Respite care refers to a short time of rest or relief. Respite allows for some down time for both you and your loved one to be relieved of the daily routine and allows your loved one to be cared for by skilled and qualified caregivers. Respite allows caregivers time to take care of their own medical appointments, errands or just take time for them. This time is very much needed in order for the caregiver to be able to maintain their health and wellbeing in this role. Many caregivers feel selfish if they take this needed break; however, it makes the person a better caregiver. The role of being the caregiver is one of the most important and rewarding roles a person can have in their lifetime. The role does come with many stresses and challenges though.

If you find yourself caring for someone else, follow these helpful tips:

1.  Educate yourself—knowing about your loved one’s condition and needs helps you to be a better advocate for them.

2. Ask for help—knowing when to say you need help is key; don’t be afraid to ask.

3. Take a time out—it’s okay to find a quiet place in your home to regroup and seek solace.

4. Exercise—exercise allows you to relieve stress and tension and keeps up your care giving endurance.

5.  Get rest—being tired and run down makes you an ineffective caregiver. Get your rest when you can so you can keep up your role.

6.  Eat properly—eating properly is just as important as getting your rest. Eat a properly balanced meal and don’t forget to drink plenty of water.

7.  Join a support group—gaining support from others who are going through or have gone through the same stresses is very helpful in surviving your caregiver role. Talking has healing properties.

8. Hold family meetings—allowing others in the family input into care decisions takes pressure off of the caregiver and allows them to hear ways they can help the primary caregiver. Asking for help at these meetings is often necessary.

If you are caring for someone you love, please consider trying respite services.

Geoff A. Scott is CEO and owner of Friends of the Family Home Health Care in Toledo, Ohio. Geoff is a public speaker and advocate for older adults in this community. For more information, please call 419-794-1555 or visit his company on-line at www.trustingcare.com.

Pat Sheehan

Although technology has evolved dramatically since the Toledo-based DMC Technology Group opened in 1993, the company’s business philosophy remains the same. “Our niche is working with businesses in the local area,” says owner Pat Sheehan, who assumed ownership in 2004. “The value we provide to our customers is being in front of them, understanding their issues, and developing solutions to meet their needs.”

The company offers a wide variety of technology services for businesses of all sizes and serves customers in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. Its solutions include: application development, servers and storage, business software, training classes, network infrastructure and security, and virtualization and cloud computing. The employees average more than 25 years of experience in the IT industry, and they work with businesses to first determine their needs and then recommend the best hardware, software or other solution.

“We architect the solution, implement the solution, and provide post-implementation support,” Pat says. “While we can provide support on the phone or via the Internet; we want to take care of customers in person.”

Many customers, who include businesses, health care, government, education and other non-profit organizations, have been with DMC since the early 1980s. That enables them to get to know their technician and their account manager. “Companies might change their internal staff several times, but we’re often the constant. We know the history and can provide continuity to their organization”

In addition, DMC also provides training classes and posts class information on its website. It can also create a custom class tailored to customers’ needs. DMC classes are offered at its training facility in Toledo, although it can schedule private classes at the customers’ locations.

Pat, who has been in the information technology business since 1981, was part of a group of 20 that founded DMC Technology Group. With a sales background, Pat took over ownership when the previous owner retired. He was always interested in technology; while the industry was in its infancy in the early 80s, he knew it held a great deal of opportunity. “It’s been a fun ride for 30 years,” he says. “It’s an industry you really have to stay on top of, but it’s exciting. There’s always new technology coming out, and you have to be on your game to stay with it.”

For smaller businesses, DMC often serves as the IT staff, and customers rely on them to check their servers, workstations, look for viruses and more on a regular basis. Large companies, which generally have an in-house IT staff, look to DMC to provide expertise in certain areas. “It used to be an IT manager could understand everything they needed to do the job, but today there are just too many things to know,” Pat says. “Often the IT manager will handle most needs but will look to us for help with a specific area, such as security.”

In addition to providing its own hosting services, DMC implements other hosted solutions, such as Microsoft Office 365 for email hosting. “We resell and implement that for Microsoft, but it’s their servers worldwide that host the applications,” says Pat. DMC is also a value-added reseller and business partner for firms such as IBM, Cisco, Dell and more.

Moving forward, two areas are important for the company this year: virtualization and the cloud. First, virtualization essentially lets one computer do the job of multiple computers by sharing the resources of a single computer across multiple environments. Virtual servers and virtual desktops enable the customer to host multiple operating systems and multiple applications locally and in remote locations. In addition to energy savings and lower costs due to more efficient use of hardware resources, the company says virtualization enables customers to get a high availability of resources, better desktop management, increased security, and improved disaster recovery processes.

“A virtual server can be deployed in a matter of minutes,” says Pat. “In the old days, that might take three days. Also, business continuity has become critical to customers. If one server fails, it can automatically switch over to another server.”

Cloud technology is also a big buzzword, says Pat. The cloud can mean many things to different people. Put simply, cloud computing enables people to use applications over the Internet. “Microsoft Office 365 is an example of a cloud offering,” explains Pat.

In 2012, virtualization will expand as well as cloud services. Pat says customers will often move to the cloud with email first, since that’s an application everyone uses. “It makes sense to have someone take care of it for you,” he says. “And you can focus on your business.”

If you have found this story to be interesting, informative, or inspiring, please let Pat know! You can contact him at 419-535-2900; visit DMC Technology Group at 7657 Kingspoint Rd, Toledo; visit www.dmctechgroup.com or email him at pat.sheehan@dmctechgroup.com.

Craig Common

For more than 20 years, The Common Grill has provided a high-end dining experience in its historic location in downtown Chelsea. Founded in 1991 by executive chef Craig Common, the menu features a wide variety of seafood and pasta dishes, salads, sandwiches as well as an extensive wine list.

“When we first started, we had pizza and ribs on the menu,” says Craig. “It just evolved into more of a seafood-oriented restaurant.”

The Common Grill is housed in a brick building dating back to 1879, and it initially offered seating for 100 guests. Two years later, Craig took over the building next door and expanded his seating by 50. “People say it has a good feel to it, and we’re always busy, which is good,” he says. “There’s always a lot of activity going on.”

Since his high school days as a dishwasher, Craig knew he wanted to open his own restaurant. He learned the ropes by working for Chuck Muer restaurants. He worked his way up and was a corporate chef for 13 years, in charge of 16 restaurants.

He later moved to Chelsea and opened The Common Grill in July 1991. “I felt Chelsea was the right place to be,” says Craig. “At that time Chelsea was going through a transformation. The Purple Rose (Theatre Company) was going to open, and it felt like the town was ready to have a Renaissance.”

Chelsea has turned into a destination town, he says, drawing people from a wide radius to dine at his and other restaurants, attend a theater production, and shop.

Diners will find a wide variety on the menu, including crab cakes, halibut, scallops and salmon, and specialties include a Parmesan Crusted Lake Superior Whitefish, Seafood Risotto, and the Mixed Grill, which has been on the menu from day one. Craig says the majority of his seafood comes from Steve Connolly Seafood Co. Inc., a Boston, Mass.-based supplier.

Wanting to promote growth in Chelsea, The Common Grill supports the Chelsea Center for the Arts, The Purple Rose Theatre, and Sounds & Sights on Thursday Night. Craig serves on the planning committee for Sounds & Sights, which features free family entertainment every Thursday night during the summer. “It features music, entertainment, and good food,” Craig says. “It’s a great event and brings in a lot of people.”

If you have found this story to be interesting, informative, or inspiring, please let Craig know! You can contact him at 734-475-0470; visit The Common Grill at 112 S. Main St., Chelsea; email him at thechef34@yahoo.com or visit www.commongrill.com.

Karen Butchart

May is Better Speech and Hearing month, a designated time for those who are knowledgeable and passionate about communication impairments to bring awareness to others. Karen Butchart, BC-HIS, owner of Advanced Hearing Care in Brighton, is one of the knowledgeable and passionate. When her brother was born completely deaf, she was introduced to the world of hearing impairments. Now she tries to bring awareness for prevention of hearing loss and to educate the hearing impaired to the ever-changing possibilities for better hearing.

Karen gives her brother, Mark, who sadly passed away a few years ago, full credit for her career choice. “I grew up knowing I wanted to assist others with hearing difficulties. I thought I’d be a teacher and in a way, I am.”  Karen entered into the hearing industry in 1986, with a company that sold hearing aids. But the atmosphere was one of hard sales, and Karen did not think this was the way the industry, that was so personal to her, should be working. So in 1998, she opened her own company.

Advanced Hearing Care serves Livingston Co. and the surrounding area, offering free hearing screenings at its location, at many senior-living facilities (where Karen also offers several other complimentary hearing services) and sometimes visiting the homebound. Karen determines first whether medical attention is necessary to lessen the hearing impairments and then will refer clients for medical evaluation prior to discussing amplification options.

Advanced Hearing Care is a multi-lined hearing instrument distributor, meaning unlike many other companies, it works with more than one manufacturer. “My decisions with each particular person are based on what some of their needs are—what their hearing loss is like, what their dexterity might be like, what their budget’s like—and  then I choose between five or six major manufacturers thereafter,” said Karen. Phonak, Siemens, Starkey and Oticon are a few of her favorites.

In addition to product warranties, Advanced Hearing Care offers complimentary lifetime in-office service. “If we can fix it in office, there is rarely a charge even if the aid was not purchased here,” Karen said. Many clients take advantage of this, especially if they have relocated a family member to the area. Providing service to some of the same clients for over 20 years, she takes pride in having built a successful business on their referrals. “It is the greatest compliment and thanks you can receive,” she said.

Many first-time clients are long overdue. “Most people, unfortunately, are usually about seven years behind in the time from when they really needed to do something about it,” Karen said. She added that as many as one in three adults suffer from hearing loss after the age of 65. Oftentimes, those suffering first visit her office after realizing they are not able to enjoy certain activities, such as attending social events or watching television, anymore because of hearing difficulties.

Other times, family motivates them to seek hearing solutions. Karen says grandchildren can be especially influential. A client who had seven granddaughters was told for years that he needed a hearing aid. Then, his first-born grandson arrived. One day when his grandson was old enough to talk, he turned to his grandfather and said: “Grandpa, you need to open your ears.” Soon after, the grandfather visited Karen.

Some people are hesitant to try hearing aids. There are common misconceptions that they do not work or someone may see them. “You hear, ‘I tried it and it lives in my drawer,’ ” Karen said smiling. “I tell them I don’t make drawer hearing aids.” Much of her service is offered on a trial basis so that she can make sure that the product is appropriate for that person. “Advancements over the past years with digital technology make them no longer just an amplifier,” Karen said. There have also been advancements in the appearance of the devices, many of which are now cosmetically designed to go completely unnoticed. This means that in certain cases, hearing loss may actually be more noticeable than the hearing aid.

If people can get past misconceptions and give hearing aids a try, they may be surprised by what they discover. “They just can’t believe that they were missing as much as they were missing,” Karen said of clients trying hearing aids for the first time. She particularly enjoys witnessing people “hear their families better or hearing the birds again or smiling because they got the punch line.” Changing the lives of the hearing impaired and their families will always be personal to her…whether in May or any other month of the year, Karen will proceed in raising awareness and helping as many as she can, in honor of her brother.

If you have found this story to be interesting, informative or inspiring, please let Karen know! You can contact her at 810-494-4327; visit Advanced Hearing Care at 8023 W. Grand River #400, Brighton; email her at advhearing@att.net; or visit the website at www.hearingaidlady.com.

In this article, I will share with you five simple steps in getting your foot into the LinkedIn door.

Fill Out Your Profile…COMPLETELY

This sounds extremely simple, but it’s often an ignored task. Here’s the deal; there are two major components to your profile:

First, the Summary. Do not leave this blank. This is the key area that LinkedIn search (and Google) uses to index your worth. You want to be found when people are searching for your service or business.

Second, your experience. Once searches have an idea of your worth, they want to learn more. Be sure your experience includes past positions and jobs you’ve held. This helps the people searching for your products or services gain more insight on what you have to offer and how you’ve become the “go to” person in your niche.

Be Visible

Don’t be shy; add your photo. Last I heard, invisible people are ghosts and most people are afraid of ghosts. People like to put names with faces, so get your best photo and show those pearly whites.

Toot Your Horn

Remember the summary I spoke of in step one? Use it to let searches know why they should choose you for the next campaign. Highlight lead projects, the size of teams you’ve managed, the amount of deals closed in the past year, etc. You’ve earned your bragging rights over the years, so let them know how good you are.

Engage

Join groups in your niche or find out what groups potential clients are hanging out in. Do not use the groups to sell. Doing so well get you ignored or even banned.  Instead, give. Answer questions and post advice.

Connect & Get Referrals

Find people you know and invite them to connect. Be on the lookout for past clients or customers. People who’ve used your service in the past are ideal to get referrals from. If you want a referral, simply ask.

These quick tips will help you get started. In upcoming columns, I will dig more deeply in how to effectively use LinkedIn and other social media platforms to become a true social media Rock Star.

Leah Fairman is CEO of www.CorporateSNOBS.com, a promotional product and branding company. Find and follow us: www.linkedin.com/in/leahfairman and facebook.com/corporatesnobs.

What is mindfulness? I often use awareness as another word for mindfulness. In mindful eating, each bite of food is eaten with mindful attention. I explain that the awareness used for mindful eating is focused to the moment that one is eating a bite of food and that this awareness continues moment-to-moment and bite-to-bite throughout the meal.

Not only do we pay attention to eating our bites of food, but we also attend to how our body feels before, during and after we eat each bite of food. It is through practicing mindfulness while eating that we learn to eat when we are hungry, stop when we are full, and eat food we really enjoy and love.

You might ask, “Why doesn’t this work while eating the permitted foods on my diet?” The short answer is that you would have even more difficulty staying on your diet. Here’s why.

When you are on a diet, you are only eating the prescribed diet foods. When you do this, your mind goes on “diet food autopilot.” You are forced to ignore what you really would enjoy eating. You are also forced to ignore wholesome information from your body—information like “Am I Hungry?”, “How Hungry?”, “What would feel good to eat?”, “Am I Full?”, etc.—that help you regulate what you eat and how much you eat.

Finally, when on a diet, you can only ignore your body’s mental and physical cues for so long. Eventually you will return with gusto to overeating in your usual manner, yet again with total oblivion to your body’s mental and physical cues to help you.

So—how long does it take? It takes time to learn weight management with mindful eating but, on the other hand, it doesn’t have the mindless oblivion of the “yo-yo” diet. Just think. If mindful attention when eating removes you from the autopilot of mindless eating, then over time you will have a new healthy eating habit that becomes second nature to you. This empowers you to enjoy what you really want to eat when you are hungry and to stop when you are full.

The next eight-session mindful eating group (where you practice eating real food mindfully) begins June 7th at 975 Commerce Dr. in Perrysburg. Email mindfuleatingcoach@gmail.com or call 419-494-7699 for further information or to schedule an appointment with The Mindful Eating Coach.

Steve Betzhold

As Briarwood Ford’s business development center manager and “resident geek,” Steve Betzhold isn’t as visible to customers as he was when he started out in sales 10 years ago. But for the 80 to 90 percent of Briarwood customers who start their search for a new car online, Steve is the man behind the curtain that makes it easy to find what they want.

“This department handles the incoming leads from the Internet, and we also do a fair amount of mailings out of this office and keep track of our database of customers,” Steve explained. “We try to make sure that the process of buying a new car—from finding what you want online to coming into the dealership to buy it—is as smooth and easy as possible.”

While today it’s possible to buy a car online, Steve said that very few people actually do. “Despite the thinking 10 years ago that car sales were going to move totally online, the fact is that people want to come in and experience that new car smell and have the fun of test driving the vehicle before they make their final choice,” he added.

When Steve isn’t behind his computer, he provides bi-monthly trainings on new vehicle technology. But when it comes to the main tasks involved in his current position, Steve said he’s happy to combine one of his hobbies—computers—with his professional life. “I love the constant evolution of computers, and that feeling of ‘Look what we can do now!’ ” he said.

If you have found this story to be interesting, informative, or inspiring, please let Steve know! Briarwood Ford is located at 7070 E. Michigan Ave., Saline. You can call 734-429-8852 or visit the Briarwood Ford website at briarwood-ford.com.

• Put time on your side. The earlier you begin saving and investing, the better your chances of reaching your financial goal. You can’t expect to “strike it rich” immediately with any single investment, but by investing year in and year out, and by choosing quality investment vehicles, you have the opportunity to achieve growth over time.

• Pay yourself first. If you wait until you “have a little extra money lying around” before you invest, you may well never invest. Instead, try to “pay yourself first.” Each month, move some money automatically from a checking or savings account into an investment. When you’re first starting out in the working world, you might not be able to afford much, but as you advance in your career, you can increase your contributions.

• Control your debts. It’s easier said than done, but if you can keep a lid on your debt payments, you’ll have more money with which to invest.

• Take advantage of tax deferral. When you invest in tax-deferred vehicles, such as a traditional Individual Retirement Account (IRA) and your 401(k) or similar employer-sponsored retirement plan, your money has the opportunity to grow faster than it would if placed in an investment on which you paid taxes each year. Of course, when you start taking withdrawals, presumably at retirement, you’ll have to pay taxes, but by then, you may be in a lower tax bracket. And since you’ll have some control over your withdrawals, you can help control taxes, too.

• Build share ownership. As an investor, one of the best things you can do to build your wealth is to increase the number of shares you own in your investments. So, look for buying opportunities, such as when prices are low. Also, consider reinvesting any dividends or distributions you may receive from your investments.

• Don’t be overly cautious. For your money to grow, you need to put a portion of your investment dollars in growth-oriented vehicles, such as stocks. It is certainly true that stock prices will always fluctuate, sometimes quite sharply, and you may receive more or less than your original investment when sold. But if you avoid stocks entirely in favor of more stable vehicles, you run the risk of earning returns that may not keep you ahead of inflation. As you approach retirement, and even during retirement, your portfolio will probably still need some growth potential. Work with your financial advisor to determine the appropriate approach for you.

• Think long term. By creating a long-term investment strategy and sticking to it, you’ll be less likely to take a “timeout” from investing in response to perceived negative news, such as market downturns and political crises.

Following these suggestions may someday allow you to reach the point when your financial goals become a reality for you.

Lori Cannon is a financial advisor with Edward Jones. You may contact her at 419-842-0369.

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Geoffry L. Bush

According to Geof Bush, the president and owner of Your Flight Department, when most smaller or medium-sized business owners think of buying a company plane they think of two things first: Learjets and Piper Cubs. But there are a lot more options out there, and that’s why Geof offers his more than 40 years of experience to help business owners decide not only which kind of business plane they need, but whether or not they need one at all.

“When business owners come to me thinking they want to buy a business aircraft, my first advice is let’s sit down and figure out if you even need your own plane, or if you’d be better off using a charter or going the fractional ownership route, or even just sticking with the airlines,” he said. “I don’t want to talk myself out of work, but I’d rather do that than have someone buy a plane and find that they’re being eaten alive by the costs in six months.” In addition, Geof said, he spends a lot of time educating his clients about the different types of planes available.

“People think they want a Lear jet because Lears are cool, but for example if you have one person who’s going to fly and you’re just going to Traverse City a lot, you don’t need a Learjet. If you have a team of sales and engineering people traveling the country for your company, maybe a Lear will work, but there are also other options.” According to Geof, buying a business aircraft isn’t about getting the next new thing or getting something “cool.” It’s about analyzing a business’ needs versus the operating costs of the different available aircraft.

Geof earned his expertise about private aircraft as a pilot with almost 40 years of experience and through working for his degree in aviation management from the University of North Dakota. Today his business, Your Flight Department, offers everything from pilot mentorship to assistance in buying the right plane and setting up and managing corporate flight departments for small and medium sized businesses.

Pilot mentorship involves going along on flights with owner/pilots who are too busy running their businesses to be able to keep up with their flight time or who are low-time, less experienced pilots. “This allows me to bring that person my years of expertise and help him or her stay safe in the air,” Geof explained. When it comes to creating and managing flight departments for businesses, Geof said that his goal is to make it possible for the business owner and/or her or his staff “to just show up at the airport and get on the plane. I take care of the rest, from making sure everything is current with regulations to piloting or co-piloting the aircraft.”

Geof’s passion for everything related to aviation started when he was in the sixth grade and his class took a field trip to a freight aircraft company owned by the father of one of the students. He was already interested in planes prior to that, he said, because his next door neighbor’s father was a co-pilot on B17s during World War II and “always had an interest in World War II and propeller aircraft.” He continued, “That trip was the first time I was able to get aboard in the cockpit of an airplane and see what it was all about, and I fell in love with it. However, I didn’t think I’d be able to do anything with my interest because there are a lot of costs involved with becoming a pilot.”

While he’s thrilled that a stint in the Air Force as a navigation systems repairman gave him the opportunity to attend the University of North Dakota, get his pilot’s license, and start the career path that led him to found Your Flight Department, Geof said that he’s not sure how people today manage the skyrocketing costs of following in his footsteps. “When I learned to fly in 1972 I scraped and scraped for the money for my private license, and in those days it was about $775,” he remembered. “Kids today come out with the equivalent of a mortgage to pay for their schooling. It’s a little scary,” though he added that the business aviation business is picking up and, as a result, the job picture is looking a bit better for people in his profession.

In addition to making sure whether or not a person’s business actually needs an airplane and analyzing the best way for that business to meet its air-travel needs, Geof also advises his clients to think of a business plane the same way they do about their other business equipment. When Geof started in business aviation, he said that he flew for one company where executives were allowed to use the company plane for recreational travel about 40 percent of the time. Today, “I know some corporations where, if the CEO has the plane scheduled but a salesman needs to bring in some customers, the CEO gets bumped. A company plane is a tool, just like your copy machines and computers—it has to be properly managed,” he explained.

If you have found this story to be interesting, informative, or inspiring, please let Geof know! Your Flight Department is located at 46036 Michigan Ave. #223, Canton Township. You can call 734-645-0235 or visit his website at www.yourflightdept.com.

Here are some highlights taken from an article by Kerry Johnson, MBA, PH.D., author, speaker and owner of Peak Performance Coaching.

How many times have you gone on an appointment and known instinctively in the first few minutes that your prospect would buy from you? When was the last time you met someone you liked immediately, so much that you knew you would be best friends?

In each of these interactions, you faced a four-minute threshold. This make or break period has enormous influence over whether you will become best friends or acquaintances, do business together or just one more rejection.

According to Los Angeles psychiatrist Leonard Zunin in his book, Contact: The First Four Minutes, this is the average time in which mutual strangers decide they will part company or continue developing a relationship.

A cold face-to-face meeting can often be successful or die in the first four minutes of contact. Your goal should be first to develop rapport. When you gain trust from a prospect, they will usually buy. This barrier is even shorter on the telephone. Without non-verbal cues, the four minute barrier turns into a 30-second wall.

Your goal in the first minutes of face-to-face contact should be to give and take, talk and listen. If you elicit a response within the first seven seconds, you will maintain a better chance of breaking through the four minute barrier. If you talk at your prospect, instead of gaining participation, you will violate the rules of contact and wonder why they didn’t buy.

Here are four easy steps to help you hurdle over the four minute barrier and soar into a positive relationship with your prospect.

1. Convey Self-Esteem. Relationships are not built on sympathy; they are built on self-confidence. Speak with confidence, assuming that a prospect is interested.

2. Communicate Creatively. Creativity in building a relationship can mean using humor and confidence. Offer sincere compliments.

3. Convey Empathy. You probably already know how to build trust by reinforcing a conversation with “I know how you feel.” But, have you ever had an interchange with someone who seemed to look at everyone and everything around the room except you? Very few listeners display total attention. Staying with your prospect’s train of thought is a very important element in building a lasting relationship.

4. Add Reassurance. If you want to get past the four minute barrier, you’ll strive to help your contacts feel just a little bit better about themselves than when you met. The relationship builder leaves others feeling good. You need to remember that the person you are relating to also has fears, dreams, hopes, worries and insecurities, just like you.

Megan Coyle-Stamos is Vice President at Coyle Funeral and Cremation Services, working with her father, Joe Coyle. You may contact her at 419-865-1295 or mcoyle-stamos@CoyleFuneralHome.com.