When Frank Kizy and his wife, Dr. Amber Kizy, sat down to pick a location for her first dental practice, they made a profound discovery from a simple Google search. “We had originally considered West Bloomfield, where we have family,” says Frank, who previously owned a Papa Romano’s Pizza franchise in Oak Park. “But when […]

Bob Landaal spent summers during high school and college working in his grandfather’s plant at Landaal Packaging Systems, originally founded in 1959 as Flint Boxmakers. But after graduating from Western Michigan University in 1998, Bob was done with the family business. Or so he thought. “Four years into working for someone else, a lightbulb went […]

In the fall of 2011, Melissa Withey was working at a local salon when she learned she would soon be unemployed. “One day we came in to find a note saying that the owner was closing the salon in two weeks,” said Withey, who had previously taken business classes at Mott Community College and the […]

When John O’Sullivan and his former business partner, the late Michael Sullivan, first purchased the rights to the Stroh’s and Miller brands for the Flint area, the company was distributing about 400,000 cases of beer annually. But the year was 1976 – right around the time that Miller Lite came out – so the volume […]

When Ben Baker decided to throw an outdoor music festival last summer, he gave himself 45 days to make it happen. “It wasn’t impossible, but it wasn’t easy,” says Baker, owner of Rollic Group and Cool Bus Party Rental, both Genesee County-based businesses. The then 21-year-old had planned to fill the 40 acres at Salt […]