Metro Detroit employers felt the ground shift beneath them during the height of the COVID pandemic in 2021-2022. Precautionary measures intended to limit the spread of COVID-19 had the devastating unintended effect of slowing to a trickle the revenue streams of “in-person” businesses such as restaurants, concert venues and banquet halls.
Read MoreIn today’s rapidly evolving world, establishing and nurturing a brand that captures the hearts and minds of consumers is an art form. One individual who has masterfully embraced this challenge is Lydia Michael, an author and brand strategist whose groundbreaking book, “Brand Love – Building Strong Consumer-Brand Connections,” released on July 25, 2023, by Kogan Page, a leading independent publisher of business books, has taken the marketing world by storm.
Read MoreWhen Christina Roki’s family car broke down, they couldn’t afford a mechanic to look it over. Her family lived paycheck to paycheck, and with three children, there was little money to spare. Most would turn to a family member for help or take out a short-term loan. But Christina had a rare and enterprising thought: What if she tried to fix it herself. The rest, as they say, is history.
Read MoreConventional wisdom has it that the best way to beat inflation is to raise interest rates. It makes sense—a rapidly growing economy creates increased demand for goods and services and heightened demand strains supply. Prices increase as a result. “From an Economics 101 perspective, in the last 100 years, every time we’ve had an inflationary environment and interest rates have risen it’s supposed to slow down inflation because money becomes more expensive,” says Dan Fischer, president and chief executive officer at Citizens State Bank.
Read MoreThough some women approach turning 50 with trepidation, GG Benitez is arriving at that mile marker with confidence.
With her 29-year-old daughter Alexis’s marriage a few months ago, her 19-year-old daughter Daniella completing her first year at Loyola, and her 17-year-old son Gabriel entering his senior year of high school, GG decided to fuse her public relations skills with her affection for travel.
Read MoreMost of us have daydreams about cruising downtown streets in a classic Rolls Royce or sailing through the clouds in a private jet with our significant other and a few close members of our entourage.
Well, we might not be able to own such luxurious modes of transport, but we can be king or queen for a day, thanks to two enterprising Chaldean businessmen who specialize in royal treatment.
Read MoreThree outstanding Chaldean community members made the “30 in their Thirties” list for dBusiness magazine this year.
Read MoreLike many northern, cool weather states, Michigan has lost population in recent census counts. The state has also seen its representation in Congress diminish, losing a seat in the latest census. But the state is not registering the worst outmigration in the nation or region, and its predicted population changes for coming decades paint a mixed picture, leaving open the search for causes and solutions.
Read MoreYou can find a job by word-of-mouth, looking for “help wanted” signs on buildings, searching online job engines like Monster.com or Indeed.com, or contacting your local community center, like the Chaldean Community Foundation, for help.
Read MoreFood Network star and restaurateur Guy Fieri is bringing his brand of fried chicken to Michigan, and Tomey Group is helping him do that.
Read MoreThe best brands evoke the emotions of their customers by tapping into their hearts and minds. In this book, marketing and brand strategist Lydia Michael of Blended Collective breaks down the process of building culturally inclusive, long-lasting consumer-brand relationships.
Read MoreA new leadership program has recently launched, a partnership between the Chaldean Community Foundation and Wireless Vision called Learn with A Leader. 13 participants have been selected to participate in the program.
Read MoreAlmost three decades ago, three friends joined forces for a professional journey none of them could have predicted. Patrick Tomina and Eric Hardy met at University of Michigan-Dearborn. They came together from very different backgrounds—Tomina is Chaldean and has roots in independent retail businesses; Hardy is African American and from a family in which his father worked for General Motors and expected his son to follow a similar path.
Read MoreThe Farmington Hills-based Chaldean American Chamber, which represents approximately 25,000 Chaldean-owned businesses around the state, on Wednesday announced that it had launched the $5 million Ark Angel II Fund to invest in startups in Michigan and elsewhere.
Read MoreIn 2020, the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce started the Ark Angel Fund as a way to bring the startup market to Chaldean investors. In addition, it supports emerging businesses that can make a difference in the region. The first iteration of the Ark Angel Fund succeeded in raising a total of $1 million from 32 investors. All of the funds have since invested in seven different startup companies across several different sectors. While the Fund hears all kinds of pitches, it tends to focus most of its attention on innovative companies in the technology sphere.
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