James Masterson, Executive Director, Greater Union Township Chamber of Commerce

James Masterson, executive director of the Greater Union Township Chamber of Commerce, spoke with Invest: about how the chamber assists new and existing businesses and the diversity of the local business community. He highlighted multiple partnerships that help its mission and discussed how the chamber connects businesses with residents.

Taking a broader look at the economy, how have ongoing changes in the market impacted the chamber?

I can say that the economy last year did not appear to affect the number of businesses that opened. We had about 60 ribbon-cuttings last year, including for businesses that marked their five-year anniversaries, and we continue to promote new businesses in numerous ways. The biggest challenge seems to be navigating the ever-changing state and local ordinances, as well as federal ones. Another challenge among the membership is recruiting and retaining qualified employees. To assist them, we’re working with our partners in the education system to link high school graduates and college graduates to these industries to prepare them for jobs. We partner with a local university that has a pool of candidates looking for positions, and I have a pool of businesses searching for employees. We do the same thing with internships, and the chamber maintains a job internship board on our website where we can post the job opportunities our members have. Our community then goes to the site, and matches are made. Additionally, the online presence of companies such as Amazon is affecting local downtown businesses. We partner with the townships we work with in bringing people to their downtowns through several innovative events, so people know what’s available. We’re not going to get the big box stores in the downtowns that we serve. What we’re going to find are niche boutique stores and restaurants. We’re trying to think smart and position smart.

What legislation or regulatory developments are being monitored that could significantly impact the chamber and its members?

There are websites that the state has that help people start and grow their businesses. It may not be the regulations themselves, but the number of steps that businesses need to take just to exist that present the real challenges, and it’s helpful to have somebody guide them through the process. Within the state, a business often has to register with different categories, such as being a female-owned, minority, veteran, or LGBTQ business. Locally, they have to pass fire inspection, facade inspection, and obtain a certificate of occupancy, all of which are important. The chamber is building a worksheet to help businesses navigate that. In addition, we partner with some nonprofits like the Senior Core of Retired Executives (SCORE), which provides services to help businesses navigate the process and develop marketing plans and business plans. There are so many things that need to be done before they can sell their product or service to the community. It can be daunting in some respects. They may also be dealing with their landlords, who may not be attentive to what was agreed on in their lease, or the lease wasn’t read correctly.  Our Chamber helps to find the resources to help. 

Which new partnerships is the chamber involved in, and how does this benefit the community?

We partner with our county. The communities we serve are primarily in Union County. Our chamber represents the chambers of Union, Kenilworth, Roselle Park, and Hillside, although we do have members from all over the state. The partnership within our county is called Union County Means Business. The county helps provide the venue and promotional opportunities to do business expos and job expos where people can find and recruit quality employees. We had an initiative over the holidays called Union County Loves Small Businesses, which highlighted local businesses for people to shop. We’ve created a map of Union, Kenilworth, and Roselle Park that is updated every three years. The map has both paper and digital versions. We release an old-fashioned paper map and an interactive online map. The paper version is still popular – we gave out thousands of them in 2022.  We do the paper version every three years, but the digital map can be updated at any time.

We’re also creating a podcast that spotlights members of the chamber through interviews called “When Business Gets Personal.” We want people to develop relationships with businesses because people like to do business with people they trust. Pricing and quality are important, but so are relationships. We want to do the same thing through their podcast, where listeners can get to know business owners and connect with them. The podcast hosts existing members and new members. Also, we recently held our multi-chamber event, which gathers 25 chambers of commerce at one venue in Union. We had more than 300 people attend and 31 businesses hosting display tables. It was a record year for us. Last year we had 20 tables, and this year we sold 31 tables, and a record number of attendees. We saw many new faces, and new faces mean new people coming and opening businesses.

How does the chamber reflect the changing demographics of the region, and what is the importance of nurturing a diverse and equal business community?

Union is one of the five most diverse communities in New Jersey. We have 30+ languages spoken in the area. We’re holding our annual gala, our big dinner gathering every year, and the theme this year is diversity. In the 1980s, Union Township was essentially made up of three ethnic groups. Now, we have 10 times that. The challenge is that many of the cultures moving in are not familiar with the concept of a chamber of commerce. We have to ensure that with every member we recruit, we hold a special one-on-one meeting explaining exactly what we offer to our members and how it benefits their business. It also means our membership brochures and marketing information must be translated into other languages. We have a Spanish translation and are looking to offer translation in other languages. 

We do research on grants and loan opportunities for minority communities, as well as grants for women-owned businesses and LGBTQ-owned businesses. I’ve been a part of the chamber a long time, and “back in the day,” people used to join for the social aspect. Now, dues-paying members are looking closely for a return on their dues investment. Many businesses fall into the trap of focusing only on the bottom line. Of course, that is important, but it’s not all about the bottom line. Being a good human being matters. And the community likes to support those who share their values. For us, half of the chamber’s board members are women. 25% of our members are minority-owned and operated. As the leader of this Chamber, I share that I believe that being a humanitarian comes first, and being a businessperson comes second.  Not all will agree with me, but our experience here certainly proves that is true.

Where do you see the greatest opportunities for the chamber and Greater Union Township’s economy for the next two to three years?

We are seeing a huge influx in home-based businesses. People are returning to work, but there is a large number who are not, and they are willing to quit their jobs and go somewhere else because they want to work remotely. I prefer in-person contact, which offers a connection you don’t get through email or virtual conferences, but that is just me. As we see the increase in home-based businesses, we are trying to offer them support services in the same way as brick-and-mortar companies. Our facility has a board room, meeting space, kitchen space and restrooms, so for those people who don’t want to bring clients into their homes but don’t want to rent an office, we have space they can use. This is just one example.  Also, we DO have ribbon cuttings for home-based businesses – we just do it differently!

For example, one of our members, The Islamic Center of Union County, always opens its rooms for businesses who need more meeting space than I can provide. Many of our banks do that as well. As I mentioned, I’m seeing a whole service industry sparking up for people who are doing business with no physical address, which makes publishing our map challenging. If a business doesn’t have a physical address, we use the chamber address and direct people back to the business. We also emphasize their online presence. Additionally, artificial intelligence is front and center in our minds. Right now, we see a large company coming into our service area to provide research into AI and build a data center, so we are seeking more partnerships within the data and tech industries. I’m fortunate to be surrounded by people who do have the knowledge, and I’m learning a lot. We’re surrounding ourselves with the new generation that understands newer technology and can guide older people to be able to respond to emerging needs.