Cincinnati

Local online estate sale business poised for expansion

By Newsroom

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December 11, 2012

Brian Graves founded Everything But The House in 2006 as an online personal property and estate sale service provider that combines the traditional estate or tag sales, the essence of an auction and the exposure and convenience of the Internet. In essence, you can be anywhere in the world and participate in an auction in Cincinnati. (Or be in Cincinnati and participate in an online sale in Jackson Hole, Wyo,. facilitated by EBTH.) In 2007, Graves invited his friend Jacquie Denny to join EBTH. Before joining EBTH, Denny was an entrepreneur and owner of a tag sale business. Like Graves, she attended auction school at Mendenhall School of Auctioneering in High Point, NC. For the first 15 months, EBTH was a tag sale business, and buyers had to attend the sale at the various homes to purchase items for the listed, or negotiated, amount. EBTH would place photos of key items on its website to give buyers an idea of what kinds of items would be for sale. After one year in business, EBTH had an email database of about 800 regional customers. Even though EBTH was delivering strong results to local clients through the tag sale business, Graves and Denny both thought they were leaving money on the table because of limited regional participation and sale accessibility. At that point, they incorporated the online sale platform into the EBTH website, and the company’s success grew. “With the opportunity to reach an international audience, the convenience it afforded bidders to access items over the course of seven days, and the fact that in almost every case, 100 percent of a home’s contents were sold, online sales caused more conventional methods to pale in comparison,” says Brian Graves, founder of EBTH. Today, EBTH registers about 800 new bidders from around the world per month. With the addition of online sales, EBTH facilitated about $7 million in total sales in 2012 and has grown to include 50 employees and sale coordinators. In the next few months, EBTH will be opening locations in Lexington and Fairfield County, Conn. Graves spent most of his professional career working for a Fortune 500 company, where he held various positions in information technology, management and quality improvement. He became interested in the resale business when he bought a house built in the 19th century and began to look for antique furnishings at local auctions. For several years, he bought and sold antiques at local antique fairs, antique malls and fine art auctions, where he acquired a vast knowledge of all things old. The local antique industry began to see a downturn in the late ‘90s, so he decided to auction off most of his antiques and focus on buying and selling “hard-to-find” antiques on the Internet. Today, EBTH holds 10 to 12 sales per month directly from a seller’s home, plus about eight sales per month from their warehouse/showroom/office space on Kieley Place. Items are grouped into sale categories, such as mid-century modern and contemporary art, sports memorabilia, and furnishings, décor and collectibles. Over the years, EBTH has sold some interesting pieces, including a signed and numbered screen print by Andy Warhol, titled “Teddy Roosevelt” from the “Cowboys and Indians” series, 1986; a rare Tiffany and Co. stained glass panel; and a set of 19th century dueling pistols. EBTH has also facilitated sales for local celebrities, including former Cincinnati Bengal & All-Pro running back Rudi Johnson, and the Shillito, Gruen, Emery, Procter and Sawyer families. If you’re interested in buying something from EBTH sale, visit them online and start bidding (every bid begins at $1). You can also see the items in person at sale previews, which are listed online. If you’d like EBTH to facilitate your estate sale, contact them here. By Caitlin Koenig Follow Caitlin on Twitter

Latest in Cincinnati

Twelve neighborhoods receive $1.65 million for projects

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Architecture + Design

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December 11, 2012

The City of Cincinnati Economic Development Division and Cincinnati Neighborhood Business Districts United (CNBDU) recently allocated $1.65 million to 13 projects for the 2013 Neighborhood Business District Improvement Program. John Price, then-president of the Clifton Business Association, started CNBDU in 1992. He gathered all of the business association presidents in Cincinnati because he wanted to figure out a way to get funding for those neighborhoods that weren’t downtown, says Mike Wagner, president of CNBDU. Over the years, CNBDU has appropriated about $33 million between federal and city money, and leveraged more $350 million in private money, to support non-downtown neighborhood projects. CNBDU awards money annually to Cincinnati neighborhoods through the NBDIP, which receives federal money from the City’s Community Development Block Grant and city capital funds. Neighborhoods can use the money for a variety of capital improvements and other uses to promote economic development in their business districts. Each neighborhood is allowed to apply for one major and one minor ask, says Bill Fischer, division manager of economic development for the City. The maximum amount for a minor ask is $30,000; there isn’t a maximum amount for a major ask. There are generally more minor-ask projects accepted because more projects can get done. This year's process began in June when 29 neighborhoods submitted their initial proposals, which totaled $3.1 million in requests. A 28-member peer advisory group of community members who had submitted proposals and representatives from neighborhood business districts reviewed the proposals. In September, the reviewers took a bus tour of the project sites. “There wasn’t much to look at when we first started CNBDU,” says Wagner. “But now we can see what has been accomplished in the past 17 years.” In October, the peer group made recommendations to the City’s Economic Development Division after hearing presentations from the different neighborhoods. Neighborhood groups were notified at the end of November if their proposals would be turned into a project through NBDIP. “Each neighborhood has a different approach to the project proposals,” says Fischer. “Some are looking to maintain what’s already there, whereas others are looking to create new business.” CNBDU funding is in addition to the Focus 52 program, a combination of bond and casino revenues, which will create a pool of $54 million for neighborhood projects throughout the city. The neighborhood projects that were awarded money through the NBDIP are: Walnut Hills: Park-Kemper Streetscape Design, $30,000West Price Hill: Covedale Center Marquee/Community Message Board, $79,145Roselawn: Business District Feasibility Study, $30,000Clifton: Ludlow Avenue Storefront Improvement Program, $77,500Westwood: Parking Lot Renovation, $30,000Northside: Hoffner St. Garden, $80,000Northside: Dhonau Garden, $30,000Corryville: Façade Improvement Program (continuation), $236,397Bond Hill: Bond Hill Identity Project, $30,000East Price Hill: St. Lawrence Corner Public Square, $107,500Pleasant Ridge: 6025 Montgomery Acquisition & Redevelopment, $150,000Avondale: Reading, Rockdale & Forest Streetscape, $400,000Mt. Adams: Streetscape Completion, $375,000By Caitlin Koenig Follow Caitlin on Twitter

Video Emery Sessions: Over the Rhine

By Emery Sessions

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Arts + Culture

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December 11, 2012

Local favorites in a local landmark. Watch Over the Rhine perform "Gonna Let My Soul Catch My Body" at the Emery Theatre in their namesake neighborhood. Video by Michael Wilson courtesy of The Emery Sessions.

Inaugural UpTech class finishes successful Demo Day at NKU

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Education + Learning

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December 11, 2012

Eight Northern Kentucky startups were unveiled to a roomful of educators, aspiring entrepreneurs and potential investors at a Demo Day event at Northern Kentucky University. Following drinks, bites and conversation, each company's founder pitched their vetted and nurtured informatics-based idea. The companies came from a variety of places; some are still in the beta stage, while others are on the market with paying customers. All grew dramatically in six months as the first class of Northern Kentucky's UpTech superaccelerator. UpTech is a new business informatics incubator launched by several Northern Kentucky institutions, including Northern Kentucky University, Tri-Ed, ezone and Vision 2015. The intense, six-month accelerator program started in June and included $100,000 in funding. Companies selected to participate will also be working with students and faculty at NKU's College of Informatics. The organization plans to invest in 50 companies over the next five years. It’s funded mostly by private investors and some state funding. Many of UpTech’s mentors and support service providers are students and volunteers. Through a series of programs, Up-Tech guides participant startups through areas of business development that range from marketing and fundraising to market research and pitching the company to both investors and clients. Each company must stay in the Northern Kentucky region for two years after completing the program. During Demo Day, companies outlined their business ideas, their stages of business development and ended by asking for investment for continued growth. Each company had one-on-one coaching with mentors, in addition to the volunteer business team they were assigned. You can read about the UpTech companies here. Some companies made big changes in their business focus, names or even their business idea through the process. For example, Adam Treister came out of UpTech with a new company name, logo and revised direction. Student Source, formerly Student Designed, is an online student freelance work site. The company, which is working with local and other universities, matches students with businesses seeking contact work. Projects range from $50 to $5,000. Student Source has three partners and has raised $145,000 to date. Treister found the UpTech experience invaluable. "Working closely with NKU gave us an inside view of what universities are looking for, and how to better meet the challenges of partnering with a university," he says. While in UpTech, Triester also made a change in how businesses connect with students. Initially, company projects had to go through a professor who could use the idea as a class project. Now, companies can work directly with a student, speeding up the process. "We launched this version a week ago, and we're really excited," Treister says. By Feoshia H. Davis Follow Feoshia on Twitter

Architectural renderings add dimension to design

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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December 11, 2012

Graeme Daley officially launched his business, Daley Renderings, two months ago, but says, with a laugh: “It’s not launched until somebody knows about it.” The Indian Hill native is offering estate, urban and graphic design with a focus on 3-D renderings. He first got into design and renderings playing a game on his grandfather’s computer. “At the time (1995) it was intensely crude, really just geometry," he says. "With technology over the past 10 or 15 years, you can now do almost anything you can imagine. The program I use is the same program Pixar uses to make their box office movies and the same program that’s used to make Halo." Daley focuses on architectural renderings and targets clients, such as architects and real estate agents, whose larger projects won’t find the expense of such a rendering prohibitive. “The ideal person for what I do could either be an architect that’s come up with a showcase design and wants a presentation that conveys that, say, if you’re proposing a new tower or university building and want something to roll out to the public.” The role of his renderings is to help take 2-D plans and drawings and enliven them. He illustrates with computer-generated videos of his 3-D renderings exactly how a project will look from various angles. Or, as in a recent case, in which Daley was hired by a local real estate firm, he can show different ways a project could appear. In this case, Daley created four potential uses for two adjacent lots, showing how driveways could be curved for privacy and even demonstrating how both houses could be replaced by a single mansion. Because Daley went through what he calls “the nine-year Bachelor’s plan,” he has some experience in mechanical engineering and industrial design, as well as architecture. (He eventually graduated from the University of Cincinnati's College of DAAP, by the way.) And while he says he might make more money in other states with more new builds, he’s sticking close to home, and enjoys watching Cincinnati grow and improve. By Robin Donovan

Breaking the cycle of bad eating, one banana at a time

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Diversity

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December 11, 2012

The Nutrition Council of Greater Cincinnati is working to break the cycle of unhealthy eating habits, one banana, one yogurt parfait and one recipe at a time. And, they are doing it one family at a time. The Council, in its 35th year, just wrapped up its latest series of "What’s Cooking?" classes for parents and caregivers of kids in Camp Washington and Winton Hills. The classes, offered each fall and spring, are a four-part series that meet for about an hour after the school day ends at schools with Head Start programs. They are designed to show parents how to make quick, affordable and healthy meals for their families. Each week is themed, and participants receive take-home tools like measuring spoons and grocery cards. Parents also get multiple recipes that encourage cooking at home, rather than relying on packaged and processed foods. The classes and the Council’s work come at a time when the nation—and Cincinnati—is getting fatter. Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Currently, one in four Cincinnati Public School kindergarten students is overweight (13.9 percent) or obese (11.7 percent). “I think what strikes me is that things I am aware of and take for granted, not everyone does,’’ says Tracy Wilking, the nonprofit’s special project manager, who worked at the Winton Hills location this fall. In 2011, nearly 100 families participated in the cooking sessions. And of those, according to the Council’s web site: • 85 percent reported they changed one action to improve a targeted health behavior.• 67 percent of families increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables.• 67 percent said they decreased their child’s sweetened beverage intake. Wilking says it is not uncommon to hear parents share how the instruction really does change cooking habits, from eating as a family to introducing fresh fruits and vegetables at meals. One recent participant told one of the Council workers that she had completely changed how her family was eating. The Council targets very young children, before habits are established and before they start kindergarten. Wilking says many parents may not have been taught how to eat healthy, and the earlier the Council and others can share information with parents, the more likely the cycle of poor food choices can be broken. In addition to the cooking series, the Council also visited 38 Early Childhood Education classrooms in the Cincinnati area over 17 days to teach parents and their kids how to make healthy snacks. Recently, they made fruit and yogurt parfaits. “A little education really can go a long way,’’ says Wilking. “This work is reaching individuals and those with the power to reach someone else.” Do Good: • Make a donation • Volunteer your time or skills. • Like the Council on Facebook.• Follow the Council's news on Twitter. By Chris GravesChris Graves, assistant vice president of digital and social media at the Powers Agency, is using several of the Council’s recipes at home with her two teens.

CrowdHall racks up funders, new political tool

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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December 11, 2012

Following the Brandery’s Demo Day, the rising social network CrowdHall has been developing new products and securing new investors. While CrowdHall developer and CTO Nick Wientge is currently working at the Brandery with marketing and design staff, Jordan Menzel and CEO Austin Hackett have been traveling for business development and fundraising. “We’re currently in due diligence process with a number of angel investment communities and institutional investment communities that span the Cincinnati area, Chicago, Utah and New York,” Menzel says. The company is also looking to move forward with Vine Street Ventures. “We’re also in the process of turning around a new product iteration, some of which has been added onto the site already,” Menzel says. “Another trunk will be coming out in January.” One of its newest developments, “CrowdHall for Politics,” is an initiative based on a set of principles that CrowdHall created for elected officials: accessibility, responsiveness and innovation. “We’re going to begin to highlight the elected officials that have committed to demonstrate those principles,” Menzel says. “We’ll be featuring a number of politicians from the federal, state and local level that are using CrowdHall to better keep an open door for decisions, now that the election is over.” The initiative will be under development through the new year. “If you’ve been looking for a place that provides you with the tools to be able to ask your questions, share ideas and your statement, and peer vote on the ones you would like to see rise to the top, CrowdHall is where you’re going to go to do that,” Menzel says. By Kyle Stone

Union Cooperative Initiative works to build sustainable local jobs

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Diversity

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December 11, 2012

Kristen Barker isn’t surprised if you haven’t heard of the Cincinnati Union Cooperative Initiative. In fact, she pretty much planned it that way. She wants CUCI to demonstrate success in the form of job creation — and not just talk about it, she says. And that is beginning to happen. The group, created in 2010 by Barker and three other friends who work in social justice and peace, is modeled after the nearly 56-year-old Mondragon worker-owned cooperative in the Basque region of Spain. CUCI formed after Mondragon signed an historic agreement with the United Steelworkers in 2009 to launch union cooperatives in the United States. The model is meant to develop sustainable jobs using worker ownership alongside the collective bargaining process. For two years, Barker and co-founders Phil Amadon, Ellen Vera and Flequer Vera have been raising money, creating partnerships with key unions and studying efforts elsewhere to bring the worker cooperative to life. Last weekend, the Cincinnati group celebrated a series of successes that included the launch of its first co-op — an incubator farm that is training farmers, supplying a CSA and three retail outlets and employing six people. The 30-acre farm is in College Hill, near Winton and North Bend roads. It is currently also studying four other potential co-ops that include a Cincinnati railway manufacturing co-op, a food hub, an energy retrofitting co-op and a jewelry maker co-op. Each project is a different stage of feasibility studies and includes partnerships with universities and trade councils, as well as other local, state and federal groups. “These are super exciting projects,’’ says Barker. “The time is right for this. The ideas have been incubating and germinating. This feels really huge.” But what really excites Barker is the likelihood that Cincinnati may be the pilot city for Mondragon, which employs more than 83,000 people in 256 countries, if it chooses to bring its operations to the U.S. “It was our dream to bring Mondragon here, and we have been successful,’’ she says, adding that they hosted a Mondragon co-op that is looking to expand. “I feel very confident that jobs will flourish, and in the future, thousands of jobs will flourish.” Barker, a single mother of a special needs daughter, says the work has been time-consuming and difficult, but well worth it. “I am from Cincinnati and I want this area to thrive. I want jobs to stay here. I want families to live in a beloved community where all are valued, at peace and doing work that is equitable.” Do Good: • Sign up for the CUCI email newsletter to receive information about news and events. • Contribute to help fund the feasibility studies and other related initiatives. • Volunteer your skill or trade by emailing Barker. By Chris Graves Chris Graves is the assistant vice president of digital and social media at the Powers Agency.

Cincinnati entrepreneur’s BoojiBEE offers casual clothing for young women

By Newsroom

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Architecture + Design

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December 11, 2012

When it comes to fashion for young girls and women, sometimes what's cool and what's appropriate aren't a match. Natasha Andrews, a native Cincinnatian with a passion for fashion, decided to build a new business dedicated to cute clothes for ladies. "I decided to do something in fashion because in this day, young women are so fascinated by new and different fashion styles," Andrews says. "So instead of the half shirts, the booty shorts and short mini skirts, I decided to focus on looking good, feeling comfortable and making a positive statement." That's the philosophy behind BoojiBEE, a casual clothing brand that carries Andrews' signature high-fashion bee logo. She created a rough sketch of the logo, which was polished by her uncle. He's a Cincinnati-based graphic designer and co-owner of Rare Earth Graphics, LLC. Andrews started the online boutique in 2011, selling T-shirts, totes and a myriad of custom jewelry. She attended the University of Cincinnati as a criminal justice student, but was inexperienced in running a business. She credits her aunt and uncle, as well as the Greater Cincinnati Microenterprise Initiative, with helping turn her idea into a viable startup. "When I first started out as a new entrepreneur, I didn't have a focus or a target market," Andrews says. "It took me a while to figure out 'what is BoojiBEE?' I started out blind with graphic tees. I thought I had the bomb site, but had no clue what a website should consist of. I changed it at least four times; it was a mess." She pared down the business this year, streamlined her site and now is exclusively focusing on her brand, the bee. "I'm no longer doing handmade custom jewelry," Andrews says. "I love it to death, but it's too time consuming and it moves really slow. And on top of that, I didn't feel it had anything to do with BoojiBEE and the message I was trying to get across." So who is a BoojiBEE? "BoojiBEE is a definition of a true hard worker. A girl who loves life, [is] inspired by great things and is pretty inside and out. The BoojiBEE has a positive image that is reflected in her style, her character and how she lives her life." The site features tops, hoodies, leggings, tote bags and yoga pants. She buys the clothing wholesale, presses her logo and works with a local business to add branded tags. Andrews has just relaunched her site, and is offering a $5 credit for new customers through the holidays. Her plans are to grow the brand and eventually open her own brick-and-mortar shop. "I'm getting my name out there, and pushing the business," she says. "My plan is to grow into multifaceted fashion company." By Feoshia H. Davis Follow Feoshia on Twitter

Business growth through diversity topic of local leadership symposium

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Diversity

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December 4, 2012

Job growth is looking up in Cincinnati, and the region is ripe for even more. "In the last year, we created 29,000 new jobs, ahead of the growth in most of our peer markets," says Chris Kemper, PR director at the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. A host of variables have spurred our region's growth, including a talented workforce, a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, a reasonable cost of living and an innovative culture that permeates large institutions to small startups. But there's one area that's proven to boost the bottom line that more Cincinnati companies can tap into: diversity and inclusion. Companies that encourage diversity—in hiring, in suppliers, in board appointments and in investment—are among the world's fastest growing. In fact, a 2011 Forbes study found that 85 percent of 321 large companies (with at least a half-billion dollars in annual revenue) believed diversity played a vital role in fostering innovation. Cincinnati businesses will get a chance to learn more about the perks and importance of inclusion. The real dollars and sense of growth through diversity is the topic of The Diversity Leadership Symposium 2012. The morning event is co-hosted by Vision 2015 and Agenda 360, the region's strategic planning organizations. "Our overall goal is to discuss diversity and inclusion as a way to drive business growth," says Kemper. It's a timely topic as our country—and therefore consumers—becomes more diverse and our economy is increasingly global, with buyers and sellers connecting across countries. The conference's featured speaker is Andres Tapia, international thought leader on diversity and inclusion, president and CEO of Diversity Best Practices and author of The Inclusion Paradox. The symposium is Dec. 12 at the Duke Energy Convention Center downtown, registration starts at 7:30 a.m, and the symposium ends at noon. The cost is $110 per person, or $150 for a cocktail reception on Dec. 11 featuring Tapia. You can register on the Cincinnati Chamber website. Diverse by Design: Meeting the Talent Challenge in a Global Economy, a report commissioned by Agenda 360 and Vision 2015, will also be unveiled at the event. The symposium wraps up with simultaneous sessions. Attendees can pick one of the following: Workplace: Attracting and Retaining Diverse Talent Panelists will share best practices in creating and maintaining employee resource groups to engage and retain a diverse talent base.Marketplace: Minority Business Investment as a Strategy for Increasing Inclusion Learn how diversity spending can advance a company’s diversity and inclusion efforts while also having a ripple effect in the community.Marketplace: Creating a More Inclusive Community Panelists will share strategies for cultivating a welcoming community outside of the workplace to increase diverse talent retention for the region.By Feoshia Davis