Executive directors, board members, employees, volunteers, and donors: Those five groups are what most people think of when they envision the key cogs behind America’s more than 1.5 million nonprofit organizations. But what about the people working behind the scenes – the people who aren’t listed...
Digital Body Language How to Build Trust & Connection, No Matter the Distance By Erica Dhawan Reviewed by Chris Wendel As the effects of the COVID pandemic continue to reshape the way we work, the means for communicating with co-workers and customers have been altered. Communicating is challenging without...
Holly Gallagher started looking to add an adviser to her small financial planning firm about six years ago. She finally found one earlier this year. [caption id="attachment_69865" align="alignleft" width="166"] Gallagher[/caption] “It hasn’t been easy,” said Gallagher, founder and president of Horizon Financial in Traverse City. “First, you...
Including its two co-owners, Traverse Stainless & Millwork normally has a workforce of just seven people. But the company carries some real weight nationally in a lucrative niche market. Ninety percent of its work involves building, then installing interiors for airport restaurants, stores, bars and...
It could’ve been better; it could’ve been worse. That’s the general consensus among nonprofits as 2021 draws to a close. COVID-19 could have been kinder to nonprofit organizations, but it also could have been much more devastating. Early on, the pandemic was eyed as a potential extinction-level event...
For decades, shopping malls, big box stores and retail centers were designed with one especially abundant asset: parking. Due to a mix of zoning requirements and consumer demand, retail developments throughout northern Michigan and beyond were planned and executed with sprawling parking lots stretching as...
Local banks and credit unions are flooded with cash from individual and business customers who socked away federal stimulus payments during the COVID pandemic. Bank deposits in Grand Traverse County have jumped 58% since the months before the start of the pandemic, from $2.4 billion on...
Businesses carry insurance of all sorts: liability, worker’s compensation and health insurance, for example. Restaurants and bars need coverage for the challenges related to alcohol. But there are other entities that have specialized needs. For example, what if you’re not a regular retail operation, but an...
By every metric, 2021 was a whirlwind year for real estate and mortgage lending. Of course, if you live in northern Michigan, you probably already knew that. Our local housing market has rarely been hotter. You didn’t have to go far this year to hear tales...
[caption id="attachment_69850" align="alignleft" width="288"] CEO Scott Wick[/caption] If you’ve been watching the insurance landscape over the past several years, you may have noticed a significant uptick in the amount of mergers-and-acquisitions (M&A) activity in that space. For a variety of reasons – ranging from technology to...
