Strasser Brothers Purchase Lillian's Sports Bar

 Congratulations to Taylor, Ryan and Cliff Strasser for their recent purchase of Lillian’s Sports Bar & Grill. The three brothers grew up in the Ortega area always wanting to own the sports bar. The previous owners retired at the end of the year and the brothers were able to obtain it in January. Their friend, Aaron Kleist, and his lending partner, Ed Randall, both with Central Bank, helped them with an SBA loan, something they couldn’t get as a non-franchised restaurant from the larger banks. The three brothers have extensive experience in the food service business, each having their own Five Star Pizza franchise. With the three brothers now partners in the sports bar, they will be working together to maintain Lillian’s long proven reputation and to ensure the sports bar keeps running as usual, including using the food recipes from the previous owners. They will continue with full lunch and dinner entries, along with offering promotional events and live bands in their several dining rooms. Lilian’s is located at 5393 Roosevelt Boulevard (#6), just north of Jax Naval Air Station. Their dining rooms are available for parties and groups and can be reserved by calling (904) 388-4220 or visiting lillianssportsgrill.com. This “Lunch with Les” photo features the brothers (from left to right) Taylor, Cliff and Ryan with Les.

Stellar Growth Strategies Offer Outsourced VP Of Sales For North Florida Market

 Many small businesses in the North Florida market need help to push their company to that next level, but they don’t know what resources are available to help them achieve their sales goals. When it comes to creating a sales strategy, customizing a sales acceleration process, developing a hiring process, and implementing a CRM system or even more, that’s when you need to contact my friend Jen Cart. As owner of Stellar Growth Strategies and an Outsourced VP of Sales, Jen evaluates your business and can function as a sales architect (creating a sales framework), sales builder (performing the work for the company) or both the architect and builder. She is experienced in providing fractional help for any type of business that sells products or services for companies ranging from $2 – 100 million in sales. She offers a free Sales Agility Assessment prior to presenting a proposal so the business owner or president will know the scope of work needed and costs. If you could use a source to increase your sales, regardless of the number of sales people you have, I recommend Jen for her personalized, roll-up-your-sleeves method of sales guidance. Contact her at (904) 477-1229 or jcart@salesxceleration.com. Jen is pictured here in my “Lunch with Les” photo. 

New Peterbooke Store Opens In Northern St. Johns County

 Congratulations to my fellow Bolles graduate, Julie Reston and her husband Jared for opening the newest Peterbrooke Chocolate store in northern St. Johns County. Also a big thanks to Ed Randall and Aaron Kleist of Central Bank for helping the couple with an SBA loan after they were put through the hoops with 3 other banks. Julie is president of PFG Chocolate (named after her 3 sons) and had wanted to start her own business. The store has all of the high quality chocolate products Peterbrooke is known for, plus offering custom gifts for individuals and corporations. They even have gelato in the store. The Restons recently had their grand opening in the Silverleaf Shopping Plaza, located in a large new residential development in northern St. Johns County. The Silverleaf Peterbrooke is the 27^th franchise store to open. Julie has always wanted a family business in her local community where friends and neighbors could enjoy their products and services. Located at 70 Silver Forest Drive, they can be contacted at 904-342-2457 or silverleaf@peterbrooke.com. In this “Lunch with Les” photo taken at the grand opening (from left to right) is Les Loggins, Julie Reston, Jared Reston and COO of Peterbrooke Corporate, Jeff Smith.

Bee Friends Farm Is Leading The Beekeeping Industry In North Florida

 There is a lot of “buzz” around the Beekeeping business in North Florida, and the premier experts in the industry are Michael and Christie Leach, owners of Bee Friends Farm. At the Rotary Club of South Jacksonville, Michael talked, not only about his business operation, but also the need of maintaining healthy bee hives in our community and all over the world. Michael, who rents out his bees to farmers in California and Michigan, says that using bees for pollination will increase crop yields by at least 30%. Bee Friends Farm, which began in 2013, is involved in every aspect of beekeeping. In addition to commercial pollination (where they manage over 600 bee colonies), the company has a retail store at 1118 Edgewood Avenue South, offering bee-related gifts (various flavors of honey, beeswax candles, even honey recipes), beekeeping equipment, tours and beekeeping courses on their farm. In this “Lunch with Les” photo, Michael and Christie are shown here with a live bee box display they brought in for their Rotary presentation. For anything involving the bee industry and for honey oriented gifts, stop by the Edgewood store; visit BeeFriendsFarm.com; or email Michael@beefriendsfarm.com.

Jacksonville Business Community Loses Woman Business Pioneer Anne Renfroe

 I wanted to note the passing of one of the top women business pioneers in Jacksonville – Anne Renfroe. Anne was the owner of J.C. Renfroe & Sons, a manufacturer and marketer of industrial lifting products. She took over the business with very little knowledge of manufacturing when her husband, Charles, died. The business was not doing well but she identified and brought in top talent, expanded the product line and built the company into one of the top two clamp companies in the world. I had the honor to help her redirect the approach of her advertising, which resulted in changing the way industrial competitors and related companies advertise. She entered an almost totally dominated male industry and became so popular she was elected president of the national association, Associated Wire Rope Fabricators (AWRF). As one of my favorite advertising clients, I knew her as a very strong woman, who could bring out the best in people, and doing it with respect and total class. She was proud when the nation called on her company to provide products to move the Liberty Bell twice, build the St. Louis Gateway Arch and recover the Spaceship Challenger wreckage from the Atlantic Ocean. The Jacksonville business community and Downtown Rotary will miss this classy lady, Anne Renfroe, who was a business and civic inspiration to men and women alike.

Michael Hotaling Promoted To Managing Partner For Moody Williams Appraisal Group

 I want to congratulate my Rotary buddy Michael Hotaling for his promotion to managing partner of the Moody Williams Appraisal Group, based in Jacksonville. Knowing Michael as I do, he brings organization, attention to detail, creative approaches and people management skills to his job. While the company offers appraisal work involving commercial, residential, industrial, multifamily, and special use properties, including over 100 auto dealership evaluations, his firm is unique in that they offer full litigation support, including legal testimony supported by their analytical data for estate work, bankruptcies, eminent domain, divorce cases and cases involving damages to real estate. They can provide solutions to appraisal problems people don’t even realize they have, including tax appeals and appraisals for flood and property insurance. According to Michael, no two properties are the same and require different investigation and analysis to determine their value. He has plenty of appraisal experience, as a MAI Designated Member of the Appraisal Institute and holding licenses in Florida and Georgia. He has also provided testimony before various courts and governmental regulatory agencies. Michael can be contacted at Mhotaling@moodywilliams.com or visit the company’s website at www.moodywilliams.com. Michael is on the right in this “Lunch with Les” photo.

Central Bank Expands Into Atlanta Market

 Congratulations to Central Bank for their expansion into the North Atlanta Market with a new branch in Suwanee, Georgia. Central Bank, a community bank headquartered in Tampa, Florida, has branches in Winter Park and St. Augustine. John Thompson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Central Bank, who is also from Jacksonville, told me that his board studied the Suwanee area and found it to be a great candidate for a community bank. His bank started in North Tampa in 2007 as a community bank and they have continued that strategy throughout Florida with great success. With so many banks focused totally on expansion, many are leaving the customers behind when it comes to service. John’s strategy is to identify a specific area in need of community banking and then make sure his bank is a fit for the community. Central Bank Vice President Darryl Workman will serve as Branch Manager and Sagar Patel will be the Atlanta/Georgia Market President. As with each Central Bank branch, the Suwanee bank will offer personal banking services for both individual accounts and for local small businesses. Central Bank is a Member of FDIC and an Equal Housing Lender. For more information, visit CentralBankFL.com.