- Hi everyone, Steve Adubato, Wanna welcome our colleague Jeff Kanige, who is the editor of this publication, everything you ever wanted to know about or need to know about business in New Jersey.

Yeah, that's Stephen Colbert but it's not all about Stephen Colbert.

It's about business in the state, NJBIZ.

Jeff, how are we doing?

- All right, Steve, how are you?

- I'm doing great.

Listen, this is a co-production, a cooperative venture between our production company and NJBIZ talking about small business in South Jersey.

So here's the question, right outta the box.

You write about this, you research it, you interview people all the time, particularly on NJBIZ Conversations.

Check that out when you go on the website of NJBIZ, all kinds of conversations Jeff has, Jeff, what the heck is the difference between small business in South Jersey and small business anywhere else in the state of the nation?

- Probably not too much, although in South Jersey, obviously along the shore, you have a lot of bars, restaurants, entertainment venues, businesses associated with the shore.

They have the same concerns that everyone else does.

They're trying to hire the right people, they're trying to deal with costs of doing business in the state, property taxes.

They have the same kinds of concerns that everyone else does, and they have the same kind of hopes and ambitions that every other business owner does.

They want to follow their passion to make sure that their life's work is successful.

- Hmm, and the three people we feature in the panel discussion you're about to see, Max Gomez who is the owner of Amp'd Fitness, they're in Brielle and Belmar, Christina Renna, who is the President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce in Southern New Jersey.

And Karen Primak, she's the CEO of IPAK, that's located in Camden.

So when we talk about South Jersey, Jeff, South Jersey is bigger than we think and it's not simply these three counties, correct?

- Right, it's a state of mind for one thing.

People in South Jersey- - What do you mean by that?

- Well, when you talk to people in South Jersey, they are concerned that they get the short end of the stick all the time, particularly in the media, which is natural in that there is simply more going on in the northern part of the state.

There are more people, there's more economic activity.

It just stands to reason that we're gonna pay more attention to the counties in the north.

And they, folks down in South Jersey rightly believe that they're just as important to the economic future of the state as the North is, particularly again, with tourism along along the shore and Atlantic City with casino gambling.

And there's been a concerted effort from folks down there to diversify the economy, to make it more like the rest of the state in that there is not just one simple dominant industry like tourism or gambling.

The biggest example is the wind, the development of offshore wind.

But there's more going on down there.

In Camden, you have several major companies, Campbell's, Subaru, American Water, and Cooper University Health, which is embarked on a very ambitious expansion plan.

So yes, there's a lot going on in South Jersey and the folks down there are rightly proud of that, and rightly proud of the progress that they're making.

- Yeah, from your writing, your research, your work as a journalist covering business issues in the state, do you have any sense that the pandemic, three years plus in, has impacted small business in Southern New Jersey in any significantly different way than the rest of the state?

- Well, again, I think that because a lot of the economy, particularly along the shore, is dependent on tourism and hospitality and folks gathering in restaurants and bars and on boardwalks and things like that, I think initially they were probably more heavily impacted than some of the other parts of the state, and also the fact that the immigration visas were not being processed by the State Department during the pandemic, that caused, exacerbated, the labor shortage that those folks felt.

And I think that they're now just starting to get back, from my conversations with folks down there, tourism industry has rebounded very strongly and folks are expecting a really strong summer.

So, I think that they seem to be on the right track to recovery.

But yes, the pandemic absolutely did impact, affect those folks to a much greater extent, perhaps, than some of the rest of the areas in state.

- Labor shortage issues?

- Yes, terrible a couple of years ago.

I would hear over and over again how difficult it was for folks to hire and retain the kinds of workers that they needed.

I'm getting the sense now that it's not quite as bad as it used to be.

I think that there is still issues involved in hiring and retaining people because of the advent of remote work.

Folks aren't tied as closely to a particular location as they once were, so it's just becoming more difficult for everybody.

And it's not just small businesses, larger companies are having same sorts of problems but yes, labor shortage, it is certainly still an issue.

- You know, as we put up the website for NJBIZ again, Jeff, tell everyone what NJBIZ Conversations is all about because I've been able to check out so many compelling conversations you've had and people can see it, they can read it online, in print, et cetera.

Talk about those.

- NJBIZ Conversations is a Zoom interview series that I do.

We started it during the pandemic when we couldn't get together in person.

So, and it was what most everybody was doing at that point in time, just looking at Cable News, what you saw was this on Zoom?

Right, exactly.

So I talked to mostly business owners and C-Suite executives about what they're doing, what their problems are, what their challenges, how they're meeting those challenges, how they run their businesses, how they get the most out of the people that they're working for, and how to hire and retain good people.

It covers the range of business issues and business operation issues with the people who actually run the businesses.

- Jeff made a great point about, yeah, we're in North Jersey, we need to do more in our media coverage and examination of issues, challenges, people, businesses, in South Jersey.

And that's why this cooperative venture with NJBIZ helped us do that.

So I wanna thank Jeff, and the team at NJBIZ for making it happen.

Jeff, great working with you.

It won't, not be the last time.

- Excellent, good to see you, Steven.

- South Business, Small Jersey is what you need to know.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

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And by PSE&G, Promotional support provided by BestofNJ.com.

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