Business groups join together to kick-off summer on the bayshore

Five Bayshore business groups and the Jersey Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau joined together yesterday in Keyport to kick-off the Summer of 2014 on the Monmouth County Bayshore..Exit 117…the Gateway to the Jersey Shore.

Lt Governor Kim Guadagno, Congressman Frank Pallone, State Senator Joe Kyrillos, Keyport Mayor Harry Aumack were on hand as the Northern Monmouth Chamber of Commerce, the Keyport Bayshore Business Copperative, the Hazlet Business Owners Association, the Atlantic Highlands Chamber of Commerce, the Highlands Business Partnership and the Jersey Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau  joined together in cooperation for ceremonial ribbon cutting for the region’s summer tourist season.

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Before There Was A Tea Party, There Was The Perkolator

By Art Gallagher

The Tea Party is getting quite a bit of media attention, both here in New Jersey and throughout the nation for the impact it is making in the current mid-term election campaign.

The Tea Parties, Taxed Enough Already, are committed to electing members of congress who will reduce the size and intrusiveness of government so that businesses can grow, create jobs and restore our economy to healthy vibrancy.

In Monmouth County there is another grassroots group that has been quietly growing for over the last three years that empowers small businesses to grow, create jobs, and restore our regional economy to healthy vibrancy.  That  group is the Northern Monmouth Chamber of Commerces’s“Perkolator.”

Paul Morris. Photo credit: www.3chicksthatclick.com

The brain child of the Chamber’s Executive Director Paul Morris, the Perkolator was started in 2007 shortly after Morris took the helm of the Chamber.  He sent out an email to his membership announcing that he would be having breakfast at a local diner every Friday morning and that any member was welcome to join him to discuss business with him and any other member who showed up.  The first week it was just Morris and Lenny Inzerillo, owner of Lenco Mortgage.  The second week Brian Compton of J,. Crawford Compton Realty joined them.  Three years later, with no more promotion than word or mouth and emails to the membership, 40-60 business people show up every Friday morning at 8am for breakfast at the Keyport IHOP.

Unlike formal networking groups, the Perkolator has no rules or quotas for referals or recruits.  Just show up and pay your $10 for breakfast, ($15 for non-Chamber members). Each attendee has an opportunity to introduce themselves and give their “30 second commercial.” Each week Morris arranges for a Chamber member to give a 5 minute presentation on their business.

Well established businesses and new ventures are finding that the Northern Monmouth Chamber of Commerce’s Friday morning Perkolator just the stimulus they are looking for.  No red tape required.

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