Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of sit downs at Electric City Brewing with Anderson Mayor and small business owner Terence Roberts.
Terence Roberts will celebrate 34 years as a small business owner this coming July, something that gives him a unique perspective as the Mayor of Anderson, SC.
“For anybody that has started a small business, it’s a tough row to hoe,” said Roberts, the owner of Terence Roberts State Farm Insurance. “I was convinced I had done the wrong thing for about five years.”
But business ownership gave Roberts the opportunity to integrate into local business circles, serve on nonprofit boards that enabled him to see the real needs in Anderson, and eventually move into politics.
“There were a lot of good things going on in Anderson, but I thought I could bring a business perspective to it,” Roberts said. “I’m a marketing guy and I just didn’t think we were telling our story well enough.”
One arena where Roberts has been able to tell the story of the Electric City is through Ten at the Top, a collaborative organization representing the shared interests of the 10-county Upstate region of South Carolina. A member of the Ten at the Top board, Roberts served as chair in 2021.
“There are 1.5 million people in the region, and I’ve always said that if Greenville does well, then Anderson does well. If Seneca does well, Anderson does well, and so it’s the collective group trying to make sure that things grow in the right way, that we have the right businesses, that we’re looking at transportation, and all the quality-of-life issues. For me, it’s probably one of the most impactful things I’ve been involved with.”
Rather than working to become the largest city in the region, Anderson aspires to be the most desirable, Roberts said.
“We check off a lot of boxes – low cost of living, employment, world-class health care, academic environment and we just so happen to be adjacent to the largest manmade lake in the region,” he said.
State Farm Insurance Agent Terence Roberts is the sponsor of Anderson SC Living’s Upcoming Events.
