CIANJ Small Business Owners Discuss Doing Business in New Jersey with Gubernatorial Candidate Christopher Christie, 03/03/2009

Meeting is first in a series of opportunities for candidates to discuss ways to improve New Jersey’s business climate with the state’s employers

Paramus, New Jersey–Twelve small business owners met with gubernatorial candidate Christopher Christie to discuss the advantages and challenges of doing business in the Garden State, and ways to bolster the state’s business climate. Christie was a special guest of CIANJ’s CEO Roundtable, which meets regularly to discuss strategies for growing small businesses across industry sectors.

The state is feeling the effects of the national recession. From December 2007 to December 2008, New Jersey’s private sector shrank by 60,000 jobs, as the unemployment rate rose to more than 7%. The small business owners represented a cross-section of industries that have been impacted.

“This is a frightening time for small business owners, as they look for avenues out of the recession,” said CIANJ President John Galandak. “The opportunity to share their viewpoints in an open dialogue and to hear one candidate’s plan for recovery is highly-valued, and we look forward to repeating this in the future.”

Today’s meeting with Christie was the first in what the Association hopes will be a series of roundtable opportunities for business leaders to meet candidates for governor.

“We have all seen the data and forecasts, but there is no substitute for the experience that a small business owner and entrepreneur brings to the table when discussing ways to make New Jersey a more hospitable place to do business. When we emerge from this recession, discussions such as this one will help New Jersey be in the best possible position to prosper,” Galandak concluded.