic goals. The categories for this grant cycle are: Film/Video, Digital/Electronic, Interdisciplinary, Painting, Prose, Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts. Application information is found here: English and Spanish. Artists can register for next online Application Assistance Webinar on June 12^th. All of the support features and tools for this opportunity are also found here: New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowships - Mid Atlantic Arts.

EDA Small Business Grants Are *Still* Available: There are three well-funded and non-competitive grants from the NJ Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) that focus on small businesses. Please share this information directly with your businesses in your districts and municipalities. If you would like NJEDA to come to speak with your businesses as a group reach out to Kathy Guzman to set up an in-person or online walkthrough of these grants:

Small Business Improvement Grant

Open to NJ small businesses, nonprofits, and home-based businesses.
Reimbursement grant for interior and exterior renovations, the purchase and installation of new furniture, fixtures, and equipment. The work must be completed, and items paid for within two years from the date of application.
Reimbursement is 50% of total cost, up to $50,000 maximum award.
Program details and grant application are on the NJEDA website.

Small Business Lease Grant

Open to NJ small businesses with a new 5-year (or longer) lease of street level space, between 250 and 10,000 square feet. Amended leases may be eligible if additional space is added.
Lease must be executed within the previous 12 months from the grant application date.
Grant award is 20% of annual lease payment upon grant approval, and a second 20% payment of the annual lease amount after one year.
Program details and grant application are on the NJEDA website.

Small Business E-Commerce Support Program

Open to NJ restaurants, retail, and personal care businesses that operate from a commercial location.
Free E-Commerce and digital marketing consulting such as website development, website optimization, E-Commerce platform, online ordering, online appointment booking, and digital marketing plans.
This program is consultant led; business owners should reach out directly to one or more of the approved vendors to get started. There is no online application through the NJEDA.

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.

Official Site of The State of New Jersey

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