CONTRIBUTING WRITER PROFILE

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh since there is less cleaning up to do afterward. — Kurt Vonnegut I read a report in Lighthouse of a survey of 1,000 American e... Read More

By Anna Linhoss When hurricanes like Florence, which hit the Carolinas in September, make landfall, the first things they hit often are barrier islands — thin ribbons of sand that line the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It&rsquo... Read More

Editor's note: This story, which appeared in the Dec. 3 print edition of the Columbia Regional Business Report, is being republished to include the project contractor and an updated expected completion date.  By Christin... Read More

By C. Grant Jackson South Carolina will see a good, if not a great, economy next year as the United States continues to experience what likely will become in July the longest economic expansion in its history, local experts say. &l... Read More

“Life is flux.” — Heraclitus of Ephesus, 500 BCE There have been multiple translations and paraphrasings of Heraclitus’ assertion over the centuries. For a time, the skate company Volcom Stone used “... Read More

By Christina Knauss Girl Scouts from around the state of South Carolina will reap the benefits when a new building on Williams Street in downtown Columbia is complete. Construction officially started today on the Cathy Novinger Gir... Read More

Unpaid internships are controversial. Proponents argue that they provide valuable opportunities for students to learn about an industry and for companies to scout up-and-coming talent; critics contend the practice is an unfair excuse to ... Read More

Wireless technology has come to play an exponentially more integral role in our daily lives. Our connected devices now allow us to stream videos, map real-time traffic conditions, remotely monitor our homes and stay in touch with our lov... Read More

On June 18, 2007, the Charleston Fire Department and the entire community suffered an unprecedented loss of nine firefighters in the Sofa Super Store fire. What followed would be a daunting task of helping a fire department reeling from ... Read More

Paul Fletcher is the editor-in-chief for S.C. Lawyers Weekly, which is in the news group managed by SC Biz News, which includes the Columbia Regional Business Report, Charleston Regional Business Journal, GSA Business Report, SCB... Read More

An emerging narrative about the state of higher education in South Carolina – and across much of the nation – depicts a landscape of slowing student demand, skyrocketing tuition and fees, and inflated college spending that ha... Read More

In an extraordinary will written in 1886 and put into effect three years later with state approval of the university that would bear his name, Thomas Green Clemson set out to transform his beloved South Carolina through education.  ... Read More

By C. Grant Jackson South Carolina can expect continued slow and steady economic growth for 2018, according to economists with the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. Job growth, which research econo... Read More

In 1948, Cely Brothers Lumber Co. was formed by five brothers, all WWII veterans. Seventy years and three generations later, Cely Construction is still family owned and operated at the same location in Greenville. Samuel Cely, preside... Read More

Integral Solutions Group (ISG) marks a milestone in 2017 that not many companies can boast – 30 years in business. Over the course of those three decades, ISG has networked itself into an industry leader in managed services. The Sp... Read More

In a sign of increasing commercial interest in Greenville’s Pettigru Historic District, Babcock Investment Co. has scrapped plans to convert a nearly century-old schoolhouse into condos and townhomes and is now building professiona... Read More

This year marks the 70th anniversary of Cherry Bekaert LLP (“the Firm”), a nationally recognized, growth-oriented accounting, advisory and consulting firm. Cherry Bekaert is one of the leading accounting firms in the Southeas... Read More

Startup Roundup An insider’s view into Charleston’s Startup community. Curated by Thomas Heath As someone who advises startups and existing companies on the best ways to grow their businesses, I quite often get ask... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss   Terry Pressley didn’t expect much a few months ago when he heard about a job-training program called Back to Work. The Kingstree native came to Columbia after falling on hard times and becomi... Read More

Reed Wilson founded Palmetto Technology Group in 2007, when he saw that many small- and medium-sized companies were experiencing productivity challenges, security issues, and downtime due to relying on onsite servers and inexperienced em... Read More

The Blood Connection is proud to serve the needs of car crash victims, cancer patients, premature babies, and others by working to keep a steady supply of blood within our community. Donated blood is a lifeline to a patient fighting for ... Read More

Preparing to celebrate 20 years in business, Ivannovation is expert at providing foreign language translations to all businesses, including those in highly technical or difficult fields. The company specializes in assisting companies ... Read More

Are you a startup that needs investment to grow? Many entrepreneurs these days are turning to angel investors, typically a group of affluent individuals who provide capital to a business in exchange for  convertible debt or ownershi... Read More

Locally Epic launched in the summer  of 2017 with a mission to transform how people connect in the Greenville area. Locally Epic engages local consumers via a mobile platform that allows them to enhance their ability to find loca... Read More

It was 33 years ago that C. Dan Joyner, along with a group of businessmen in Greenville, recognized a need for a space to entertain clients and friends and enjoy upscale dining. So, in the summer of 1984, the Commerce Club was formed. Th... Read More

In 2002, the world of technology was radically different than today. Steve Jobs was still five years away from inventing the iPhone. Computers were running Windows 98, or Windows 2000. Google was only 3 years old. The United States w... Read More

By Barry Waldman Take a scorching hot industry with jobs growing like kudzu. Add a community pouring resources in to support it. Mix in a shallow pool of highly specialized talent being wooed from one end of the continent to the o... Read More

On Monday, the Palmetto State will have an extra million people visiting. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know why. The nation’s first total solar eclipse since 1979, and the first to cross from the West Co... Read More

In today’s digital age, like it or not, everyone has a personal brand. What are you doing about yours? I work with CEOs, entrepreneurs and business professionals to build their personal brands, and I’d like to share three ... Read More

Looking for an interesting and free way to grow your brand? Consider Facebook Live. Love it or hate it, the facts are undeniable. Facebook has more than 1.6 billion users. That’s BILLION folks. That type of exposure is power... Read More

By Melinda Waldrop Business is booming in the senior living industry, and that trend is likely to gather speed as an aging baby boomer population enters the picture. A June 8 ribbon-cutting ceremony heralded the latest area entry i... Read More

Running a business is never easy. In addition to the day to day challenges, bad ideas continue to come from Washington that make the cost of doing business even more difficult, if not impossible. The Border Adjustment Tax (BAT), a compon... Read More

It was the answer heard around the state as representatives of the S.C. House and Senate voted to override Gov. Henry McMaster’s veto of the proposed roads bill that raises state gas taxes for the first time since 1987. Whil... Read More

What is your story? In business today, whether or not you’re in sales or marketing, the time will come where you’re at an event and asked to introduce yourself, and what you do. Many call this introduction, an elevator pitch.... Read More

By Marc Rapport Contributing Writer   Moultrie Ball, Colin Griffin and Chloe Rodgers are doing very different things in the same place, the Bakery at BullStreet Common.  Ball makes and sells toys. Griffin builds web app... Read More

By Marc Rapport People regularly stop at The Bakery at BullStreet building on the old State Hospital grounds and knock on the door, asking what’s for sale. Software, maybe, but not sweet goods. The Bakery is indeed an old bak... Read More

By Anne Cleveland While there is an implicit assumption that a nonprofit should not generate a profit, the premise is profoundly inaccurate and untenable. I suspect that all business ventures assume that they are filling a need and pr... Read More

By Thomas Heath “This is probably the most appropriately named event ever,” mused Grier Allen, the CEO and co-founder of BoomTown. “The Startup Grind. For those of you who are in it, who know what I’m talki... Read More

By C. Grant Jackson As redevelopment of the 1600 block of Columbia’s Main Street reaches a crescendo, eyes are turning north toward the 1700 and 1800 blocks. Three major initiatives hold the key to redevelopment on those two ... Read More

“Siri, turn on 'do not disturb.’” Those six words have changed my life. Let me explain ... In today’s world of connected electronics, I sometimes feel like one of Pavlov’s dogs. My iPhone pings, and I... Read More

“I’ve got the brains, you’ve got the looks. Let’s make lots of money.” So goes the song Opportunities, from the '80s electronic pop duo the Pet Shop Boys. These days, it takes a whole lot more than i... Read More

I can’t stand networking. To me, it’s inauthentic. If someone is trying to “network” with me, I usually find they’re only looking out for themselves and how they could sell me something.  That&rsq... Read More

From Feb. 13-26, 2017 print issue of the Columbia Regional Business Report By C. Grant Jackson Contributing Writer Columbia architect and developer Scott Garvin is planning a restaurant, coffee shop, and office space for a repur... Read More

Sales and marketing folks: Does this routine sound familiar? Go to event. Meet a prospect. Ask for their card. Send them an email follow-up. Hope they open it and respond. (then start all over again.) Isn’t t... Read More

Taxes are something that business owners are all too familiar with, especially when it comes to property tax. Not only do business owners pay these property taxes as a citizen, on their house and other property, but they also pay prop... Read More

  By CHRISTINA LEE KNAUSS   Can classroom time for employees reduce hassles for customers at big-box retailers and also improve the bottom line? Wal-Mart believes it can, and that was part of the reason it was back-... Read More

By Marc Rapport The Columbia area needs to “magnify its opportunities” but is making a lot of progress as business and community leaders work to build a thriving, dynamic place for people to live, work, learn and play in ... Read More

By Marc Rapport Amidst the sound and the fury of the presidential campaign there was one small detail not discussed. “America is broke. They never got to that,” said Laurence Kotlikoff, the best-selling author, columnis... Read More

By Holly Fisher Contributing Writer All Pat Walker, president and CEO of Lowcountry Food Bank, has to do is look outside her office on Azalea Drive in North Charleston to see food inaccessibility. The nearest grocery store is a b... Read More

At least some Midlands members of the S.C. House of Representatives are hopeful that changes in the state’s leadership coupled with some pending rules changes in the S.C.  Senate could lead to moving forward on issues like fix... Read More

By Marc Rapport South Carolina’s economy seems to be on a steady course. While the growth of the past several years has leveled off, the state’s job market is indeed growing, to the point where good help can be hard to fin... Read More