Michigan’s minimum wage and income inequality

No matter how you spin, slice, or season the data, it comes out looking the same: Income disparity has grown since the mid-1970s.  The Gini...

Michigan shoppers: Watch your step in the grocery aisles

Imagine walking through the produce section in your local grocery store. Your feet slip from under you. You hit the floor. As you feel the...

New rules for transferring business real property without uncapping

Will transferring business real property from one family entity to another trigger higher property taxes? That depends on whether the receiving entity is under “common...

Can the Heartland teach us to innovate better together?

The year 2020 brought us a pandemic, deepened political divides and highlighted long-existing inequalities.

Advisory boards: legal tips and potential traps

An advisory board for your family-owned company can be a great asset. But setting one up carelessly can create confusion, destroy confidence and expose...

Behavioral health hospital critical to the region

Mercy Health Saint Mary’s and Forest View Hospital have a long history of serving Kent County and surrounding communities with high quality and compassionate behavioral health services, regardless of an individual's ability to pay.

City parking ‘study’ was no study and assumed a conclusion

Grand Rapids city commissioners are considering a wide-ranging distortion and redistribution of parking areas and rates along with behavior modification methods in a comparatively...

Dear millennials, GR is another mythological siren call

Grand Rapids has a big problem to solve, one that cannot be resolved only by the public or private sector but — once again...

Determining ‘large employers,’ ‘full-time employees’ for PPACA

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, beginning in 2014, any company designated as a "large employer" will be required to offer minimum...

HR professionals face challenges with aging work force

For those of you who have been around the business environment for a while, you might recognize the evolution of that functional organization that...

Why even a bad guy won’t pay your attorneys’ fees

I've been a trial lawyer for 32 years. And if I had a dollar for every time I heard a litigant vow to collect...

The not-so-simple world of the nonprofit sector

My career has been spent in the nonprofit sector and I've heard dozens of comments that marginalize the work that we do. Over the...

Ownership transition for HVAC companies: look back, think forward

The market for transitioning ownership of HVAC companies has long been active, and 2020 was no exception.

Can you ‘divorce proof’ your family-owned business?

A significant risk facing family-owned businesses is almost uniformly unaddressed: the risk that the company gets embroiled in the divorce of one of its...

Today’s new essential leadership relationship: executive coach

An executive coaching relationship should no longer be viewed as an optional relationship for senior leaders.

Low wages causing the skilled trades shortages?

The Grand Rapids Business Journal recently published an op-ed and comment that lays out the two most likely reasons for more demand by employers...

Parking narrative full of little white lies

D-Day, demolition day, is upon us; the city officially closes the Area 5 (Arena Area) parking lots April 9, eliminating almost another 600 parking...

The defense against medical monopolies, cost hikes

Yet another artful dodge of the Michigan Certificate of Need process will cost the citizens of Ottawa County, particularly in Grand Haven, another jolting...

Market-rate housing saturation compels a new plan

One year ago, public discussion in Grand Rapids seemed to have enough momentum to portend promise of affordable housing problem solving, but as the...

Auto insurance medical benefit cap shifts monster burden to taxpayers

Gov. Rick Snyder in January’s State of the State called again for insurance regulation reform action. Given that Michigan has more insurance regulation on...