Local Business Category
Gwinnett Hospital Says No to Employees Who Smoke
July 8th, 2010 Categories: Local Business
Gwinnett Medical Center just announced that it will no longer hire new employees that smoke. This story has received a ton of press coverage since it was announced just yesterday. Existing employee/smokers will be grandfathered in under the old policy and those employees will be encouraged to quit and offered smoking cessation help, etc.
This seems kind of logical – doesn’t it?
There’s already a smoke-free policy in place for all facilities of Gwinnett Medical Center. So, I guess this is the natural progression toward being fully smoke-free. After all, smokers smell smokey – even if they are not smoking in your presence or on the job.
Don’t get me wrong, I actually love the smell of smoke. I smoked for 15+ years until my wife and I quit on New Years Eve many years ago. I can’t remember what year it was but it was in the late 90’s.
So, I’m not anti-smoking or anti-smokers. Let’s be clear on that point.
But, it does just seem to make sense that this move would come from the hospital? Duh!
At this point everyone in the whole world knows that smoking is incredibly bad for your health. How could it be any other way?(at the hospital).
What do you think?
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Gwinnett Hospital Bans New Hires That Smoke
July 8th, 2010 Categories: Local Business
Gwinnett Medical Center just announced that it will no longer hire new employees that smoke. This story has received a ton of press coverage since it was announced just yesterday. Existing employee/smokers will be grandfathered in under the old policy and those employees will be encouraged to quit and offered smoking cessation help, etc.
This seems kind of logical – doesn’t it?
There’s already a smoke-free policy in place for all facilities of Gwinnett Medical Center. So, I guess this is the natural progression toward being fully smoke-free. After all, smokers smell smokey – even if they are not smoking in your presence or on the job.
Don’t get me wrong, I actually love the smell of smoke. I smoked for 15+ years until my wife and I quit on New Years Eve many years ago. I can’t remember what year it was but it was in the late 90’s.
So, I’m not anti-smoking or anti-smokers. Let’s be clear on that point.
But, it does just seem to make sense that this move would come from the hospital? Duh!
At this point everyone in the whole world knows that smoking is incredibly bad for your health. How could it be any other way?(at the hospital).
What do you think?
(this was originally posted on GwinnettDwellings.com)
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Positive Economic News Is Coming
February 2nd, 2009 Categories: Gwinnett, Local Business
We all have been reading and hearing of all the poor economic news for going on two years now and personally I am tired of it. Yes, the economy has some serious issues that need to be addressed, however we all need to make sure we get our heads out of the sand and start making a difference to help bolster the economy.
How do we do this? Personally I think we need to stop focusing on all the negative and start looking at positive signs that are out there. Are you aware that there are positive things going on in the economy that are rarely if ever mentioned in the media outlets? I am going to start blogging on a weekly basis the Positive Economic News as it relates to real estate and the other areas of our local and national market.
So here goes:
Insurance company Geico is planning on hiring over 850 new employees in the first quarter of 2009.
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/01/26/daily11.html
December Existing Home Sales Gain Nationwide.
http://gwinnettdwellings.com/2009/01/28/december-existing-home-sales-gain/
FedEx is doubling the current order of Boeing 777’s. Maybe they are looking towards a rebound and plan to be ready for the boom in business.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/jan/12/fedex-doubles-order-big-boeing-777-freighters/
Look for more Positive Economic News coming soon, and please let me know if you see any information that needs to be added.
Now go out and make something happen and stimulate the economy.
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Commercial Real Estate Opportunities
November 12th, 2008 Categories: Dacula, Financing, Gwinnett, Local Business
As the owner of Signature Lending Group and a mortgage partner of Diamond Dwellings, I am pleased to announce the addition of Crown Funding Group. This company will be dealing strictly with commercial real estate acquisition and refinances. You may be asking yourself “why in the world would you want to do commercial business”? The answer is very simple….your local bank is where most people go and quite honestly the first place people think of when needing a commercial loan. Local banks have tightened up tremendously this year and this is a niche that Crown Funding can capture. I have been hearing horror stories daily from friends who work at banks. They have A++ credit borrowers who have lots cash in the bank and they still can’t get the deal done. By using a network of lenders, we have the ability to fund anything from a church to a gas station. We also have non recourse loans available. I guarantee your local bank cannot offer that program. We’re very excited about our new addition and welcome any comments or questions that you might have. For more information, call Chuck Walden or Tom Barnard at 678-387-5587. Or email tom@crownfundinggroup.net .
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Rainy day plans in Gwinnett
October 24th, 2008 Categories: Entertainment, Gwinnett, Lawrenceville, Local Business, Shopping
Garrett at the Controls
Today when we got to preschool, we discovered that the school would be closed for the day due to power issues.
And the energetic 4 year old needs to get out and do some things… today was rainy and cold… So, we decided to run out to Discover Mills and wander around. One of the things on the long list has been hitting the Slingshot Speedway to run some laps on their GIANT slot car track. We have spectated on multiple occasions, and it was time to step up to the controls.
When Garrett saw the Lightning McQueen car… the decision was made. We were going to race. The price wasn’t bad, we got 5 minutes of racing for $3 each. Of course the cars we selected were the slowest, but that also meant that we would have the best chance of making it around the track without a major catastrophe.
About Slingshot Speedway
Garrett did great. His only mishap was Lightning losing his body shell after running into my wreckage. And I created wreckage 3 times in the 5 minutes. Twice in the same turn. Obviously the Kurt Busch #2 car had an issue with that particular turn. It was a little faster than the Lightning McQueen car… and that was just enough to get me into trouble.
There are plenty of other things to do at Discover Mills… I’ve even heard that people shop there. In addition to the speedway some cool things that you might want to try are the carousel in the food court, the lego play table in Legoland, watching the crazy kids on bikes and skateboards in the Woodward Skatepark of Atlanta, catching a flick at the AMC 18 at Discover Mills, Dinner and a Joust at Medival Times… mini-golf, Jillian’s, Jump for Joy… ok, there are a LOT of things to do.
I know that I certainly don’t think of the mall as a place to go on a rainy day to keep a kid entertained, but it proved to be a great way to spend a couple of hours, and only a couple of bucks on a rainy cold day.
from LilburnDwellings.com
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Voyles Overhead Door – Earned My Business
October 24th, 2008 Categories: Local Business
Yesterday was just one of those days. First my wife leaves to head to school with the kids and she calls me and says that the garage door would not close, then my car had an issue that needed to be addressed as well. Great start to the day let me tell you.
We have had issues with the garage door not closing so I thought it was no big deal. Adjust the infrared eye and get on with my day. Little did I know that the whole frame holding the garage door to the wall had come loose and a bolt had come out of the frame. Never a good sign. Usually I can fix most of the minor stuff around the house, but this was a little out of my league so I decided I needed help.
Hamilton Mill, where I live, has a very useful neighborhood website, www.hmill.com, that I frequent and I remembered seeing a recommendation for a garage door company so I looked them up. Brent Voyles, who owns the company lives in Hamilton Mill and I like to pass on business to my neighbors so I gave him a call. A few minutes later he returned my call and I explained the situation to him and he let me know that he may not be able to fix the issue but he would have someone out to my home by the end of the day to at least get the door to close.
When Jason the service technician arrived he looked at the issue and within 10 minutes had the problem resolved. He then went ahead and looked at the other door, lubricated all the springs and hinges and made minor adjustments to both doors so they worked more efficiently. Remember, I did not call them out to make these preventive maintenance repairs, he did them without even asking.
When he was done I asked him what the charge was and the total was $65. In my line of work, personal referrals go a long way and Voyles overhead door has earned by personal and referral business from here on out. If you need any type of garage door repair or installation, give them a call at 678-793-5556 or visit them on the web at www.VoylesOverheadDoor.com
Great job guys, and start looking for my referral calls.
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Gwinnett Medical Center Is a Top Citizen in The Community
October 2nd, 2008 Categories: Local Business
Today I had a chance to meet with Andrea Wehrmann, PR coordinator for Gwinnett Medical Center. It was pretty amazing to hear about all the new programs & services that GMC is working on. They are really growing & expanding operations right along with the whole rest of Gwinnett County.
Andrea’s also very involved with the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce & a huge advocate for business growth in Gwinnett.
Click below to hear Andrea explain a bit about the new imaging center at Hamilton Mill as well as new sports programs from Gwinnett Medical.
This video explains some more details about the Gwinnett student sports IMPACT program. IMPACT is helping to monitor recovery progress for student athletes who suffer concussions.
You can also check out my post from last month about the new Hamilton Mill imaging center.
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Gwinnett CPA Firm Has All The Answers!
October 1st, 2008 Categories: Local Business
I sat down today with Ben Robinson at Allegiance Strategists. Their a local CPA firm here in the Hamilton Mill area. Ben’s group has clients all over metro Atlanta doing tax work for small business & individuals. We’re excited to announce that Allegiance Strategists will also be a guest contributor to this site with lots of cool tips as tax season approaches.
Here’s a quick minute from my conversation with Ben. His number is 678.541.0368
Email: ben@northatlantacpa.com
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Local Gwinnett Distributor for Shaklee Products Tells the Straight Truth
September 29th, 2008 Categories: Local Business
Camille Larkin is a local school teacher at Mill Creek High & she’s also a neighbor here in Hamilton Mill Golf Club. She’s become really passionate about “her other job” – selling Shaklee products!
Since I’m a career salesman, I’m always happy to meet with good sales people. I was impressed with Camille’s detailed knowledge of the product line. I definitely had the impression that she cares about helping people too. Here’s just a quick 2 minutes from our conversation today:
You can get more info from Camille Larkin @ 678.480.4262 or Shaklee.net
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Gwinnett County Life Coach is Changing Lives
September 29th, 2008 Categories: Local Business
Here’s my interview today with Charmaine Augustin from Lifestyles and Trends, LLC. Charmaine has a new radio show on WJJC. She’s also got a thriving local business as a life coach (and she’s a published author too!)
Here’s a link to her new book that is called Nine to Five or Something Like That
You can also visit her website by clicking on the image below.
Charmaine Augustin
Diamond Dwellings is “all about local business” (of course, real estate is our favorite business! 
If you’ve got a local business or charity – or you’ve just got something to share with the community, send email to matt@diamonddwellings.com or call me at 678.414.5991
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