Two New Businesses Celebrate Grand Openings with Ribbon Cutting Ceremonies

Excerpted from Jasper County Chamber of Commerce E-Newsletter, November 7, 2011

Blue Water Boutique

Blue Water Boutique owners Lori and Greg Gantt, along with their son Clayton and daughter Lily, are surrounded by family and friends to celebrate the Grand Opening of their new business with a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. Jasper County Chamber of Commerce President, Marty Sauls and Town of Ridgeland Mayor Gary Hodges were present to assist and welcome this new business to the Town of Ridgeland. Blue Water Boutique is located at 702 Third Avenue in Ridgeland.

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Small business owners and community leaders met at the Lowcountry Council of Governments (LCOG) Office at Point South in Yemassee, S.C., on Thursday afternoon October 20. They came to witness the presentation of a USDA Rural Development Rural Business Enterprise Grant for $40,000 to the Lowcountry Small Business Hub, Inc., an independent, not-for-profit entity focused on the creation and growth of small businesses in Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties.

By Josh McCann, The Island Packet, June 30, 2011

Rick Rantilla is convinced his invention can succeed.

He's less certain how to market it.

That's why Rantilla, a resident of greater Bluffton who makes patent-pending cabinets that encourage kids to put away toys before getting out new ones, is among the first clients to enter the Lowcountry Small Business Hub's virtual business incubator.

Hardeeville Today, June 3, 2011

The owners of four high-potential small businesses presented their business plans to members of the Business Incubator Client Advisory Board May 18, the final step in the selection process to the Virtual Business Incubator, a program supported by the Lowcountry Small Business Hub.

The hub is designed to help start-up and early stage businesses develop into long-term and growing businesses that create jobs in and diversity the local economies of Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties. The incubator will provide training, mentoring and expert support to small businesses that are accepted as clients.