Celebrities including Drew Barrymore, Zac Efron, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kim Kardashian have also given the thumbs up to Dawn Russell's 8Greens.

According to the office, the measures represent a comprehensive policy approach designed to support these operators throughout their enterprise lifecycle, including with a mentorship program, improved support and data collection, and more.

“While there has been a tightening of the belt by businesses of all sizes, they have also seen the benefit of continued innovation and technology investment to drive sales, employee engagement, and improved customer experience,” said the company's chief revenue officer for business markets and SaaS.

The Community Lending platform offers women- and minority-owned firms streamlined access to products such as payroll, commercial mortgages and merchant services, as well as a new loan qualification process.

Under the new program, the county will provide $2.5 million to local operators, with priority given to women-, minority-, veteran-and service-disabled veteran-owned enterprises.

The municipality's Neighborhood Preservation Program worked with Boom Local to create a directory that helps residents find area restaurants, stores, service providers and more.

More than 40% of consumers frequent small businesses more now than they did pre-pandemic, signaling an increase in prioritization for the sector among consumers overall.

Muvez, founded by brothers Ryan and Eric Cruz, was one of only 10 winners of the contest that received nearly 18,000 entries from small businesses across the U.S.

The Minuteman Press franchise in Westfield has been operated by Jim Mooney and his son, Seamus, since July 2018.

The agency's Small Business Innovation Research program, which chose 110 companies total in the U.S. to help advance the space program’s missions, selected proposals from Ewing, Hoboken and Mahwah firms.

Jennifer Kim is the former head of NJPIRG and spent time living in Newark while working on U.S. Sen. Cory Booker's presidential campaign in 2019 and 2020.

“We’re bringing packaging in house to keep production smooth so that we don’t have to be reliant on delayed vessels,” said Yehuda Tomor, founder of Lakewood-based Cooloo.