BUFFALO, N.Y. — Nick Fattey says owning a small business can sometimes feel like you're in the trenches.
"I don't think people realize how hard it is right now. There's so many different things that happen that you have to change every year," he said, standing outside Fattey Beer Company's location on Genesee Street in Buffalo. "Small businesses, we don't have that safety net that other folks do."
Now for the first time, his bottleshop and taproom will be able to join and tap into resources from the Buffalo Niagara Partnership for free.
"This hyper small entrepreneurial space, we've never done really well in," President and CEO Dottie Gallagher said. "We really felt we wanted to represent all employers in the region, both profit and not-for-profit, and this was sort of an easy way to make that happen."
The new membership, rolled out in honor of National Small Business Week, is called BNPro Free.
Businesses with 5 or fewer employees, and all independently owned restaurants qualify.
"They can be in our member directory which helps them with their SEO, they get into a portal that has all kinds of on-demand learning that they need," Gallagher explained. "We're going to do a special series just for small businesses called 5 Things You Need to Know in 25 minutes, and we're going to teach about email marketing. So there's a whole emphasis and focus on providing opportunities for those businesses to tap into the partnership's resources so that they can grow, which helps our economy."
For Nick and the Fattey Beer Company, every little bit helps to keep both the beer and the good times flowing.
"It's huge, I mean I'm always reading and learning and listening to podcasts and stuff like that and now having something in the community that we can just connect with, I never really had that before," he said. "Obviously there's different organizations that do help, but this is a big one, so excited for it."
To learn more about BNPro Free and apply to register your business, click here.