GBJ Staff

Make success actionable

by Sarah Hathorn

Many leaders have a clear vision of their dream of professional destiny and legacy. But they lack a plan that connects the dots between those ultimate goals and today’s to-do list.

  1. Destiny starts today
    Reevaluate your roadmap to success and backtrack it with benchmarks in the form of smaller goals that are relevant subsets of the major accomplishments you desire. That will ensure that the big picture you are creating is constructed piece-by-piece by the smaller tasks you get done this week, this month, and this year.
  2. Think big, play bigger

    To play your biggest game you have to first align your mind with your dreams. Every great achievement begins inside, where ideas are the seeds of the changes we want to manifest. Retrain your brain to listen to your internal raving fan – not your internal critic and naysayer. Deliberately adjust your internal perspective to genuinely reinvent yourself. That will connect you to the reservoir of energy and innovation you need to conquer fears, surpass competitors, and realize your full potential.

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GBJ Staff

Northside Hospital expands radiology services to Gwinnett

Northside Hospital has expanded its radiology services with the opening of a new outpatient medical imaging center in Buford. Northside/Sugar Hill Imaging provides high-quality advanced imaging services including digital x-ray, digital screening mammography with computer-aided detection (CAD), bone densitometry and computed tomography (CT) services for patients of all ages.

“We are excited that Gwinnett County families can now access state-of-the-art imaging services, for which Northside is known, that better serve their needs and are all much closer to home,” said Lisa Gilman-Lowery, manager of radiology services for Northside/Sugar Hill Imaging.

All images are read and interpreted by an on site, board-certified radiologist, who, along side Northside’s staff of registered technologists, provide the highest level of customer service. Through the hospital’s Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS), additional radiologists and physicians can view images from any location, in order to consult on a case, resulting in faster diagnosis and treatment.

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GBJ Staff

Gwinnett students vie for $50,000 business funding

GGC President Daniel J. Kaufman (center) celebrates with business students Elizabeth Smith, Shalaya Morissette, Adam Herbert, Sasha Ruiz and Kathy Cheng.

A student team from Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) advances to compete for investment funding in support of its plan to eradicate adult illiteracy in our state. The GGC team is one of two winners from a March 3 Social Business Workshop, initiated by the University System of Georgia (USG). The team will participate in the 10-week Village Capital-Atlanta funding competition for a $50,000 business investment.

The team’s business plan was inspired by GGC student Shalaya Morissette’s personal life experience – her mother could not read. As a result, Morissette and four other GGC business majors, Adam Herbert, Kathy Cheng, Sasha Ruiz and Elizabeth C. Smith, created the Read4Life! program. It targets what Morissette considers the ‘lost’ demographic: adults who either did not pick up strong language skills early in life or do not consider themselves to be illiterate enough to seek assistance.

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GBJ Staff

Taxing energy used in manufacturing

by Chuck Eaton

Georgians have made it clear that attracting and retaining jobs should be the No. 1 priority of every elected official. Late last fall, my colleagues on the Georgia Public Service Commission and I sent a letter asking the Georgia General Assembly to consider removing the sales tax manufacturers pay on energy, including electricity, used in the manufacturing process. Governor Nathan Deal supports this idea, as do Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Speaker David Ralston.

Manufacturing employs hundreds of thousands of skilled workers in Georgia. Like virtually every other state, Georgia does not tax raw materials used in manufacturing. Instead, one sales tax is applied to the finished product to avoid a pyramiding scenario where sales tax is paid on top of embedded sales tax. Georgia is one of only 10 states, and the only state in the Southeast, to charge full sales tax on energy.

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GBJ Staff

How to choose a janitorial service

Photo credit: Stephen Coburn

Hiring a janitorial cleaning service can be very cost effective for small businesses that don’t have enough work to justify employing a janitor.

The trick is to nail down your most important issues before beginning your quest.

Then take your time and follow these steps to find the right fit for your company and facility.

  1. What specific cleaning services do you need? Separate your ‘must have’ list from a ‘nice to have’ list.
  2. How often and what time of day will you require these services?
  3. How much are you willing to pay?
  4. Look for a company that will maintain the philosophy and professional image of your business.

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GBJ Staff

Gwinnett transit fares increase

A ride on Gwinnett County Transit (GTC) now costs more.

The fare hike accomplishes Gwinnett’s goal that riders pay about a third of the entire cost to provide bus service with federal and state subsidies funding the remainder. This fare increase will prevent cuts to transit service.

GTC will monitor ridership and make minor service adjustments as necessary to maintain cost-effective operations.

GTC serves Gwinnett riders with express, local and paratransit services. To purchase a Breeze Card for easy transfers with MARTA, or for more details about Gwinnett County Transit routes and fees, visit www.gwinnettcounty.com.

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GBJ Staff

New state law changes business license process

Businesses in Gwinnett County will soon receive occupation tax certificate renewal forms in the mail, but before certificates can be renewed, applicants must comply with new state requirements that went into effect on Jan. 1. During the 2011 legislative session, the Georgia General Assembly passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act (House Bill 87), placing new requirements on local governments and businesses to ensure they comply with federal and state immigration laws.

The first requirement calls for any person, corporation or LLC seeking a public benefit—such as an occupation tax certificate (business license), alcohol license or contract—to submit a Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) affidavit and present a secure and verifiable document as approved by the state Attorney General. Examples of the approved documents include a driver’s license, passport or legal immigrant documentation.

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GBJ Staff

Catering to complainers?

Listening to a disgruntled customer can often times seem like hearing fingernails scratching a chalkboard. You flinch and cringe in anticipation of the fallout – they trash your product, service or how your company handles customer issues. And thanks to social media, it’s not long before these unhappy souls have trumpeted their dislike far and wide. But have you ever considered they just might be doing you a favor?

Customer complaints highlight areas of vulnerability. No, you don’t have to agree with their methods, isn’t it worth finding out if there is a genuine grievance driving their angst?

Silence, on the other hand, is more deadly because you may never know what caused your loyal customer to walk away. When you take stock of your customer activity and examine customer lists, what always jumps out are those clients you haven’t seen or heard from in a while. That’s a red flag that the relationship derailed somewhere along the track, but you didn’t realize it.

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GBJ Staff

Local franchise promotes healthy snacking

Everyone starts the New Year with a resolution to eat better or some variation on that theme. So the concept of eating healthy snacks from vending machines is somewhat alien. Vending machines aren’t typically associated with the words ‘healthy,’ ‘fresh’ or ‘nutritious,’ but Fresh Healthy Vending hopes to change your perception.

View the Gwinnett Magazine Special Report about this innovative concept and the new local franchise of this popular national company is starting a revolution by replacing candy bars with nutritious ‘on the go snacks’ like whole grain chips, fruit juices and snack mixes.

Nearly a dozen local schools and businesses have embraced this culture change. Cornerstone Christian Academy in Norcross installed a Fresh Healthy Vending machine in their lunchroom close to two months ago. Headmaster Colin Creel admits the new machine is now the talk of his school and so popular, the machine is restocked at least once a week.

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GBJ Staff

Catalyst for economic transformation

Calibratior II Stella Fritschi, WIKA Instrument Corporation

Gwinnett County ushered in 2012 as a Georgia Certified Work Ready Community. A master vision set in motion five years ago laid the groundwork for Georgia counties, like Gwinnett, to transform their economies. The first metro Atlanta ‘core’ county and the largest county in the state to achieve this designation, Gwinnett continues to attract new businesses by cultivating the talent necessary to staff existing jobs and to master future innovative technologies.

Georgia Work Ready began in 2006 when then Governor Sonny Perdue launched a statewide initiative to establish a purposeful link between industry and education to create a regional talent pool. The State’s commitment is three-pronged: provide a mechanism to understand skills of a company’s current workforce, develop training programs and establish reliable hiring criteria. To become certified, counties must meet education benchmarks and certify a percentage of the available and current workforce.

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