With no main street to stroll for shopping like neighboring Moorestown or nearby Haddonfield, Mt. Laurel’s small businesses operate a little differently.
To bring them together, Doug Bohrer, a resident for more than 20 years, founded the Mt. Laurel Business Network at the start of 2011.
In recent days, membership has exploded to approximately 60 paid members from the township’s small businesses.
From the deli to bagel shop to hairdresser or real estate agent, the network strives to represent its members.
“Our network was founded on living in Mt. Laurel,” Bohrer said. “We try really to refer business to each other.”
As the community is spread out, people connect on such places as the back to school events and on the soccer and baseball fields, he explained.
“We don’t have a Haddonfield or a Moorestown or a Palmyra or a Haddon Heights,” he said. “We don’t have anything like that.”
“We don’t have a place where people tend to meet.”
At the network’s meetings, which happen every 70 to 80 days, the atmosphere is informal and light.
“It’s more of a hand-shaking conversation,” he said. “It’s very, very, very informal.”
For 45 minutes to an hour, the members chat about their businesses and share stories.
Later, a guest speaker takes the floor.
In the past, Congressman Jon Runyan and Mt. Laurel Mayor Jim Keenan have addressed the group.
Topics have included how to save money on energy and how businesses can protect themselves against certain disasters.
“We try to bring something to the table every single meeting,” Bohrer explained, in hopes to affect at least one person in attendance.
The network currently charges $50 per year to join.
“There’s a lot of small businesses,” he said, with many in clusters. “It’s just getting the word out.”
Ramblewood Country Club has provided facilities for the meetings and the group tries to give back to the community by donating to local charities.
So far, the network has hosted four shredding events of which the senior citizens of the township eagerly await, said Bohrer.
More than ten tons of personal documents have already been shredded through those events, he added. The next is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 21 at the country club.
“Our challenge has been to grow at a faster pace,” he said.
A website is currently being built and the network has a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/MtLaurelBusinessNetwork.
To boost membership interest and to learn about the area, the network will be hosting a “Meet Mt. Laurel Night” at Paulsdale, 128 Hooton Road, Mt. Laurel, on Sept. 21 at 6 p.m. at a cost of $5 to members and $10 to nonmembers.
So far, Bohrer said attendance commitments have been secured by Lenape Regional High School District, the area fire company, Mayor Keenan and the Municipal Utilities Authority.
“It’s a great historic place,” he said of the Alice Paul Institute.
The network has grown from a handful of people to its current state through word of mouth.
“We have a lot of people coming that heard about it through a friend,” he said. “It’s going to be a great group going forward.”
Small businesses, he said, are the backbones of communities.
“There’s other fragmented groups within South Jersey,” he explained. “There’s nothing that basically says, ‘We are Mt. Laurel.’”
Through the group, that should be changing.
To contact Doug Bohrer for additional information, call (609) 636–1796 or email dbohrer.mtlaurelbusinessnetwork@gmail.com.
