Decatur, GA — Here’s a look at business news in our community.

— Dope Coffee Company in Decatur was awarded a grant as part of a $100,000 competition hosted by IVMF and Fiserv. 

Here is the full press release:

Atlanta, Dec. 7, 2022 –- Ten military-affiliated entrepreneurs are one step closer to reaching their goals as recipients of $10,000 grants awarded at the conclusion of a competition hosted by Syracuse University’s D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) and sponsored by Fiserv, a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology.

The grants, which will provide capital to fuel the growth of each business, were presented as part of the Fiserv Back2Business program, which supports the needs of diverse businesses during challenging times.

The Georgia-based participants and grant recipients included:

— Clean Sleep Technology in Fayetteville

— Dope Coffee Company in Decatur

— Edge Tutoring in Snellville

— Global Business Development Strategist in Ludowici

— VendorCall in Lawrenceville

— LAB Innovative Business Network in Kennesaw

— SB Management & Marketing in Stockbridge

— Sweet Southern Creations in Cornelia

— The Utopia Group, Inc. in Alpharetta

— VETS2INDUSTRY Foundation, Inc. in Dallas

“Equipped with a unique skillset and critical leadership traits, veterans bring tremendous value to the small business landscape, and it is our honor to provide Fiserv Back2Business grants to these business owners,” said Vivian Greentree, Head of Global Corporate Citizenship at Fiserv and a Navy veteran. “Supporting the success of veteran and military spouse-owned businesses is an important part of the Fiserv commitment to the military community, and we look forward to watching these businesses continue to grow and thrive.”

Fiserv has built a multi-faceted relationship with IVMF as part of the company’s Fiserv Salutes program, a U.S. military and veterans engagement strategy that provides the military community with career opportunities, educational resources, and business solutions.

“Data from the IVMF’s National Survey of Military-Affiliated Entrepreneurs revealed that among the top five barriers military-connected entrepreneurs face, four are related to finances,” said Barbara Carson, Managing Director of Programs for the IVMF. “The number one barrier for almost half of the 1,450 respondents was lack of access to capital. Funding from grants like this, offered specifically for veteran entrepreneurs, can be the difference between surviving and thriving.”

“I’m going to invest this grant directly into sales,” said Michael Loyd, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran as well as the CEO and Co Founder of Dope Coffee in Decatur, Georgia. “Our company is at a point where we have developed quite a bit of manufacturing capability. The next step is to sell our product in local retail stores. So we’re looking to hire a local sales representative here in Atlanta, and we’re going to invest in customer satisfaction so that we’re not looking at just getting new customers, but treating the ones we already have with care.”

Prior to being awarded, the selected finalists were given a day of free entrepreneurial business training in Atlanta at the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs. The training, hosted by the D’Aniello Institute, a national leader in entrepreneurial and career training programs for transitioning service members, veterans, and their spouses, was provided free of charge for the business owners. The IVMF has impacted over 170,000 veterans to date and trains over 20,000 people annually.

The pitch competition was open to active-duty service members, members of the National Guard or Reserves, honorably discharged service members, and spouses or life partners of the aforementioned military statuses, who live in the state of Georgia.

— Black Man Lab releases “Action,” featuring DKOMX and Ian. 

Here is the full press release:

Black Man Lab has released the second official music video from the Album ” We Need You” for the song titled “Action” which features Macon, GA based rapper DKOMX and Clayton County, GA based rapper Ian. The song was produced by TEEZR. The music video was directed and edited by No fl.ASH. Production (Ashley Gadson). It was filmed at VividRich HQ in Atlanta, GA by cameraman jwardforward Productions.

Black Man Lab’s “We Need You” alliance of young creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs create socially conscious content. Through their musical talents like producing, engineering, and songwriting, they combat white supremacy and institutional racism. This compilation will touch the deeply rooted fondness for Black Liberation. The “We Need You” title references the need for the younger generation to paint a picture for tomorrow. The album and songs are inspired by “We Need You!: Encouraging my Sons’ Generation for Black Liberation” a book by award-winning African-Centered Civil Rights Attorney, Human Rights Organizer, and Author Mawuli Davis.

“The Davis Bozeman Law Firm is proud to be a co-sponsor of this incredible effort by our young people to provide the world with affirming music.” — Mawuli Mel Davis

TAKE ACTION:

— Please watch the video on our YouTube channel and leave our young people some encouraging words as they push forward with this socially conscious, visually creative, and audibly engaging content.

— Purchase and stream the album which is available on all music platforms – https://linktr.ee/weneedyouofficial

— Post and share with others.

— Wesley Chapel Animal Hospital will close its doors after 50 years in business.

Dr. Ronald Bickely will soon retire and Wesley Chapel Animal Hospital will close in January after 50 years in business. Photo courtesy of Nancy Luana Wilkes.

Here is the full story from Nancy Luana Wilkes:

“I’ll let you know when you can retire,” I told Dr. Bickley, my Vet of forty-four years. That was just over a year ago. Forget that he was seventy-four years old. I’d let him know when it was time, when all of my cats and dogs were gone and there were no more to be had. He laughed hard as he finished running a flea comb through my cat’s fur. His husband, Stephen Thompson, “Reluctant Vet Tech” for thirty years as he refers to himself, laughed with us as did his real Vet Tech of twenty years, Julius Rudolph. Between the four us we laughed the preposterous idea of Dr. Bickley’s retirement right
out of the room.

And then in the summer, Dr. Bickley threw a seventy-fifth birthday party for himself which was held at the old Decatur courthouse. The place was filled with friends and clients who had been with him for decades. There was music from the sixties and libations and dancing and barbeque and strangers hugging strangers and seeing who could out-do who with the best Dr. Bickley pet story, and there were competitions over who had been with him longest which I almost always won, although there were many close runner-ups. It was a happy day. No one uttered the word retirement. But even against the music and the laughter you could sense the possibility that this was more than a birthday party; you could see a little worry and sadness right there with all the happiness in pet-owners’ eyes even as they lifted toast after toast to him. Like barometric pressure dropping, there was a sense that a change was coming, that Dr. Bickley’s retirement might in fact be just around the corner. And, of course, it was.

Ronald A. Bickley, DVM, opened Wesley Chapel Animal Hospital on January 3, 1973. On January 3, 2023, fifty years to the day, with sadness and with gratitude, he will close its doors.

When Dr. Bickley opened his practice in 1973 you could get your dog’s annual examination and vaccinations for $3. We know this because a client who has been with him for all fifty of those fifty years brought in his first receipt which Dr. Bickley framed. Dr. Bickley opened other veterinary hospitals at different times, all in more affluent areas than Wesley Chapel, but Wesley Chapel was home. Wesley Chapel was the one ‘that brung him to the party.’ It’s Wesley Chapel Animal Hospital that he’ll dance the last dance with on January 3, 2023, he and his diverse and loyal staff, all of whom have been with him between twenty and thirty-eight years, not the least of whom is Kim Landon, Office Manager, who has been with him the longest – Kim Landon who didn’t hesitate to give me a good – and ultimately appreciated – tongue lashing when I put flea medicine for a twelve-pound cat on the little scruffy dehydrated and starved four pounds of a stray that I’d just brough home from the Avondale Marta Station platform. “You know you could have killed him!” She took four-month-old Charlie from me and headed to Dr. Bickley where Charlie would be in better hands. We laughed heartily about it yesterday, twelve years after the fact, as Charlie the cat and I were settling our bill.

You can’t pin Dr. Bickley down on any one most memorable moment of his fifty years at Wesley Chapel Animal Hospital, but there are a couple that can’t help but stand out on their own – like the woman years ago who brought her dog in to see Dr. Bickley because it wouldn’t eat. The dog was dead. Had been for about three days. The story gets better – or worse, I guess – but I’m not brave enough to write it here.

But if there is one that he likes best I think it is the one so representative of so many others; it’s the father who brought his young son in with his new puppy thirty years ago. The puppy and the boy grew up together, the boy accompanying the dog to every visit to Wesley Chapel Animal Hospital until after a long, good life of being well cared for and well loved by the boy who was now a young man, the day came to say goodbye — the young man, the old dog and Dr. Bickley and his staff. It was hard to know, Kim Landon said, who cried the most, especially since they all still cry when they think about that dog and that boy who became the young man. But recently, she says, the young man returned to Wesley Chapel Animal Hospital with his own son – and his own son’s new puppy.

It’s interesting. When you lose a cat or a dog that you love, it’s a special kind of grief, no two people’s grief ever the same. Today when Charlie, the cat, and I were there with Dr. Bickley, possibly seeing him for the last time, there was a pang of grief that I knew was just ours – mine and Dr. Bickley’s and his staff and all those pets of mine that we have nurtured and some that we have lost. Other pet- owners’ grief will be just as profound when they tell Dr. Bickley goodbye, and their grief will be solely theirs.

But the one thing we will have in common is an understanding, a knowing, that our lives and our pets’ lives have been made better by Dr. Ronald A. Bickley. With hearts momentarily sad yet full of gratitude we say thank you and goodbye and may your Chapter 2 be all that Chapter 1 was and more.

— Steve Josovitz of The Shumacher Group wins the 2022 GABB Top Five, Multi-Million Dollar Club Award & Silver Phoenix Award for 30-years of record-setting restaurant and business brokerage sales. 

Steve Josovitz of The Shumacher Group. Photo obtained via The Shumacher Group.

Here is the full announcement:

Steve Josovitz of The Shumacher Group Wins the 2022 GABB Top Five, Multi-Million Dollar Club Award & Silver Phoenix Award for 30-Years of Record-Setting Restaurant and Business Brokerage Sales.

Steve Josovitz is awarded the “ GABB Top Five & Multi-Million Dollar Club Award” annually as the top-selling restaurant business broker in Georgia and the Nation every year since 1992.

Steven’s “Mission Statement” is always “Making sure all parties – buyers, sellers, and landlords walk away from the closing table happy. Maintaining integrity and honesty along with professionalism and expertise is a must. The needs of your clients and those you work with must always come first before a commission or personal gain.”

Steven Josovitz is the Executive Vice-President and Associate Broker of The Shumacher Group, Inc.having joined the firm in 1992. As an Associate Real Estate Broker, he heads up the company’s restaurant business brokerage division he formed in addition to providing commercial retail and restaurant real estate site selection, sales, and lease negotiation expertise.

A former restaurant owner and trained professional chef, Steven has an extensive background in restaurant and hotel management. He also offers consulting, and appraisal services and is retained by top law firms for his expert opinion to help settle disputes. Mr. Josovitz earned a B.S. in Hotel/Restaurant Management from Florida International University in 1981 in addition to graduating from the Statler Hilton Hotel School at SUNY-Sullivan in 1979 majoring in Culinary Arts and studyied Food Service Management at Oxford Polytechnic, England in 1980.

Mr. Josovitz is a member of the Georgia Restaurant Association, Georgia Association of Business Brokers (GABB), the International Council of Shopping Centers, and the Retail Brokers Network. As a 30-year GABB member, Mr. Josovitz was awarded Life Member, The Phoenix Award, Silver Phoenix Award and annually receives the Multi-Million Dollar Club Award and Top Five Award for business and restaurant brokerage sales in Georgia.

Steven’s Mission Statement is always to “Make sure all Parties, Buyers, Sellers, and Landlords walk away from the closing table happy. Maintaining integrity and honesty along with professionalism and expertise is a must. The needs of your clients and those you work with must always come first before commissions or personal gain.”

— RealWave Neuropathy Treatment Centers will open in Decatur on Jan. 3. 

RealWave Neuropathy Treatment Centers will open at 315 W. Ponce de Leon Ave. in Decatur on Jan. 3, 2023. Photo courtesy of RealWave Neuropathy Treatment Centers.

Here is the press release:

DECATUR, GA – About 40 million people in the United States and half of all diabetics suffer from peripheral neuropathy, a condition that produces symptoms including burning, pain, tingling, and numbness, generally in the arms, hands, legs, and feet.

There are more than 100 types of peripheral neuropathy, and numerous health conditions can cause it, including diabetes, chemotherapy and radiation, kidney, liver, and thyroid disorders, exposure to toxins, infections, autoimmune disorders, injuries, and even medications.

Now patients in Decatur, Georgia, have a new option for treating their peripheral neuropathy – a specially designed ultrasound device. Lee Herman, M.D., a pain management specialist at RealWave, says, “Treatment focuses on normalizing sensation, restoring blood flow to the affected area, preventing further nerve damage, and, when possible, regenerating nerves.”

RealWave ultrasound delivers focused energy directly to the affected area of the feet, legs, arms, and hands to treat the nerves involved. In addition, ultrasound increases blood flow to the area, improving the delivery of oxygen and nutrients while removing metabolic waste. This helps heal the nerves responsible for symptoms such as burning, tingling, and numbness. The treatment is covered by Medicare and most insurance plans.

The Decatur RealWave center will open at 315 West Ponce de Leon Avenue, Suite 380 on Jan. 3, 2023, joining existing centers in Johns Creek and Gainesville.

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