- Hi everyone, this is Steve Adubato.

You know that 'cause you watch us on a regular basis.

This program is all about South Jersey business.

What's next?

We're doing this program with leaders in the South Jersey business community.

We're doing this program in cooperation with our colleagues, our media colleagues at NJ Biz.

It is my honor to introduce all three guests.

Max Gomez is the owner of Amp'd Fitness located in Brielle and Belmar.

Max, I got that right?

- That's correct.

- You got it.

Christina Renna is President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey.

Welcome, Christina.

- Thank you for having me Steve.

- You got it.

And Karen Primak is the CEO of IPAK located in Camden.

Welcome, Karen.

- Thank you for having me Steve.

- You got it.

You're gonna see information up on the screen also.

The NJ Biz website will be up so you can find out more about what is going on in the business community in the state.

That's the job of NJ Biz.

Christina, let me ask you this.

If we were doing a program on small business in New Jersey, would it be any different?

Or how would it be any different than a program on small business in Southern New Jersey?

- South Jersey has so many advantages that so often the rest of the state doesn't actually recognize or realize.

You know, Steve, at the end of the day, we all know that New Jersey's a very high tax state, that the tax climate in the state of New Jersey is not ideal necessarily for businesses, small, medium, large, you name it.

However, in South Jersey we are a little bit more affordable down this end of the state.

And therefore as a potential business owner getting looks from businesses that maybe we never got before as a result.

- Again, but we're gonna be talking about labor shortage issues, some supply.

People go, oh yeah, supply chain thing, we're done with that, eh.

- We are not done with that.

We are not done with that.

- Not only that, but we're also gonna be talking about hiring people, keeping people, a whole range of issues.

By the way, Max, let's do this because your background is fascinating.

You are the owner.

How many gyms are we talking about now, Max?

- It's two and I have a small training room in Manasquan.

- How'd you get into it?

- So it's three.

- I've always loved fitness.

I used to wrestle in high school and middle school.

I was an avid motocross racer, actually from the age of four all the way to just a couple of years ago really.

And then I had a pretty traumatic accident when I was 18 where I lost my right leg actually from below the knee down.

And at the time I was just kind of coming outta the hospital and I was real skinny and not happy with where I was at obviously.

And then I just kind of built myself back up, went back into the gym and just developed this love and I've always wanted to have a gym.

And now it's pretty cool.

We got a couple of them and it's just been an awesome rollercoaster ride.

We've been open for a little over two years and I wouldn't change a single thing.

- Hold on, Max.

Before I go to Karen.

You opened up during the pandemic.

- Yeah, actually I started doing workouts outside of people's houses and I didn't even really know what I was doing but just kind of figured it out as I went.

And then once it got too cold to do outside stuff I opened up my first small one in Manasquan that we have, it's kind of the training room now.

And then we went to Brielle and now we're opening a third one, I guess in Belmar.

- Before I go to Karen, Christine, help me on this.

You can talk about the role of the chamber in a second but I'm curious as I listen to Max, as an entrepreneur myself obviously much older than Max, I gotta tell you I've often thought that entrepreneurs are a little bit crazy.

I shouldn't use the word crazy, but there's something wrong with us.

Meaning we do things like, Max is more courageous than I would ever be, opened up a business in the middle of the pandemic.

The level of grit, courage, determination, a tenacity that just does not exist in most people.

Am I making too much of that, Christina?

- No, you gotta be willing to take the leap, right?

You gotta be willing to take the jump.

And the best entrepreneurs aren't scared of making big choices, big decisions that maybe normal people wouldn't necessarily make.

- We're not saying that Max is not normal, what we're saying is.

- Not at all.

We're saying Max is inspiring.

We're saying Max is inspiring.

- Max, you just inspired a lot of people not just to work out frankly, but to do more than that.

Karen, tell us about your business please.

- Yeah, so IPAK has been around since 1993.

We provide printing, packaging and value added 3PL services for customers in highly regulated industries like healthcare and education, assessments where there's a zero defect mentality.

- Okay, but let me follow up.

We talked about Max opening up during the pandemic, starting this business during the pandemic.

In your own way, you made a decision to do something, I don't know if it's courageous or not, but it's important.

You chose to locate in Camden, New Jersey that is one of the poorest communities in the United States of America.

Why did you choose to do that?

- Well, I was brought up to believe that we all have a part to play in the world.

And being raised in Camden County, I always loved the city of Camden.

I saw its potential, we were employing a lot of residents from Camden prior to moving there.

And we wanted to be closer to our workforce so that when a single mom gets a phone call from a school, they can run right over and see their kid.

- Talk about your employees.

They're from the community, are they not?

- Yeah, over 60% of our employees are from the community and we're also partnering with organizations within the community.

For example, I don't know if we'd be doing work with Cooper Hospital had we not moved to Camden.

We were forced to be closer during the pandemic.

Unfortunately, 5% of our employees were in respirators right in the beginning of the pandemic.

- 5% on respirators.

- Yeah, they're all back.

They're all healthy now.

But it was honestly my years, my decades of being that crazy entrepreneur, that was the craziest time keeping everybody safe.

And had it not been for people like Christina helping us navigate or NJ MEP to help us keep our doors open.

- What is that acronym for?

- The New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program.

- Okay.

- So being allowed to stay open, even though our revenue was reduced by 50%, was still critical.

- Right.

- For our organization.

- You know, Christina, as Karen talks about the role of government, the role of the chamber, help us understand this A, the role of the chamber, B, the role of government, state and federal support for small business particularly over these last several years.

Please, Christina.

- Well, thank you Steve.

And we're talking about the city of Camden, so I'd be remiss if I didn't say that.

Our chamber is 150 years old this year and we were created in the city of Camden by Campbell Soup Company and RCA Victor as the Camden Board of Trade.

So in 1873, we were created as the group that was meant to really promote import exporting in the city of Camden in the late 1800s.

And here we are today, the regional business organization that has the pleasure to work with organizations like IPAK and Karen regularly.

But we are here to help push out governmental information, any programs, any assistance.

We know the people in state government that can answer our businesses that are members questions.

They pick up the phone, they call us.

We hopefully help them.

But what kind of programs are we talking about?

I know the EDA and the EDA is one of our underwriters.

I know the EDA is involved but there are others and there's federal money.

The CARES Act money mattered, right?

Please, I'm sorry, - Yes.

- Christina, I interrupted you.

Go ahead.

- No, it sure did.

Federal government was huge.

The majority, the vast majority of our 1100 members at the South Jersey Chamber took out PPP Loans, CARES Act money.

The influx of federal dollars is tremendous and we're certainly reaping the benefits of that here in the state of New Jersey.

And we've seen the Murphy administration as a result of that, do some creative things, standing up programs predominantly through the EDA to help small businesses navigate 2020, 2021.

And now we're in a different phase of navigation where the challenges are different than they were.

But as a result of that federal assistance coming through, we do have a wide variety of resources available to businesses if they're able to take advantage of that.

- But at the same time, I appreciate what you're saying about the Murphy administration.

You can take a look at some of the interviews we've done with some other folks who do not feel that the Murphy administration has done enough for a business, small business or otherwise.

But I'm curious about this, New Jersey taxes.

Christina talked about the affordability in Southern New Jersey.

It's a relative thing, Christina.

- It is.

- I mean, I imagine it's not as bad as it is up here in terms of affordability but I have to ask you Max, when some folks are saying, I don't wanna be in New Jersey because of the cost of doing business, the taxes, the regulations, et cetera, you say what?

- I think that that subject is kind of, it's a relative thing.

Being that obviously the area that I live in here in the Jersey Shore, it's not a cheap area to live.

- Not cheap.

- Not at all.

But I think everything kind of plays together in a sense of, okay well you can charge more for your service than some other areas.

I mean, my one gym in Brielle, Brielle's a small city, but there is a ton of million dollar homes in there.

So $180 gym membership, you can kind of get away with things like that.

You can charge higher.

- You may not be, I'm sorry for interrupting you.

You may not.

- That's okay.

- Not may not, you'd likely not be able to do that in Camden.

- Right.

But what about the employee part of it, Max?

'Cause I hear from so many business leaders, small business and otherwise can't get people.

What about you?

- Yeah, that's actually, so like I said, I just opened actually we open next Monday, our other location in Belmar.

And one of my biggest issues is finding, thank you, is finding people to work.

It's just, the resumes come in and you try to get people to follow up and people are just kind of here or there.

I mean, I've always been a hustler and I like to get after it.

And when I want something, I will bother people 'till no end 'till I get what I want.

- That's called an entrepreneur.

- Yeah, I guess that's what you call it.

And it just seems like it, I can't, really have a hard time finding people that are like that, that want to hustle.

I'm lucky, I do have some employees that are on my team that are great, but just the growing aspect in terms of staffing has been, I won't say a nightmare, but it's definitely not easy.

- No.

Karen, jump in here.

Where from your perspective, where is the supply chain situation and how does it impact small business in southern Jersey, please, Karen?

- I think it's small businesses throughout the country.

Supply chain issues, inflation, we are still facing an unprecedented time.

So we're not able, we have to turn down jobs because we don't have the materials to manufacture something.

And I learned in business school, it's just kind of business 101, don't overpromise and underdeliver.

- It's the other way around, isn't it?

You overdeliver - Right, and under promise.

and under promise.

- Yes, yeah.

- But the supply chain issue's real, correct?

- It's very much real.

So we could be quoting a job today and we go to buy the materials three days from now and they're not available or the price has gone up.

Recycled paper is great to use but there's been a shortage of recycled paper.

So there's a trade off.

Do you want something printed that isn't on recycled paper or not at all?

- What are some of the other most pressing issues for business owners, small business owners in South Jersey?

Christina, please.

- Inflation of course.

I mean we're starting to see that settle a tiny bit but not much, Steve.

Not much.

- How does it impact?

I'm sorry for interrupting, be more specific about how inflation and forget about politicians arguing about inflation because we don't know what's real and what's rhetoric, what's real for a small business when it comes to inflation in Southern Jersey, please, Christina?

- What's real is that small businesses operate on slim margins, period.

So any price increase is going to impact their margins and may get harder and harder to do business in the state of New Jersey.

That's just a fact.

So whether or not inflation is getting better moderately, it doesn't matter.

At the end of the day, small businesses need price stabilization in order to continue to be successful if they wanna continue operating and it's just something that is very real regardless of what politicians say on either side of the aisle.

- Yeah.

With the few minutes we have left, I wanna uncover a couple other areas.

And real quick a recap if you could Christina.

The government program, state and federal, correct, or more state for Southern New Jersey business?

- It's a combination, Steve, it's a combination.

Federal government has absolutely stepped up to the plate as they should.

We have an influx of COVID cash that is sitting there.

And same with the state.

However, the state has been sitting on a massive amount of federal dollars that is yet to be spent that we would certainly like to see that spent on the small business community here in south New Jersey.

- Okay, so in that regard, how is Governor Murphy and his administration doing as it relates to utilizing those federal dollars for business, small business in Southern Jersey?

- You know, to date, he's done a good job, 2020, 2021.

However, I'll say that not enough has been done.

Not enough has been done to help our most vulnerable businesses, which is our small businesses, our mainstream businesses, our minority owned businesses, our women owned businesses, our businesses in urban centers.

Not enough has been done.

EDA and Governor Murphy have the best of intentions.

- Economic Development Authority.

- But at the end of the day we need more money out on the street to assist them.

- What do you mean out on the street?

Make that clear what you mean.

- So we need money allocated to certain programs for small businesses.

Then we need the application process to be a process that is simple and easy for small businesses to navigate and that we need awards or denials in some case, but we need awards out on the street in a timely manner too.

Time is money for small businesses and that's something that government has to do a better job of realizing.

- We got a minute and a half left.

Max, let me ask you something.

If you knew then what you know now, being a entrepreneur and a small business owner, opening up during the pandemic, would you still have done it?

- Oh, absolutely.

I'm the type of person that I like to worry about the things I can control and there's a lot of things that I cannot control such as the conversations that we're having here at least to my extent.

And if inflation and things are tough and people are holding onto money and people want to save, that just means that I just gotta be that much of a better salesman and offer a better product that I gotta be able to find a way to make it happen.

So yeah, I would not change anything.

- Karen, you're smiling.

Got a minute left.

Your reaction to that, Karen?

- I think it's wonderful.

Talk to me after 30 years.

(laughs) - Hold on Karen.

You can end on any note you want, but are you saying?

- No, no, no.

- If you had a mulligan in golf, you get another shot.

If you have a mulligan, you'd do it again?

- I'd absolutely do it again.

I might do things differently, right?

- Join the club.

- Yeah, yeah.

- But you would still do it.

Be a small business owner.

- Absolutely.

- In Southern Jersey.

- Business owners are rebels that refuse to accept the status quo.

So that is my theory.

I'll forever be a rebel.

My home is New Jersey and I'm a rebel here.

- Southern New Jersey, South Jersey small business, what's next?

I don't know what's next but I can tell you what it is right now.

And that's because of Max and Karen and also Christina Renna, President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey.

Cannot thank all of you enough.

And our colleagues at NJ Biz, we wanna thank them as well.

We really appreciate it.

- Thank you, Steve.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Thank you Steve.

- Here's to small business in South Jersey.

See you next time.

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

Funding has been provided by Wells Fargo.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

Delta Dental of New Jersey.

NJM Insurance Group.

Choose New Jersey.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

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

And by Insider NJ.

- (Narrator) Life is full of changes.

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