Two out of every five people you see walking down the street in any town in northwest Michigan are not making enough money to meet their basic needs. They are worried about a car breaking down and not being able to get to work, missing...
Among the many positives of northern Michigan’s business community is the vast number of local and family-owned companies across our business landscape. That’s important as local and family ownership often brings various assets to a region that extend well beyond a company’s bottom line. Local...
With a population of more than 1.3 billion, China is an attractive market for many companies. Include local fruit processors among those who see the potential. Brent Bradley, vice president of sales and marketing at Graceland, said his company’s China efforts actually started in 1999, but...
Next year at this time, Tom Greyerbiehl hopes to have a new type of grapevine planted in his Benzie County vineyard. It could come not from out-of-state nurseries where he’s purchased vines before, but from the local operations of Campbell Milarch Vines, LLC. The Copemish-based venture, a...
[caption id="attachment_11128" align="alignleft" width="300"] Pure Water Works' pull-behind ozone generator first concentrates oxygen by removing nitrogen from the air. Then a high-voltage electrical charge converts the oxygen into ozone.[/caption] Bill Siegmund makes the case that owners of Michigan vineyards and orchards need only to look to...
By Ross Boissoneau For Doyle Berg, the challenge was keeping pace with the well-drilling industry. For Hague Equipment’s Jerry Peal, it was maintaining cash flow, continuing to purchase equipment and meet payroll while awaiting payment on jobs the company had done. In both cases, they turned to...
With the help of updated software, SampleServe, a Traverse City environmental sampling and reporting lab, might someday know as much (or more) than its competitors and even the U.S. EPA about polluted sites around the country. Started by Russ Schindler in 2001, the seven-person company travels...
On April 6, 2016, the Department of Labor (DOL) released its final rule that redefines who is considered a fiduciary of an employee benefit plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code. The final rule focuses on...
A local financial institution is among the winners of the U.S. Small Business Administration lenders awards for fiscal 2016. The SBA District Director’s Award was given to Northern Initiatives, a nonprofit Community Development Finance Institution that provides loans to small business owners and entrepreneurs in...
Beautiful northern Michigan! Lovely surroundings, increased tourism and the proliferation of web sites such as Airbnb, VRBO, and HomeAway have led to a boom in short-term rentals in northern Michigan. What, if any, are the tax implications of a short-term rental? The answer depends on a...
