When times get tough, the tough get creative. Stacey Guggenheim started two creativity-based businesses with business coaching and microloan financing from UCEDC.
As of today, our loans to small businesses:
$13,021,026
Resources & Solutions for Small Business
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Our Loan Clients
Whether they’re start-ups or decades-old businesses, our clients look to UCEDC for the support they can’t find through conventional lending. We’re pleased to have helped them get through a rough period or jump on a fabulous opportunity.
Learn how the right loan at the right time made a difference for these businesses. And consider how we could help you.
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SG Decorative Painting, Monmouth Beach
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King Rehab Services Inc., Toms River
Christina King wasn’t looking for royal treatment when seeking physical therapy 10 years ago. Just some relief for her aching back. When she had trouble finding a hands-on physical therapist, she decided to open her own physical therapy practice. A microloan was the answer when her bank said no.
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InDesign Kitchens Plus, LLC, Millburn
In 2009, Costa was working as a design manager for a West Orange building supply company. But her “passion” was to own her own business. It seemed a far-away goal until her mother-in law came home one day with an article about how a UCEDC microloan helped a Montclair housewife open her downtown candy shop, Dulce.
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Just Babies Daycare LLC, Westfield
Lucy Pritzker’s childcare center had grown right out of its business plan. Clients of Just Babies Daycare, LLC were so happy there, they didn’t want to leave after babyhood.
With the help of UCEDC and its Line of Credit program, Pritzker tweaked her business plan and financed an expansion to accommodate older children. -
Ensign Ice Cream, Beachwood
Two guys, fresh out of college without full-time jobs, decide they want to build on their summer job experiences as ice-cream vendors and start their own Jersey shore ice cream operation. A microloan from UCEDC gave them the boost they needed.
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Jersey Farm Produce, Milford
A young man, armed with a degree in agricultural engineering and experience in corn flour production, leaves his home in Vera Cruz, Mexico and arrives in America looking for a better life. UCEDC helps make the dream a reality with a well-timed microloan.
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Black Rocket Productions, Freehold, NJ
When Bill Zengel bought his daughter a basic video camera for her eighth birthday, he had no idea that he was starting a business that would grow to become what he now calls "The Disney of Education." A microloan from UCEDC helped Black Rocket grow from its humble beginnings.
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Christopher’s Kitchen, Morganville
Christopher Dutka has been cooking since he was 14. His love of the kitchen came from watching as his grandmother transformed fresh food from her garden into legendary meals. He was captivated by what went on there.
Today, with help from UCEDC and its microloan program, Christopher’s Kitchen is captivating customers and budding chefs alike.
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Little Ivy Learning Center, Ridgewood
Little Ivy Learning Center needed $15,000 to expand a thriving preschool and child-care center built on nurturing young children and their families, but the reception at commercial banks was hardly warm and fuzzy. UCEDC came to the rescue with its micro loan program.
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Prep Boyz, Elizabeth NJ
Two years ago, Edward Roberts realized that the growing misery of bed bug infestation was a great business opportunity. He saw a need for preparing rooms for bug eradication, and created a business, Prep Boyz, to fill it. Roberts had the cleaning knowledge and background from his experience as a superintendent in a housing complex in Newark.
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A Toute Heure, Cranford, NJ
Andrea Carbine was studying at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan; her husband Jim was an executive with a paper company. While working on a project for school – creating a plan for a small seasonally sustainable restaurant – they realized they just might have something.
From Our Client Files
Jamie Chaves, owner of Xocolatz Café in Westfield, is living his dream thanks to hard work, mad cooking skills, and a microloan from UCEDC.
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