Indian River Magazine Inc. President and Publisher Gregory Enns, and Florida Small Business Development Center Regional Director Tom Kindred Jr.

Indian River Magazine Inc. President and Publisher Gregory Enns, left, and Florida Small Business Development Center Regional Director Tom Kindred Jr. teamed up to launch Treasure Coast Business. SUSAN KLEIN

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Treasure Coast Business, a quarterly magazine whose mission is to give business leaders, owners and operators a snapshot of the Treasure Coast economic environment to enable them to make decisions that maintain and grow their businesses.

This first issue was produced through a unique private/public partnership between Indian River Magazine Inc. and the Florida Small Business Development Center at Indian River State College, headed by Tom Kindred Jr.

With newspapers throughout the country scaling back their local business news over the last decade, Tom and I had been discussing for years a way to help fill in the gap and serve the local business community.

Utilizing my background as an entrepreneur and former business editor and Indian River State College’s innovative assistance programs that help entrepreneurs grow their businesses, we came up with the idea to launch a local publication and website. The aim is to focus exclusively on business news and developments in the region while providing business operators with news about the resources available to help them make the best decisions on sustaining and expanding their businesses.

The enterprise we created combines the talents of the award-winning professional journalists from the Indian River Magazine staff with the business experts from the Florida Small Business Development Center who have extensive experience assisting small businesses with virtually any issue that arises.

So, in this magazine you will find a mix of news stories and features about local businesses, such as our cover story on manufacturing. Who would have thought it could make such a comeback on the Treasure Coast? Besides stories about significant business developments, you’ll also find useful stories and columns with guidance and suggestions for negotiating both common and difficult business issues. And because the Small Business Development Center is based at Indian River State College, you’ll also find useful news about available resources and developments at the college.

Through direct mail and distribution at businesses throughout the region, each issue will reach more than 5,000 business leaders, owners and operators on the Treasure Coast. Beyond this publication, we will also reach thousands on our website, TCBusiness.com, and Treasure Coast Business email newsletter that goes out weekly. You can subscribe to the print magazine and sign up for the newsletter by visiting TCBusiness.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Our distribution model ensures that the magazine and its content is broadcast beyond the local business community in hopes that businesses outside the region will find the Treasure Coast a dynamic and supportive environment in which to relocate their businesses.

Tremendous thanks go out to the county economic development councils, chambers of commerce and businesses on the Treasure Coast that have become Treasure Coast Business advertisers and helped us support our mission of bringing you this publication. We hope they and future advertisers will find Treasure Coast Business an effective means to market their goods and services to the Treasure Coast business community.

Since this is our first issue, we hope you will give us your feedback on what you find useful about the magazine and suggest topics, columns or features that we should add to our next issue, which will arrive in September. You can do this by clicking on the “Tell Us About This Issue’’ button on the website, or by reaching me at 772.940.9005 or enns@indianrivermag.com. You may also contact Tom at 772.708.3673 or tkindred@irsc.edu.

Please enjoy this issue. We look forward to hearing from you and delivering to you our next issue in September.

Treasure Coast Business is a news service and magazine published in print, via e-newsletter and online at tcbusiness.com by Indian River Magazine Inc. For more information or to report news email staff@tcbusiness.com