- May 1, 2024
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More than 60 companies set up booths Friday, Oct. 7, for Palm Coast’s first Business Assistance Expo.
Husband and wife Steve and Nancy Calcavecchia stood behind a display table lined with business cards and brochures Friday, Oct. 7, at Palm Coast’s first Business Assistance Expo, at the Hammock Beach Resort. They, like 64 other attending business owners who reserved booths at the event, hoped to attract attention to their Flagler-based company.
After working 30 years in construction out of state, the couple moved to Flagler in 2010 to start their own business, Distinctive Architectural Woodworking LLC. They visited SCORE for consultation, joined leads and networking groups, as well as the Flagler County Chamber of Commerce & Affiliates.
Still, building a name in a new city proved harder than expected.
Through their attendance at the expo, though, Business Assistance Center Area Manager Joe Roy believes the couple is on the right track.
“It gives everybody that’s here credibility,” Roy said of the expo. “(Business owners) will receive more recognition in eight hours here then they would in four months on their own.”
Palm Coast Senior Economic Development Planner Beau Falgout estimated an attendance of 135 business owners at the event, based on the number of floor and luncheon passes sold.
“It’s about showcasing,” Roy said, pointing to elected officials milling up and the down the aisles, talking with entrepreneurs. “You don’t have to go outside of Flagler County to find quality companies.”
There are currently about 4,000 small businesses operating in Flagler County, Roy said, adding that for every $100 spent locally, $65 stays in local circulation. If each company could be strengthened, he added, and hire just one extra employee each, imagine the economic impact.
The convention hall was filled with marketing and technology companies, radio stations, established firms and startups, each jockeying for position in the local business community.
While larger companies such as Palm Coast Data and Lohman Funeral Homes attended in an effort to push their brands, companies such as Garry Peterson & Associates LLC were in a position similar to the Calcavecchias. Although Peterson has been in the consulting game for more than a decade, his Palm Coast-based company was only two weeks old.
“All I’m trying to do is establish my reputation,” he said. “It’s all I have.”
Peterson is now working with the BAC as a strategic planner.
“I’m in survival mode,” admitted School Board member Andy Dance, who won a free booth from Office Divvy, for his landscaping service. He, like husband and wife Ed and Carole Hartunian, of Leisure Time Outdoor Products LLC, believes that success is all about exposure.
Grilling sausage and pineapple in a booth toward the back of the hall, the Hartunians have been in business since 1998. But they’ve only been Palm Coast residents a year.
“We want people to buy local, and keep the business here,” Carole Hartunian said. “There’s a lot of opportunity out there … It’s just getting in that’s the hard part.”
BUSINESS EXCELLENCE AWARDS
Palm Coast Observer Publisher John Walsh presented at the expo a countywide initiative to recognize business excellence in the community. Through partnerships with the Flagler County Chamber of Commerce & Affiliates, SCORE, the Center for Business Excellence, Daytona State College, Flagler County Public Schools and the Young Professionals Group of Flagler County, the “Standing O” Awards Campaign will recognize businesses which best promote economic development in Flagler.
According to Walsh, an objective business-performance matrix will be used to score participating companies on overall performance, labor force, customer satisfaction and business outlook for the following year. Interns from DSC, Flagler schools and elsewhere will be recruited, trained and deployed to collect and report performance data.
Enrollment for consideration in the 2012 campaign will run from January to March next year; field interviews will be conducted April to June; reporting and scoring will be completed July to September; and awards will be given at the second-annual BAC Business Expo, in 2012.
