Business & Finance

As the population ages, and the number of Americans requiring health care grows – estimated at 12 million people today – the number of people looking for alternative care options is also increasing. For many, the desire to remain in the home is strong, yet full-time care can lead to burn out for family caregivers.

Hedi Huebler and her husband, Frank, were faced with that situation when Hedi’s parents’ health declined several years ago. Hedi and Frank, a registered nurse, realized how important it was for Hedi's parents to remain independent and in a home setting, so they allowed them to move in to their home.

Martin Mehall of Bay Village has been honored with the William E. Reichard Award for oustanding service on the Magnificat High School Board of Directors. He recently retired from the board after nine years of service. He is only the third board member to receive this award.

Mehall became involved with Magnificat while his daughter Marissa, who graduated in 2002, attended Magnificat. He was a long-standing member of the finance committee and was instrumental in bond financing.

High school counselor and former special education teacher Kasey Crawford Kellem knows a lot about facing life challenges. Her new book series, Mind Over Matter, teaches young children how to be resilient to them.

“Everyone faces difficult or challenging times in their lives,” Kellem said. The Cleveland-area counselor said she hopes her books will teach children they can get through their stressful troubles using a mind over matter technique that is within everyone. Her first book, "Believe," is on the market now. The remaining books in the series – "Love," "Laugh," "Relax" and "Dream" – will be out within the next year.

The Gardens at Westlake senior assisted living center was the recipient of two awards from the Ohio Assisted Living Association. Christina Melaragno was named Oustanding Executive Director and Rosey Cichon won in the category of Outstanding Business Manager. The two women each received a plaque and recognition at OALA’s statewide conference in Columbus on Nov. 7.

Melaragno, who has served as executive director since 2007, began her career working as a nurse aide and going to night school to become a licensed practical nurse. The time she spent working directly with patients served her well, as she makes it a priority to connect with the Gardens’ residents and employees.

Mark and Tina Nazario, owners of Bay Lanes Bowling Alley, accept a COSE Ten under 10 Award at the I-X Center Oct. 19. The award recognizes businesses with 10 or fewer employees who succeed in innovation, customer service, value to the community and growth. The Nazarios, the alley’s only full-time employees, purchased Bay Lanes in Sept. 2009 and have been committed to supporting the community, frequently hosting fundraisers and donating services to local non-profit organizations. “We are proud [of this award],” said Tina. “We thank the community for all of their support.”

Over the last few weeks, I’ve met or spoken over the phone with a couple dozen or so people in transition to do some resume/job search coaching. Often, I find that a good deal of what is discussed and recommended during such conversations is difficult to hear for the person being coached. After one such session with a former human resources executive, whose resume needed quite a bit of work, the individual looked at me and remarked, “Wow, that was really tough love, wasn’t it?”

Yes, and the frustrating part for today’s hiring managers and recruiters is that this type of discussion needs to occur with way too many candidates.

Westlake resident Michael Abouserhal has been named vice president, finance and business services at Cuyahoga Community College. Abouserhal will officially begin his duties in January. He will succeed Mark Polatajko, who accepted the position of vice president, business and fiscal affairs at Wright State University in Dayton.
 
Abouserhal brings more than 28 years of public sector financial and executive experience to this position, including nearly three years in his current role at Tri-C as executive director, accounting and financial operations. 

Employees swept, dusted and unloaded truckloads of fragrant beauty products on Oct. 5 to stock the shelves of Crocker Park's newest tenant, Bath & Body Works. The store will hold its grand opening Oct. 10 at 10 a.m.

Bath & Body Works, which also has locations in Avon Commons and Great Northern Mall, sells myriad scented lotions, candles, toiletries and aromatherapy products.

So, here’s a riddle: What has over 1,000 local residents and business decision-makers exchanging ideas with over 100 exhibitors, while enjoying great food, wine and beer from 15 local establishments? Answer: the 9th annual Business Expo, sponsored by the Rocky River Chamber of Commerce.

Every year, hundreds of local business owners and local residents mark their calendars awaiting the opportunity to network and learn from IT consultants and graphics firms, to furriers and cosmetic dentists, while enjoying a wide variety of food, beer and wine.

I built my first rain barrel in January 2010 to use on my small vegetable garden. After searching local stores and the internet for months, I had discovered that the only way to get the perfect rain barrel was to build it myself!

I soon began building rain barrels for my friends and family and, as interest grew, I decided to start a business. In February of this year I was invited to appear at the Great Big Home & Garden Show, where I sold 176 barrels in eight days.

The overwhelming response prompted me to begin searching for a location to open the first rain barrel store in Ohio.

The Man Cave, the West Side’s only full-service all-male salon, recently opened in Westlake. In this newly remodeled facility, men can enjoy an array of services in the privacy of their own setting. All of the styling stations are private with flat screen televisions, complimentary beverages (including Starbucks), and the most talented stylists Cleveland has to offer. The Cave ranges from private in-house pedicures all the way to full-service hair replacement.

We believe strongly in giving back to the community. All children's hair replacement is always complimentary. I have been in the all-male industry for many years and believe that the holidays are the time for all men to feel good about themselves.

Many people say that you can tell a lot about someone in just the first few minutes of meeting them. I agree. Body language, tone of voice, attire, level of self-confidence, ability to convey a sense of believability and trust are just some of the snapshots we give or receive that go a long way to creating that critical first impression.

Job seekers often do not realize that basically everything they do, say or write is considered when a hiring manager looks holistically at candidates for an open position. Below are a couple of real life examples of impressions made:

A job seeker had a bullet point in their resume that read, “I sold $50,000 worth of product X each month.” When I asked her to provide me with some perspective of that accomplishment by ranking that level of production against the other five salespeople in her former company, she replied, “I was fourth.” A bit surprised, I remarked, “Fourth out of six salespeople…that means your sales volume was below average!” Her reaction to my comment was simply, “Wow, I hadn’t thought about that.”

With three locations in Westlake, the Rae-Ann facilities have a strong presence and history in this area. The owners, John Griffiths, Cindy Griffiths-Novak and Sue Griffiths are all Bay High grads, still live locally and continue to operate Rae Ann Suburban, Rae Ann Westlake and The Belvedere assisted living. These award-winning facilities have earned the reputation for outstanding skilled care, rehabilitation and long term care.

Just the other day, I was at a local restaurant for a breakfast meeting. Since the morning restaurant patrons had not yet begun to arrive, I had the opportunity to chat a bit with our server. I have been to this establishment on many occasions and noticed that this particular individual seems to be a customer favorite.

She inquired regarding the party who was to meet with me and asked if I was going to do an interview (I had the job seeker’s resume out on the table and was making on it some additional notes for myself). When I responded that we were meeting to do some resume and job search coaching, the server said she had a unique story about landing the job with the restaurant.

When I recently asked a good friend of mine, who is the Marketing Director for a large nonprofit organization, what was the most frustrating part of her job, she immediately replied, “hiring new people.” She went on to relate how 400 resumes were received within two hours of posting an opening for a Marketing Assistant. When I asked how many of the 400 resumes she felt were good enough to warrant a call for an interview, my friend responded, “less than 10…and a few of those are borderline.” This is today’s reality for hiring managers.

Here are some of the most common errors on resumes that prevent candidates from being added to the short list of people to be called for interviews:

My husband, Rick Holton, and myself, both longtime residents of Westlake, are excited to announce the opening of our new Polish pottery shop in Williamsburg Square. For over ten years, we have been one of the leading distributors of this hand-painted stoneware from the small town of Boleslawiec, Poland. 

What began with ten pieces on our dining room table has amassed into an inventory surpassing 30,000 pieces. This has been a home-based business for the past ten years of distributing Polish Pottery to more than 225 kitchen/gourmet shops throughout the United States.

Grace Ha, an experienced nail technician and resident of Westlake, has opened a new, upscale nail salon in the Dover Commons Shopping Center in Bay Village. Grace is very excited about doing business in Bay, with a vision of providing a full range of nail services in a beautiful, clean and comfortable environment where customers can come to relax and enjoy a professional manicure and pedicure. 

Pat Catan’s made its annual donation to the American Cancer Society on May 25 in a presentation at their Westlake store. The craft supplies store donates 5% of the net proceeds from the sales of its VIP Memberships to ACS. This year's check totaled nearly $18,000.

Recently I heard from three of the people who have just landed new jobs. Each did a terrific job of networking, putting together customized resumes that focused on key accomplishments and truly separated themselves from other candidates during the interview process.

In addition to doing the right things during a job search, candidates in today’s very competitive job market must have the “right stuff.” OK…so what is that?

From conversations with dozens of recruiters and hiring managers, I have compiled a list of the top traits that “ideal candidates” are expected to possess:

The Phil Bova Baseball Camp will return to Westlake June 20-24, its second year in the city after years of instruction at Baldwin Wallace College.The camp welcomes boys, ages 7-14, from across Northeastern Ohio and instructs them on the fundamentals of baseball.

Students will be divided into groups and assigned coaches. The first half of each day will be spent rotating between six separate training stations: hitting, run-downs, cut-offs, bunting, fielding and pitchers covering first base. Afternoon games will put training into practice. Each day ends with individualized instruction specific to each student’s preferred position on the field.

Camp Happiness is a seven-week program which provides summer day camp experiences to children and young adults ages 5-21 with cognitive and other developmental disabilities. Camp is from June 20 - August 5, 2011. We offer three sites in the Greater Cleveland area.

Each site provides and enhances social, spiritual, recreational and educational opportunities, as well as the opportunity to make new friends, swim, go on community field trips, play fun games and create exciting arts and crafts! 

Camp Happiness is operated by Catholic Charities Health and Human Services, Disability Services. Children of all faith traditions are welcome.

Although the general consensus is that most jobs are found via networking, very few job seekers actually understand (or are comfortable executing) what it takes to do this effectively.

When I ask job seekers, “How many people are in your network and how often are you speaking or communicating with them?” they admit that little to no time has been spent working their network.

The bottom line for making networking work is to help those in your network help you. That’s basically it…really.

New owners took over The Savannah Bar and Grille on April 1. Doug Lufkin, an experienced chef by trade, will now run the Westlake blues-infused restaurant, catering and entertainment destination.
 
Lufkin plans to keep The Savannah Bar and Grille’s offerings identical to what its customers have grown to know and love – including the familiar staff. The menu remains similar and live music will continue seven days a week.

Two years ago, Mike Fransko, owner of The Cleaning Authority Cleveland in Westlake, learned about Cleaning For A Reason, a national non-profit organization that works with cleaning businesses to offer cancer patients free house cleanings, and decided to get involved.

“We’ve done close to 50 free cleanings through Cleaning For A Reason since getting involved and it has been a joy to be able to lighten some of the burden for these families through something as simple as cleaning their homes,” said Mike. “This year, I decided we needed to do more.”

So you have a Twitter account, Facebook page and a LinkedIn profile. Are you using them as tools to help you to get re-employed? Or is your online presence creating the wrong personal brand/image and eliminating you from contention for being seriously considered as a candidate?

Consider this, from a potential employer's frame of reference – if he can find and read all of this information about you, so can his boss and his company’s best client. So he must be very cognizant of the image you have chosen to portray online. If what can easily be seen or read about you online might embarrass his company, why would he consider hiring you?

Bella Capelli Sanctuario in Westlake will participate for the first time in the nationwide Spa Week event. The concept is simple: full-service spa services, normally costing from $75 to $200, for just $50, for one week only.   

“We are excited to be a part of Spa Week. Offering discounted spa services helps us make the spa experience an affordable part of a healthy lifestyle, and it supports our overall mission of offering clients a highly individualized service in a peaceful and inspiring atmosphere,” says Sandy Borrelli, co-owner of Bella Capelli Sanctuario.

Gray House Pies, the local, award-winning pie bakery, is expanding into Westlake. With an opening planned for March 1, Gray House Pies brings to the area a second location at 26075 Detroit Road.

This new shop will have seating for customers to stop in and enjoy slices of favorites such as Caramel Apple or Maple Bacon Pecan. There are also savory selections, such as traditional quiches and single-serving “pub pies.”

Whether you’re a first time buyer or looking to move up, excellent news is brimming on the real estate horizon. As a cautious consumer, you can probably come up with several reasons NOT to venture into the home buying market. But what you might not know is that the devastation caused by the mortgage crisis DID produce a silver lining.

Today you can be more certain than ever that you will be able to afford the home you buy, and that the mortgage product and rates are the best available to you. So if you’ve been putting off looking for the home of your dreams, waiting for the market to improve, here are six great reasons to consider taking the plunge!

Cleveland’s Westside region, like so many other communities in the Greater Cleveland area, has been hard hit by job loss and the difficulties that arise during extended unemployment. Some job seekers who are new to the current job market are facing challenges as they try to navigate the high-tech process of job searching.

Whether they are recent college graduates, a mom trying to go back into the workforce, or a senior with many years of experience, tracking down and successfully applying for jobs is more complex than in years past. Sadly, many types of jobs in our area have been lost forever and trying to transition to a new career is adding to the stress of job searching.

Perception is everything, as the saying goes, and that applies to many things – including job seeking. Let’s talk about how to use your age, if you are 45+ years old, to your advantage when seeking employment.

Many of the people with whom I’ve done transition coaching have fallen into the trap of feeling that being “older” was something of a curse when it came to seeking employment.

Not so! And here are some tips/strategies for you to consider using to get past the fact that you are older:

Don’t apologize for your age, just present specific accomplishments rather than how long you have been working. The adage of “you’re not older, you are just wiser” is the key. You are not “old,” you are experienced!

Since 1999, parents Kenn and Marnie Louis have been hard at work in the basement of their Bay Village home. It is there (as well as in the attic), that the couple design and produce a doll that combines technology with nature, called a GrowBot.
 
GrowBots are made from fleece, felt and fabric – using locally-sourced and sustainable products whenever possible. Since each doll is made by hand, no two are alike. This connection entices many parents, especially given the mass-produced toy recalls of the last decade. According to Kenn, they “find that people really respond well to the fact that our stuff is not just made in America but made in Bay Village, Ohio.”

Three years after opening their first Thai restaurant in Sandusky, the owners of Siam Orchid are very excited about the recent opening of their second location at Kensington Square in Westlake.

Oh Markthuam and Ek Nitedthunyakij emigrated from Bangkok, Thailand, in 2002. They worked in a Thai restaurant in Boston for four years before moving to Ohio and opening their own restaurant in Sandusky. Encouraged by the success of that eatery, the couple moved to Westlake earlier this year to open their second location.

“We chose Westlake because it is a thriving area with a growing population and ample opportunity to present our unique style of Thai cuisine,” said owner Ek Nitedthunyakij. “Westlake is overflowing with new ideas and ambition and there is an environment here that we want to be a part of because we believe that we can flourish as well as contribute to the community's success.”
 

World-renowned chef and cooking school founder Loretta Paganini is the featured speaker at the League of Women Voters’ “First Thursdays” public meeting series now in its eighth season. The theme of the series is “Women Who Know Their Place,” celebrating highly successful women.

The event is set for Thursday, Dec. 2, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., at Trinity Commons at Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Chef Paganini’s talk is titled, “A Woman’s Place is Running the Kitchen.” The public is invited to attend at no charge, with free parking behind the Cathedral off Prospect Ave.

Furrer & Associates Inc., a full service CPA firm serving the west side of Cleveland, recently moved to 28045 Clemens Road, Suite B in Westlake. This office park, located next to Five Seasons is now owned by Clemens Road Real Estate Holdings LLC, associated with Stephen J. Furrer, CPA. Saratoga of Ohio Ltd. owned the building previously and their company, Shoreline Contractors Inc. moved out with the sale of the building. 

After seven years in the Westlake Woods office park, Furrer & Associates relocated in July 2010. In order to better suit the needs of a growing accounting practice, the space underwent a two-month construction renovation. Additionally, a new parking lot was put in to support the three other tenants also in the office park.

Lakeshore Speech Therapy LLC, a speech-language therapy private practice serving the west side of Cleveland, recently opened an office in Westlake at 24865 Detroit Road, Suite #2. 

Lakeshore Speech Therapy is co-owned by my partner Ellen Spear and myself. Together we have over 30 years of experience working with children and adults in a variety of settings including hospitals, schools, and long-term care. We opened Lakeshore Speech Therapy in 2009 to provide speech therapy services in clients' homes and quickly expanded to our newly-opened Westlake location.

Bay Diner, located at 660 Dover Center Rd., is now open for business. Owner Mike Petrillo and his staff are working hard to create a clean, cozy and friendly atmosphere in the former Hoagies Grille location in Bay.  

Bay Diner is a great spot for early birds looking for breakfast, opening at 7 a.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. on Sunday. Breakfast is served until 11 a.m. daily, with lunch and dinner following. The full-service diner is open until 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and until 2 p.m. on Sunday.  

The Friday night perch dinner has been a hit with customers, along with the wide variety of menu selections, including appetizers, wraps, salads, sandwiches, dinners and desserts. The diner is now offering a Saturday night rib special as well.

To check it out yourself, stop by the newest diner in Bay located next to Kiddie Kollege in the Dover Commons plaza.

As new owners of Bay Lanes Bowling Center in Bay Village, my husband, Mark, and I are working hard to create a fun, family-friendly atmosphere where kids, teens and adults can come bowl, eat and have loads of fun at extremely affordable prices. 
 
After years working in college admissions, Mark decided to leave his former position and take over Bay Lanes to fulfill his dream of owning his own business while still working with kids and families.

With over 20 years of experience and expertise in the wine industry, Nick Nasrallah of Bay Village dreamed of having a place where people would feel comfortable shopping, while giving them the opportunity to browse wines they wouldn't see elsewhere. To realize his dream, in 2000 he established The Fine Wine and Tobacco in Westlake.

"There are great values from small wineries that people just don't know about." Nick says. "I try to bring in as many low-production, high quality wines as possible." These wines are showcased at bi-weekly wine tastings held at the store, with a portion of the proceeds from each event donated to various charities. Nick and his son, Tony, have given several thousands of dollars to local organizations, including Building Hope in the City, and other charities that aim to benefit the less fortunate.
 
An upcoming wine tasting will be held on Saturday, July 17 and will benefit the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure, a three-day, sixty-mile walk to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research. The tasting will feature over 30 wines from around the world, and a portion of the $25 admission will be donated. Patrons will also be able to make private donations.

You can’t beat the convenience of checking e-mail and hopping on the Internet at Wi-Fi hotspots found in airports, coffee shops, bookstores, and even in some major parks. For the uninitiated, Wi-Fi hotspots are areas where you can use your wireless laptop to surf the Web and check e-mail.  

But the question you have to ask yourself is, just how safe is it to connect? With the proliferation of hackers, viruses and identity theft at an all time high, you are smart to be concerned. Wi-Fi spots are very attractive to hackers because they can use what’s called an “evil twin” connection to access your laptop.   

An evil twin is a wireless hotspot set up by a hacker to lure people from a nearby, legitimate hotspot. For example, when you log in at your favorite coffee shop, you might actually be logging onto the evil twin Internet connection set up by the innocent-looking person working on a laptop at the next table.  

Ever wonder where those spam email messages you receive come from, and how they got your email address? Spammers use a combination of technology, persistence and trickery to obtain email addresses and avoid detection.

The best ways to protect yourself from spammers and the scams they often promote is to be selective with the websites on which you post your email address and to ignore messages from companies that you've never heard of or seem suspicious.

HOW THEY GET YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

“Spiders" – Also known as robots or scrapers, these software programs crawl the Web and online discussion groups, grabbing email addresses and domain names. Online directories and popular sites, such as AOL and eBay, are favorite targets.