The business world has changed a lot in nearly 20 years. The same can be said for the Lake County Business Journal, which debuted in May 1991. Entering its 20th year in publication, the newspaper is spreading its wings.

The Tri-County Business Journal debuts with this issue. While the now-former Lake County Business Journal has included coverage and circulation to communities bordering the county, that reach is expanding to a portion of eastern Cuyahoga County and northern Geauga County.

“The Lake County Business Journal has served businesses in the county well for two decades,” said Publisher Todd Nighswonger, owner of locally owned parent company TNT Publications. “Now we want to take our focus on news and information important to small businesses and report on a wider geographic area.”

Nighswonger noted that while there are other business publications in Northeast Ohio, none concentrate on small-business coverage, nor focus on a specific geographic area like the tri-county corridor. The Tri-County Business Journal will report on small businesses in the eastern Cuyahoga suburbs of Euclid, Richmond Heights, Highland Heights, Mayfield Village, Mayfield Heights, South Euclid, Lyndhurst, Beachwood, Woodmere, Pepper Pike and Highland Hills. The newspaper will continue covering Chesterland and Chardon in Geauga County.

“Having lived in the expanded coverage area since 1996, I know that many people consider eastern Cuyahoga, Lake and northern Geauga as contiguous,” Nighswonger said. “Just as business has become international, many businesses don’t limit themselves to one county.” Readers and businesses in Lake County can rest assured that they will continue to be a primary focal point of coverage. The business journal’s roots in the county will not change.

While virtually no print media in Northeast Ohio are expanding – most, in fact, are reducing circulation, pages and staffing – TNT Publications decided that there was an unmet need for business news and information beyond Lake County.

“The main reason we are expanding is because we believe there are small businesses in eastern Cuyahoga and northern Geauga that seek to have their story told,” Nighswonger said. “We are here to tell those stories and look forward to learning about the many great companies in the tri-county area.”

Chesterland-based TNT Publications also produces Cleveland Family, Akron Family and Lake/Geauga Family magazines, Ohio Sports & Fitness magazine, City to Country Guide and several Web sites, e-newsletters and events.

The feeding frenzy in today's economy
How local restaurants use creative means to put a fork in slow business and keep cookin'

OPINION Bring back business lunches by Kay Bryson Restaurateurs are forced to spend precious time, money and energy marketing to survive. A majority of Americans are dissatisfied with their jobs. They are overworked and underpaid but, most surprisingly, bored. Technology was supposed to make us more efficient, productive and enhance networking opportunities. Instead, professionals claim they’re too busy for face-to-face meetings, communicating instead by e-mail, texting, tweeting or on social networking sites. While pondering these three issues, an “aha” moment came to me while I was in the shower (they always do). The best ideas are always the simplest, so I’m surprised this one hasn’t yet caught fire. We need to bring back the business lunch, solving all three problems while reviving a ritual that has served the business community well. Lately, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to young professionals who confirm they are bored and dissatisfied at work. One started a new job in the creative field, but had to beg her supervisor for job training, proactively asking for 15 minutes a week for input. She was told by the overworked boss, “That will never happen.” Lunch breaks were discouraged for another in a high-stress, customer-service job. She was asked to take her legally allowed, one-hour break in 15- or 30-minute intervals. Most of her co-workers eschew lunch altogether, silently sending the message she is less of a team player. Long, stressful days with a lack of nutritious food eventually will take its toll. While we conduct business on FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter and BlackBerrys, we miss out on face-to-face encounters essential toward building relationships and moving up the corporate ladder. All the while, the business lunch became all but obsolete. We’ve forgotten that business luncheons provide invaluable bonding experiences, while developing long-term relationships. Today, we’re unable to tear ourselves away from technology long enough to come up for air. We communicate in 140-character or less tweet speech and consider meeting for an hour with one or two colleagues as wasted time when a mass Twitter profile or Facebook post can reach hundreds of people in minutes. Technology has made this possible, but a revival of the business lunch would help the economy grow, relieve worker’s suffering and release our total dependency on electronic gadgets. We can even give it a modernized 2010 twist for today’s climate, solving a myriad of problems in the process. First, we can save restaurants struggling to survive. Mom-and-pop establishments can rise from near extinction to nourish our bodies and souls with healthy, hot food. People with common interests and goals can break bread together and conduct business in a civilized, relaxed atmosphere during the work day. Second, we can humanize the workplace once again. Productivity may be higher than ever, but it’s only a matter of time before the house of cards falls as exhausted and disillusioned workers succumb to stress, apathy, illness and frustration. Ultimately, productivity will suffer from the frenzied pace of human beings. Lastly, a return to business luncheons will dispel the perceived myth that everyone must be connected electronically to be relevant. It should be mandatory that phones are turned off during lunch. We can look our co-workers and clients in the eye. We can talk with them, laugh with them and even cry with them. New ideas and concepts will spring from a creative spirit of cooperation, instead of the lone wolves we’ve become. We’ll become healthier and more productive. We’ll innovate and enjoy ourselves more. It could be the dawn of a saner era of communication, 2010 style. Kay Bryson is a Painesville-based freelance writer who has written for several other publications.

by Kay Bryson

Business may not be booming for restaurants in this “new economy,” but local restaurateurs are creatively satisfying loyal and new customers with innovative menu choices and incentives to keep their doors open.

Area establishments have had to dig deep to entice business their way to combat several reasons for potentially fewer customers. Examples include employees staying in their offices more for lunch because of longer work hours, less-frequent business travelers needing to be entertained, reduced travel and entertainment budgets and higher gasoline prices. Of late, throw in Northeast Ohio’s frightful winter weather.

Measuring the pulse

Two similar local companies in the multi-county food delivery business contract with more than 100 restaurants to offer online ordering and delivery. As a result, the two delivery businesses see trends in the overall success of area restaurants that has helped their success, as well.

Dave Umina, co-founder of www.delivermefood.com, reports $2 million in sales last year, a 25 percent increase over 2008. Lunch sales constituted $1.2 million, with doctors’ offices as his best customers.

Restaurateurs tell Umina that using his services is like found money, sometimes enough to cover monthly mortgage payments. Umina has purchased four smart cars, which advertise the business while making deliveries. Facebook advertising and up to 4,000 hits per day on its Web site keep sales rolling in.

Similarly, George Seoud, owner of Food Fetchers (www.feedu.net), credits his “gorilla marketing” tactics, free delivery and Web site-offered coupons and rewards with his success.

Not resting on past success

Besides discount dining options, Molinari’s in Mentor recently added a Wolfgang Puck-style, wood-stone pizza oven capable of making 40 gourmet pies an hour at a price range of $13 to $20. These pizzas can easily be shared by lunch companions, according to owner Randal Johnson. He believes this menu addition will offset last year’s 10 percent volume decline and fills an area culinary void. The economy has helped Johnson to focus more on restaurant operations and to become a better business operator as a result. Molinari’s now has 18 signature pizzas, including one with wild shrimp, brie, sweet onions, roasted garlic and tomatoes, and mascarpone cheese. Mary Gromelski, co-owner of Gavi’s in Willoughby, says the upscale restaurant had a successful 2009, even with a dramatic drop in business expense accounts as a rule. She credits increased business to the addition of a summer patio and bar, lunch-time catering deliveries and in-house corporate lunches.

To increase its corporate clientele, Gavi’s added vans for on-site lunch deliveries to customers like Lubrizol and Lincoln Electric. Over its 15 years in business, Gavi’s only has used extensive marketing for the last three years, Gromelski says. One example is a mass e-mail marketing effort to offer coupons and advertise specials such as Tuesday half-price wine for lunch and dinner.

Hellriegel’s Inn in Painesville has seen a decline in lunch-time business, but has made up the difference by catering to retirees and seniors who, after eating affordable lunches of quiches, soups and daily specials, stay to play bridge and other card games at the tables. These social gatherings are encouraged by restaurant partner Silvio Trifiletti, who says his establishment is more conducive to relaxation. In addition, Hellriegel’s has been helped by customers using more coupon books and longstanding civic and professional groups such as the Kiwanis and Lake County Bar Association that still hold monthly meetings at the restaurant. Weddings, anniversaries and baptism celebrations are also popular.

Necessary changes

Mark Glasper, director of communications for the Ohio Restaurant Association says that overall, restaurants are feeling the pinch as costs have risen dramatically while customers have declined for the most part. As a result, most have introduced ingredient reductions, price specials and smaller portion/smaller prices solutions, as well as used inexpensive social mediums such as Twitter in their marketing plans.

While the economy is improving, Ohio still is slow to rebound, so Glasper encourages people to treat themselves to a night out. “As jobs go, so goes restaurants,” he says. “But specials are to be had at all price points.”

Kay Bryson is a Painesville-based freelance writer who has written for the Plain Dealer, the News-Herald and many other publications.