Is it your business’ one-year anniversary and you have no one to celebrate it with? That was me on March 18 this year, having to make the tough decision to close my doors to the public. The day also happened to be one year from the grand opening of my boutique, Erika Lynn Studio and Boutique. Immediately, it felt like survival of the fittest! Every store and small business … [Read more...]

The effects of COVID-19 are undeniable and reverberate within each and every home. While we cannot see the virus itself, change is evident and has impacted us in many ways. It may appear that we have lost freedoms, but we also have gained new opportunities. This is how some families are taking the lemons of a pandemic and making lemonade out of this experience. The … [Read more...]

Family lives transitioned quickly in March 2020 throughout South Carolina and the entire United States. Work layoffs, school closures, medical offices closed, as well as many other nonessential businesses shutting their doors for several weeks, even months. Athletes around the world could no longer take the court, hit the field or start their engines. Theme parks, trails, … [Read more...]

When the pulse started to take a turn and locals began taking COVID-19 more seriously, businesses became either essential or non-essential, a critical classification for small and micro businesses with impacts that will last long after the pandemic. Local towns issued stay-at-home orders. Beaches were closed off to non-residents. Visitors were essentially turned away at the … [Read more...]

From Chuck Berry to The Beach Boys, The Beatles to Prince, our favorite musicians have always sung about cars. Now, Americans may soon be singing the praises of the people who make them. Call it stepping up to the plate out of a corporate desire to help amid the current coronavirus pandemic, or call it big businesses reacting to some significant “arm-twisting” by President … [Read more...]

Five… four… three… “I can’t believe it!” Two… one… “We did it!” It’s all over! The University of Dayton Flyers are your 2020 NCAA Basketball National Champions! “YESSSSSSSSS!” I have replayed this scenario in my mind over and over and over again throughout the past six months. The shock. The excitement. The pure unadulterated joy of my alma mater winning its … [Read more...]

In many ways, the COVID-19 situation in hotspots around the world has been reminiscent of a fictional novel or a tale from centuries before modern medicine. A pandemic spreads across the world, the global economy comes to a screeching halt, people are confined to their homes and hospitals serve as the frontlines while doctors, nurses and staff put themselves in harm’s way, … [Read more...]

We’ve all heard stories about wildly unfortunate individuals who have been struck by lightning. Then there are those rarest of rare people who have been struck twice. Meet Ed Bimonte, musician, entrepreneur and dedicated New Yorker. No, he wasn’t one of those individuals struck by lightning twice. But he did survive the aftermath of our nation’s most devastating terror … [Read more...]

A trip to the grocery store used to look very different. Devoted meal preppers might make one big trip a week, while others popped in daily to pick up whatever they were craving that day. You might have toted a well-thought out list or maybe you preferred to browse around, hoping to be inspired by what’s fresh or on sale. Now that we’re all hyper-focused on making as few … [Read more...]

The year 2020 ushered in a crisis of global magnitude no living person has ever experienced. People from all over the world have watched in disbelief and horror as an invisible and lethal enemy moved with exponential speed from a village in China into more than 180 countries in the world, bringing death and destruction to life as we have known it. The world is reeling from … [Read more...]