Finding passion with one’s work is something that many of us seek over a lifetime. Bernadette (Bernie) and Carol have achieved that with the founding of GPBN.
Bernie and Carol met via networking in MonmouthCounty in April 2005. Following up on the initial meeting, they agreed to have lunch to explore synergies. Bernie is a Financial Advisor for UBS and Carol is a Mortgage Consultant for Wachovia.As it turned out, they both had a desire to target the gay community but had made no valid attempt to do so. Ever since that lunch, they have been planning and working towards the development and growth of GPBN.
They decided to open up the first location in Asbury Park, the heart of the Southern NJ gay community. On Sept 5, 2005 they hosted the Grand Opening of
GPBN at Moonstruck Restaurant. Two months later GPBN was featured in the Asbury Park Press. In Jan 06 they opened the 2nd location at Sophie’s Restaurant, Somerset, NJ.
The goal of GPBN is to help build businesses for the gay and gay friendly community. GPBN provides the forum for networking to meet other business people. GPBN’s philosophy is that people like to do business with people they like and and trust. It’s all about connecting and relating.
What is networking? Networking is about connecting with other business people and understanding what other people do and how you can help them with their business- could be lead, could be a service which they are seeking e.g. promotional items for a trade show, logo development, funding, tax services etc. It’s about helping others get what they need to build business. In helping others, you begin to develop relationships and bonds and then trust follows.
In order to continue to grow the organization Bernie & Carol recognized that they had to formalize GPBN and open up the organization to membership. So in late December of 05 Gay Pride Business Network, LLC was born and a board of directors was formed. Charter Memberships began arriving in Jan. of 2006 and the organization is on its way to growing across the state. Currently Business networking meetings are held in Asbury Park and SomersetNJ, with expansion planned for the Princeton and Edison areas in the near future.
To become a part of this growing organization or for more information go to the website at http://gpbn.net!
