CONTRIBUTING WRITER PROFILE

Construction of custom-built homes are stretching out to a year, said Rob Lucas of Southeastern Family Homes. The result, builders say, is a change in the way they market and sell new homes. A group of homebuilders recently met in ... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss Images of packed container ships waiting for weeks to get into ports on the West Coast have been in the news for the past few months, highlighting an issue that is reaching into nearly every industry and home i... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss  The sprawling new Mark Anthony Brewing facility off Shop Road in Columbia represents what area leaders would like to see more of in Richland County: an influx of major manufacturers that will help th... Read More

  College students who need to learn digital skills to compete in today’s workforce are the target of a new science, technology, engineering and math-focused program at Benedict College.   ServiceNow will be in... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss The Meeting Street Scholarship Fund, aimed at helping high-achieving graduates pay for college, is now partnering with The Darla Moore Foundation.   This new partnership now enables the scholarship... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss People from diverse backgrounds who want to study software engineering will get a boost from a recent grant to the Midlands Technical College Foundation from Colonial Life.   The $135,000 grant wil... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss Roslyn Clark Artis, president and CEO of Benedict College, has been appointed as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II Presidents Council. Her term will begin immediately and cont... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss  Low-income veterans facing financial and legal hurdles will be able to get expanded services from the Veterans Legal Clinic at the University of South Carolina thanks to a recent $225,000 grant from The B... Read More

Early in my career, I was working with a young, talented faculty member at the University of Michigan on the commercialization of one of his innovations. We thought we had everything figured out. The technical path for develop... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss   Ask financially strapped South Carolina tenants and their landlords to sum up the past several months and two words will probably be at the top of the list: confusion and frustration.   ... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss  Students from around the Midlands are learning about career opportunities in manufacturing this week through a special event taking place on the campus of Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corp. in West Columbi... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss   When the federal government unveiled new COVID-19 vaccination mandates in September, leaders at Colonial Life went to work to find solutions for employers who might feel overwhelmed by the prospect ... Read More

What if I told you that I could give you the answer to this question? That if you listen to every single word I say here, the young professionals at your company will never leave. Now, we must be realistic here and recognize that life ha... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss    The amount of office space available in the Columbia area is poised to increase soon, according to a report on the third quarter of 2021 released this week by Colliers | South Carolina.  ... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss  The popular Midlands restaurant chain Lizard’s Thicket closed its Beltline Boulevard location in recent weeks. There’s nothing wrong with the building and the chain isn’t giving up on th... Read More

Habitat for Humanity transforms neighborhoods one block at a time Ask someone what they know about Habitat for Humanity and chances are, they will likely know us as a philanthropic organization that builds houses for lower income ... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss It’s not often that a financial advisor looks across a desk to see a teenager asking for investment advice. That’s exactly what happened back in May, however, to Angie Thames, a financial adv... Read More

Columbia IT staffing agency adding finance and accounting services You know SYSTEMTEC as the Columbia-based IT staffing agency that identifies the most qualified candidates for technology positions. For nearly a quarter of a c... Read More

This story was originally published in the July 26, 2021 edition of the Charleston Regional Business Journal. The banking industry has seen branch footprints shrink nationwide over the past several years as customers go mobile. ... Read More

Full-service public relations firm provides more than marketing If you are going to spend a day with MPA Strategies, you better wear some running shoes because they are always on the move. The day might begin with a meeting ab... Read More

Law firm has more than 150 combined years of experience Anyone in need of legal services in the Midlands would do well to consider a venerable firm going back a half century, anchored by six practitioners selected as Super Lawyers... Read More

Civil engineering and surveying company builds communities At Civil Engineering of Columbia, our expertise in civil engineering and surveying is just one of many aspects of the work we do for our clients. We look at the entiret... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss WE BUY HOUSES! I WANT TO BUY YOUR HOUSE! Postcards, flyers, letters and roadside signs with these slogans have blanketed Midlands neighborhoods in the past few years, with skyrocketing demand in the curre... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss Columbia realtor Graeme Moore, owner of The Moore Co., recently had an experience that would be considered highly unusual in almost any other recent era of real estate sales except this one. He sold an e... Read More

Elgin-based company can handle all aspects of construction Contact Info: 749 Kirkland Circle Elgin, S.C. 29046 803-572-4300 sacon.business.site When a business needs a new office, store or restaurant, or it needs to renovat... Read More

Commercial real estate company combines experience with innovation Innovation in commercial real estate is on the rise. Individuals throughout the Midlands and beyond are looking to buy, sell, lease, finance and manage commercial ... Read More

Family-owned company serves the Midlands' heating and cooling needs Contact Info: 3102 Bronx Road Columbia, S.C. 29204 803-772-7715 coolcarehvac.com We at Cool Care Heating & Air are excited about celebrating our 20... Read More

A confluence of labor market forces, combined with an availability of federal funds, have produced a solution targeting two problems at once: unemployment and industry-specific labor shortages. A new state program unveiled by S.C. Gov... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss  A trip to the neighborhood Starbucks is a daily mainstay for many people around Columbia, and come August, Midlands fans of the Seattle-based coffee titan will have a chance to experience their favori... Read More

The strong women in our lives deserve to be celebrated. They are our moms, our sisters, our wives, best friends and mentors. They challenge and empower us to acknowledge women from every walk of life for their achievements, more than... Read More

By Jenny Peterson Contributing writer An 80-year-old abandoned ice processing plant on Spruill Avenue in North Charleston is getting new life as developers have broken ground to redevelop it into a modern and flexible office park. ... Read More

As a football coach who has led his teams to seven national championships, Nick Saban knows a little something about traveling the road to success. And in Saban’s eyes, success in football or in business isn’t achieved by foc... Read More

By Jenny Peterson Contributing Writer Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, it’s a seller’s market for golf carts. After more than a year of staying in, Charleston residents desperate for stimulation have turned to thril... Read More

When it comes to residential real estate, the Upstate is in the right place at the right time. The vibrant, diverse market continues to attract millennials, retirees, and relocating and expanding companies and their employees. The region... Read More

By Danielle Besser, Public Relations Manager, Upstate SC Alliance Jigsaw puzzles saw a huge surge in sales in 2020, as many people hunkered at home. In an uncanny coincidence, puzzles were a theme at the Upstate SC Alliance’s... Read More

By Jennifer Floyd, President, HR Experts on Demand Ensuring your people are engaged in your business is a vital ingredient to your company’s success. Launched in 2016, HR Experts on Demand specializes in helping businesses su... Read More

Carlos Phillips, president and CEO, Greenville Chamber For more than 130 years, the Greenville Chamber set bold visions for Greenville’s future and rallied the community to meet these challenges. In 2009, business leaders formed... Read More

By Barry Waldman Contributing Writer At a key entry point to the city of Charleston comes an office building designed to harken to the nearby port and the bridge it sits beside, rising from the ground like a cargo container being lif... Read More

By Eric B. Michael, Senior Partner, KYEL Group Inc. In the early 1990s, I was treating many patients in the clinical setting suffering from similar mechanisms of injury.  Although they worked in diverse industrial settings, the r... Read More

By Marc Aleksinas, General Manager, Metal Chem Inc. For the past 35 years, Metal Chem has been actively involved in improving the chemistry used in the surface finishing industry. Focusing on research and development (R&D) and pro... Read More

By Christina Lee Knauss Phones started ringing and messages started flying at many financial institutions around South Carolina when the second round of funding for the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program loans laun... Read More

By Chris Manley, CEO, Engenius Half a dozen years ago I read a study suggesting that, by 2025, Fortune 500 companies would be spending 80% of their marketing budget on digital marketing and only 20% on traditional marketing. Tradition... Read More

By Dusty Locke, VP of Operations, Swafford Transport and Warehouse In 1983, our CEO, Van Swafford, launched Swafford Transport and Warehouse. Starting as a freight brokerage service, the business has evolved into a multiple service Th... Read More

By Lauren Simer, Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness, Greenville Technical College Oftentimes, we are constrained by our own thought process.  My favorite quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson states, "This time, like... Read More

By William Jackson, Co-Owner, Instel Power Products Our world runs on electricity — that becomes obvious whenever there’s an outage. It’s a hassle to lose power at home, but imagine what it’s like for a company... Read More

Randall Bentley,  President, Lee & Associates Quietly, over a career that spans more than 40 years and shows no sign of sign of slowing down, Randall Bentley is part of a generation that has left an indelible mark on the Upst... Read More

By Bill Simmons,  Founder, Thrive Business Strategies Does this sound familiar? You’re working really hard at your business across all areas -- trying to improve systems and processes, paying attention to your brand and pos... Read More

This year has been dramatically different than what we all expected for our families, communities and businesses. But what I’ve learned as a small business owner in the Lowcountry is that with the support from our local community, ... Read More

By Jenny Peterson Historically, homeowners looking to purchase a flood insurance policy have had largely one option: the federally backed National Flood Insurance Program. South Carolina legislators have passed key legislation ... Read More

Lately there has been confusion regarding whether businesses have the ability to refuse cash payments, instead relying solely on credit card transactions or electronic funds transfers such as mobile payment apps. This switch to “ca... Read More

COVID-19 has significantly impacted many of our day-to-day activities. It has changed how we shop, socialize, work, travel, and the list goes on.  But this pandemic doesn’t have to change the trajectory of your educatio... Read More