Connecting People: the Mableton Business Exchange

With community revitalization as the agenda and through the tireless efforts of three dedicated individuals, the Mableton Business Exchange, or MBE for short, is slowly but surely bringing local business owners together for the common good.

Ground work for the creation of MBE began early in 2010 when Deborah Flanagan, Jeff Gannaway of Clear Image Printing and Melissa Banks of MLB Business Solutions decided to take the economic downturn by the horns and turn in the direction of community caring and reciprocity between local residents and merchants.

For six months, Flanagan, who is the current president of MBE, used every opppurtunity to talk to businesses all around Cobb County. Come to Mableton for networking. The reaction at first was "What's a Mableton?" Flanagan told them to come and find out. They did.

"We had input from the best networkers in Cobb County," Flanagan said.

“When I approached Christian Echeverry, owner of Mexico Lindo, about having the first meeting at his restaurant, his immediate reaction was a resounding yes. Since that moment he has been one of the biggest supporters of MBE,” Flanagan said.

One of the main objectives of MBE is to create a greater sense of business and social cohesion between the MBE member base and the local community. The organization board members also hope to promote active participation of businesses in and outside of Mableton.

As of now, there are over 50 businesses interacting within the MBE network.

Flanagan said the reason many of the participating businesses are from East and West Cobb "may be because businesses in this area don’t really see the need for networking if they are still bringing in some sort of income. Some businesses haven’t had to actively work on making themselves known. If you keep doing what you’re doing though, you’re going to keep getting what you’re getting. Motivation is the key.”

Since moving here with her family from Atlanta at the tender age of 3, Flanagan has seen a lot of changes in Mableton. She reminisced how most of Veterans Memorial Parkway was nothing but large wooded areas with one post office and the main attraction being the Barnes Hardware store.

“A lot of businesses have come and gone in my years here, and I want to know that I’ve done everything possible to keep Mableton’s economy growing for the betterment of the neighborhood.” Flanagan sometimes works 12 to 14 hours a day and travels near and far promoting the MBE network.

Flanagan’s efforts have certainly been paying off as seen through several successful after-hours business mixers held throughout the final months of 2010.

“The first mixer we held in October,"  Flanagan said, "we had about 60 people show up. In November we had about 40, but December was the biggest one by far. We had people that traveled from as far away as Woodstock to attend the event we held at the Family Life Restoration Center. The attendees were asked to bring donations for the center, and it was great to see such a showing of support.”

MBE has since been tidying up the details in order to officially start their membership drive. An annual membership cost $50. The organization will soon be a self-supporting, nonprofit business group with business members representing a diverse area of expertise.

“South Cobb businesses have been suffering and all it takes is one hour a week to connect with others and find a common ground of support. We owe it to ourselves as a community to help each other," Flanagan said. "It's all about the relationships that can be created through talking and connecting with other people who are facing the same situations all week. All we need now is more South Cobb partcipation come out to our meetings. They happen often check for event posts on Patch.

"This organization is comminted to a better tomorrow for South Cobb, and it's must do for any business. This is only going to keep growing," said Flanagan.