Accion, NYSE Euronext, and Yelp Bring Big StartUp Small Business Connections Tour to Boston

On August 22, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: NYX) will bring its NYSE Big StartUp “Small Business Connections: Marketing Meets Microfinancing” nationwide workshop tour to Boston. Hosted in coordination with Big StartUp partners Accion and Yelp, the event will provide local business owners with access to two necessary resources for growing a business: social media marketing know-how and access to capital. Boston is the fourth stop on Small Business Connections tour and 60 business owners are currently expected to attend.

During the free workshop, Yelp’s Manager of Local Business Outreach will advise on how to work with major social media platforms, provide strategies for engaging customers online and navigating the world of online reviews. Lending experts from micro-and small business lender Accion, which has provided 3,600 loans in the Boston area since 1991, will demonstrate how to develop a marketing strategy and finance marketing costs with an Accion microloan. Both Yelp business outreach staff and Accion loan consultants will be present to answer questions and offer personalized consultations to participants.

Additionally, Accion client Jessie Banhazl of Green City Growers will share her experience and offer advice on how social media has grown her business. Green City Growers is a green company that builds, installs, and maintains year-round, organic-raised-bed-vegetable gardens for homeowners, businesses/corporations, schools and restaurants in the Northeast. Banhazl was granted a $5,000 loan in January 2012, which she used to buy the trucks necessary to run her business.

“Small Business Connections” is the first small business event tour from the NYSE Big StartUp, a nationwide job creation and business growth initiative that connects small businesses with established corporations, such as Yelp. Launched in March 2012, the NYSE Big StartUp program also integrates the Accion-NYSE Job Growth Fund. This program was started with a $1.5 million commitment by NYSE Euronext, which will provide small businesses and startups with the capital and support they need to grow.

The Boston events builds off of the success of events held earlier this summer in Tucson, AZ and Austin and San Antonio, Texas, where over 150 small business owners in total attended workshops. “The number one piece of advice that business owners request from Accion is on how they can market on a budget,” says Paul Quintero, East Coast and Online CEO at Accion. “We’re proud to bring this national resource to local small business owners with the support of Yelp and NYSE.”

The Boston event is hosted in coordination with our supportive partners:

About Yelp

Yelp (NYSE: YELP) connects people with great local businesses. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Since then, Yelp communities have taken root in major metros across the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. Yelp had a monthly average of 78 million unique visitors in Q2 2012 (source: Google Analytics). By the end of Q2 2012, Yelpers had written more than 30 million rich, local reviews, making Yelp the leading local guide for real word-of-mouth on everything from boutiques and mechanics to restaurants and dentists. Yelp's mobile application was used on 7.2 million unique mobile devices on a monthly average basis during Q2 2012. For more information, please visit http://www.yelp.com/ or send an email to press@yelp.com.

About Accion

As the largest and only nationwide micro- and small business lending network in the United States, Accion connects small business owners with the accessible financing and advice it takes to create or grow healthy businesses. Accion serving the East Coast and Online lends in the Boston region and offers business loans between $500 and $50,000 along with training, networking and other support services to hardworking entrepreneurs. Historically, Accion serving the East Coast and Online has lent $132 million.

Since 1991, the five members of Accion’s U.S. Network have collectively made over 44,000 loans, totaling over $320 million. Additionally, over 400,000 business owners across the nation have turned to Accion for financial and business advice via workshops, online tools, and one-on-one consultations. Globally, Accion (www.accion.org) is a pioneer in microfinance, reaching millions of individuals through its international network of partners. For more information on Accion in Boston, please visit www.accionusa.org.

About NYSE Euronext

NYSE Euronext (NYX) is a leading global operator of financial markets and provider of innovative trading technologies. The company's exchanges in Europe and the United States trade equities, futures, options, fixed-income and exchange-traded products. With approximately 8,000 listed issues (excluding European Structured Products), NYSE Euronext's equities markets - the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Euronext, NYSE MKT, NYSE Alternext and NYSE Arca - represent one-third of the world’s equities trading, the most liquidity of any global exchange group. NYSE Euronext also operates NYSE Liffe, one of the leading European derivatives businesses and the world's second-largest derivatives business by value of trading. The company offers comprehensive commercial technology, connectivity and market data products and services through NYSE Technologies. NYSE Euronext is in the S&P 500 index. For more information, please visit: http://www.nyx.com.