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Small Business Comeback Tour: Bagels by Jarrett
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
WEST ORANGE, NJ (WCBS 880) – Jarrett Seltzer tapped into a “cult” following of bagel lovers.
Just before the pandemic, Seltzer started giving away his homemade bagels out of his home kitchen.
“I decided to make a dozen bagels and post (on Facebook) that I had them and give them out,” he said. “I said to everyone the rule is you get one bagel, you have to post a review about it and you have to pay it forward somehow in town.”
Seltzer told Joe Connolly on the WCBS Small Business Comeback Tour, sponsored by PSE&G, the response was overwhelming. He opened a pop-up shop where he continued to give away bagels to gain a following before opening his business about two years later in West Orange.
“We are absolutely continuing to grow by word of mouth,” he said, pointing to a fall surge in bagel sales.
Seltzer said growth accelerated when they were forced to do curbside only in the pandemic and discovered how they would separate themselves from other bagel shops. Bagels by Jarrett added sliders and fried chicken sandwiches with bagels, which became big hits among their regular customers.
“It’s almost this interesting cult of people that love food and I don’t put anything out that isn’t incredible,” he said.
Bagels by Jarrett is expanding its kitchen in January and will add dinner takeout service.
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92nd Street Y Goes Global with Success of Virtual Events
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — This iconic New York cultural institution has amassed a worldwide following after making the digital pivot.
The 92nd Street Y drew 5 million viewers in all 50 states plus 200 countries for its various online programs in the last year. In a typical pre-pandemic year, about 300,000 people would walk through its Upper East Side doors.
“The trick was to increase interactivity to make sure that people felt that the person that they were watching was in some way responding to them,” said Seth Pinsky, CEO of 92nd Street Y. “The way I like to describe it is that we went from competing with YouTube with videos that talked ‘to’ our audience to eventually finding our own version of these videos by creating programming that spoke ‘with’ our audience and that really was, I think, the key to our success.”
On the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank, Pinsky told Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso 92Y tried new ways of doing virtual programs until they discovered how to differentiate themselves from the steep competition.
“I don’t think that every production necessarily has to be top top quality,” he said. “I think really it’s the combination of a level of quality that’s high enough that it’s not distracting to people, but again, it’s those extra intangible elements like the creation of community that when added to that are what I think pull audiences in, and over time, keep them.”
The 92nd Street Y has a full slate of original programs, classes and performances. Some of them are now exclusively virtual for their global audience even though the center in Manhattan is back open after being shut down during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The idea of creating content and just giving it away was something that over the long-run, we realized, wouldn’t be sustainable. And so, in some cases, we started to put our programming behind a paywall, and, amazingly, what we found was that our audience was willing to pay for the content,” said Pinsky.
He told WCBS 880 that roughly 60 percent of the 92nd Street Y’s new paying virtual audience members are from outside the New York Metropolitan Area and live in all parts of the world.
“Suddenly we realized that we were no longer just a New York institution, we were truly a global institution,” Pinsky said.
See how to make virtual events better and engage new customers through quality digital content on the Small Business Spotlight video above.
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Small Business Comeback Tour: BrownMill Company
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEWARK, NJ (WCBS 880) – This small business has created a local lifestyle brand and an experience in Downtown Newark.
Justis Pitt-Goodson told Joe Connolly business is “booming” at BrownMill Company since opening a retail location at 49 Halsey St. in June.
On the WCBS Small Business Comeback Tour, sponsored by PSE&G, Pitt-Goodson explained they had built their online brand over the last 12 years, but it was always a dream of his to have a brick-and-mortar store. He took advantage of lower rents during the COVID-19 pandemic and set up shop.
“The community came out and supported and it’s been up from there,” said Pitt-Goodson.
Connolly pointed out it seems the custom tailor has a local barbershop feel where customers come to hang out.
“People consider it a hub of creativity and a place of inspiration,” Pitt-Goodson said.
Part of that inspiration comes from within. The recent Rutgers University graduate is motivated by his father to pay success forward, so BrownMill Company was founded as a social enterprise.
The company co-sponsors Giving 1/10th – a community garden in Newark that aims to increase access to fresh and organic vegetables for local residents. BrownMill Company also hosts weekly basketball camps in Pitt-Goodson’s hometown of Piscataway.
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Small Business Comeback Tour: Child’s Play Challenge Courses
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
SCOTCH PLAINS, NJ (WCBS 880) – There’s no obstacle this couple can’t crush.
Lauren and Matt Borawski from Scotch Plains, Union County are the founders of Child’s Play Challenge Courses, which designs portable obstacle courses for people ages 2 and up. They’ve become the toast of kids’ birthday parties, but they also run programs for adults and special needs individuals of all physical abilities.
“We didn’t want to compete with all of the other ninja gyms,” Lauren told Joe Connolly. “We come to you.”
On the WCBS Small Business Comeback Tour, sponsored by PSE&G, the couple explained how they pivoted to meet demand for COVID-safe outdoor experiences. One of those pivots included setting up obstacle courses at summer camps that kept kids in a so-called bubble to prevent the virus from spreading among unvaccinated age-groups.
“We go right to the schools, we go right to the camps,” said Lauren who has 30 years of experience in event planning and as a TV operations manager.
Her husband, Matt, designs the courses, and as a certified personal trainer, he leads their exercise programs.
Child’s Play Challenge Courses is now operating in seven states and the Borawskis are looking to franchise the business as they finish their strongest year in terms of revenue despite the pandemic.
“We’ve had over 100,000 people crushing our courses and that’s what’s so great and so unique about us is that we go to wherever this event, party, school, function is.”
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New Businesses Flock to Flatiron District as BID Expands in January
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The Flatiron District is seeing growing interest from a variety of new companies looking to set up shop in New York.
In total, 70 businesses have expressed interest or signed new leases since July 2020, according to the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership.
“We’ve seen a continuing trend of tech, media/info organizations,” said Executive Director James Mettham. “We’ve also seen the start of a life science hub on Park Avenue South, which was invested in before the pandemic. It’s all towards this diversifying of the economy and strengthening our neighborhoods.”
Mettham told Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank, that the business improvement district (BID) is stronger 20 months after the COVID-19 pandemic hit New York because it is no longer relying on one type of tenant or industry for the viability of its neighborhoods.
“We’re not a one industry town anymore,” he said.
Office occupancies in the Flatiron District are about 30 percent of pre-pandemic levels. The Delta wave pumped the breaks on the return to the office this fall. Now, the target is early next year for many companies.
“You have a lot of people, employees, that have found a way to make the most of working from their homes and are comfortable in doing that. At the same time, I think everyone sees the value in coming back together in a creative environment that’s not just confined to the walls that you’re in, but just, the air that you breathe in a neighborhood like Flatiron and NoMad where there’s just an abundance of like-minded organizations/companies that are the future of the kind of the digital economy,” said Mettham.
The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership is nearly doubling its footprint in January after the New York City Council approved their expansion proposal to cover 20th Street, the Sixth Avenue gateway to the district, and more of NoMad.
“The core quality of life work that we bring to the table, and actually, to set the table for more vibrancy through commercial and business growth will be brought to the streets inside of NoMad,” said Mettham, continuing, “That means there are supplemental cleaning services, that means there are public safety officers on the beat working with our city agencies, homeless outreach as well, and then, marketing, concerted marketing and district promotions for the business community that resides in this greater footprint.”
The New York business leader noted the Flatiron District’s Instagram page that promotes local businesses has grown above 27,000 followers.
BIDs play an important role in supporting local businesses, and in Mettham’s words, “uplifting” families and communities. They can be a great resource for business owners when considering renting, expanding or finding new clients in specific neighborhoods. The Flatiron BID executive director told WCBS 880 he takes a hyperlocal approach to economic development.
“With jobs, with business entrepreneurship, innovation, mixed in with important public realm improvements like our NoMad Piazza and our slow streets on 23rd and 21st and Broadway – all of that comes together and creates a special mix where commerce can grow and people – as we’ve seen in New York City over the past two decades – want to live, work, and play, and visit,” Mettham said.
Watch the WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above for more on how the Flatiron District is rebuilding for the post-pandemic future.
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