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Tim Coley, First Horizon Market President, began his remarks at the 2023 Morristown Area Chamber of Commerce Small Business Awards with a bit of research.

“The state of Tennessee statistics for Hamblen County and Morristown says that there are 1,450 businesses established and employ just shy of 33,000 people,” Coley said. “If you take away the top 10 businesses in our community, the remaining businesses will still employ 25,000 people. The vast majority of that is our small businesses.

“Now, these numbers can be sliced many different ways but no matter how you define small business, without a doubt small business is the engine that drives the economic growth and is the life blood of Morristown and Hamblen County.

Coley added that Morristown is the ideal location to conduct business.

“I’ve heard our Chamber CEO Marshall Ramsey state the reasons for this many times,” he said. “Morristown is a half a mile from US Highway 25E; Morristown is one mile from Interstate 81 of Exit 8, eight miles to Interstate 40. Morristown has access to I-75 via US-25. Morristown is seven miles from Hwy.11E and Morristown is 45 miles to the Knoxville airport and 55 miles to the Tri-cities airport.

“Get this – this is the one that blew me away,” Coley said: “Morristown is only a one-day drive to over 75% percent of the U.S. populations. Wow. No wonder we are an economic powerhouse.

“As they say in East Tennessee – that ain’t bad for the third smallest county in Tennessee, by land mass.

“My simple message to you today is Thank you. Thank you for providing your goods and services, enriching our community and making it a wonderful place to live, to work and to raise our families,” he said.

First Horizon presented the 2023 “Cheers to Small Business!” luncheon. The theme sponsor was GAINS Coaching & Consulting Service. Event sponsors were Citizens National Bank, Dudash Executive Coaching, HomeTrust Bank and ReVIDA Recovery.

The luncheon was held at All Saints’ Episcopal School in Morristown. The food was prepared and served by Jersey Girl Catering.