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Buy Camden 1st Has Hooked Up City's Small Firms to Large Ones
Camden-LAEDA Initiative Completing Its First Year
CAMDEN – Raymond L. Lamboy, who was involved with his father's Lamboy Furniture Company in Camden, says the retailer could have benefited from the “matchmaking experience” that he is involved with leading today.
For a year, Lamboy – now president and CEO of the LAEDA economic development nonprofit – has been one of the leaders of the Buy Camden 1st initiative, which he says could have boosted revenue at the business his father, Candelario Lamboy, founded in 1970 and sold 35 years later.
The initiative, backed by LAEDA and Mayor Victor Carstarphen, puts the names and services of Camden's small businesses in front of the city's biggest businesses, suggesting they buy Camden for everything from flowers to employee lunches to computer networks.
Lamboy's business philosophy: You've got to get on base to score a run.
Getting on base involves just getting noticed by the larger companies and nonprofits in the city. That's being done through the Buy Camden 1st website that features a directory of Camden businesses eager to provide goods and services.
Lamboy said 132 businesses are listed in the website's business directory and 57 have been verified as Camden businesses that have the capacity to sell to larger businesses. Each firm is rated as one of three tiers, based on the amount of business they would be able to handle.
Buy Camden 1st has registered pledges from 27 larger companies in Camden to do business with the small businesses whenever possible, said Kathleen Davis, a principal with DiLorenzo Davis Consulting, which the city hired to get Buy Camden 1st started.
Davis and her business partner, Debra DiLorenzo, spent 25 years running the South Jersey Chamber of Commerce, bringing businesses together before leaving in 2019.
“We're trying to reach a wide variety of businesses,” Davis told TAPinto Camden in an interview.
Added DiLorenzo: “It's been a year of just pounding the drum.”
Buying from Camden's small businesses is easier, because they are in town, and it is the right thing to do, Davis said.
As the team builds the directory of Camden businesses, the other goal is to expose those businesses to large companies, purchasing people and administrative assistants who do much of the ordering.
This summer, the team launched a business of the week featured in an email blast and on the website. About 75 of the email recipients are purchasing and procurement professionals at the larger companies.
Davis credited Campbell's with hosting periodic bazaars featuring eight to 10 small businesses. Employees can visit the companies' tables and buy products that include flowers, cookies and chocolate. The bazaar also exposes the business to the employees.
She said Buy Camden 1st is trying to get other large Camden companies to offer similar bazaars.
Additional Info
Source : https://www.tapinto.net/towns/camden/sections/business-and-finance/articles/connections-buy-camden-1st-has-hooked-up-city-s-small-firms-to-large-ones
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