Small Business Owner Relishes Family Time

It was a warm November day and the drive-thru line to Family Frosty was out to the road. As I walked in Amy DeJohnghe is frantically running between making orders, answering the ringing phone and explaining the new register to an employee. After a few moments she sits down with me. In this situation you are able to notice that Amy takes great pride in running her own business, which includes an ice cream place, a putt-putt and a now a pizza place.
When asked how her family has helped her with her business’ she responded with, “At first my kids, Nathan and Adam, were really little so they didn’t do much, but now they’ve worked here and are a huge help when it comes to naming different and new items. My husband also builds everything and helps me fix all of the machines. I honestly don’t know how I’d do it without my family.” We were interrupted by the phone ringing.
Amy DeJohnghe first started out with Family Frosty located in Tecumseh, MI and in the summer of 2007 built a putt-putt called Stone Mountain Family Fun Center next door. On Monday November 2 Amy opened up Stone Mountain Family Pizzeria next to Family Frosty. “I think that we just need to find our niche,” DeJohnghe says after responding to if she thinks it’ll be hard to compete with other pizza places in Tecumseh.
“Both of my kids are in college now so it gives me the chance to put 150% into my business. There have been instances where the business has interfered with spending time with my family, but that’s what happens when you own your own business,” DeJohnghe said after hanging up after the phone rang again.
DeJohnghe relies a lot on Michelle Hardy who is a manager at Family Frosty. “I try to make sure to make a lot of small decisions for Amy to take some stress out of her life,” Hardy said. Hardy goes on to explain that even though that making those decisions can be stressful that she really enjoys the challenge. “It’s fun to make decisions. Especially when I know my boss is going to stand behind me because she’s so understanding.”
I asked Hardy if it’s also difficult for her to find time to spend with her own family when she’s busy working between 30 and 40 hours a week. “It’s a little hard. They usually just want me there when they get home from school, but you have to remember that any job takes time away from family. It really helps that I enjoy my job.”
I asked DeJohnghe a question that I wasn’t sure about asking. I asked her if she ever regretted getting into opening a business that requires her constant attention. She laughed and answered “Do I have to tell the truth? Really though, I think that with any profession you sometimes ask yourself ‘Why am I doing this?’, but 90% I really enjoy what I do.”
You can tell that Amy relies a lot on her family to help her through some tough decisions that she might have to make. You can also tell though that Amy DeJohnghe really enjoys being involved in her business. I walked out of the interview to hearing the phone ring once again.

(Picture from left to right are managers Cindy Rosas, Owner Amy DeJohnghe, Managers Cassie Hollenbeck and Michelle Hardy)

Assignment #7

Profile: Duff Goldman
Source: annarbor.com
Summary: The article I reviewed is on Duff Goldman, who owns his own cake baking business and wrote a book and is on a TV show called Ace of Cakes. The article goes on to talk about his business and some of the people that he works with. It also talks a little bit about how he got started.
Analyze: The article I read succeeded in a few areas. I think that the journalist had a good amount of quotes throughout the article, but I don’t really feel like they took an interesting angle. The story starts out with a description of what he’s done, but doesn’t really go into any detail about any quirks that he might have or anything interesting.
Like I mentioned before though I believe that this article has a good amount of quotes, especially one that kind of wraps up the story. I also love how the journalist gets him to talk about some of his past about how he got started in the cake business.

Assignment 6

Current Event: Surge in flu-like symptoms flood hospital emergency rooms By: Kyla King The Grand Rapids Press October 28, 2009

Story Ideas:
1. Will hospitals have to hire more nurses/doctors if people continue to get H1N1?
- The idea behind this story is that people (including people in the medical field) continue to get H1N1 and this means people taking days off of work. I was wondering if hospitals/medical centers will have to increase their staff if this continues.
- Possible sources for this story would be board members of medical centers/hospitals, other nurses and doctors and staff who have to take time off because they have been diagnosed with swine flu.
2. Do medicals staffs see the swine flu disappearing anytime soon?
- The idea behind this story is that people are very worried about coming down with swine flu and are getting vaccinations. Will swine flu be either completely gone or at least die down any time soon?
- Possible sources for this story would be doctors or scientists who have done research on swine flu.
3. I would also do a history on swine flu (from when it was present in the 1980’s or earlier, I’m not sure on the date).
- The idea behind this story is to show people that there’s really no need to be overreacting as much as what they are. This is not the first time that swine flu has been present in the United States and I think showing people that would be eye opening. I don’t think that very many people know that it’s been around before.
- Possible sources for this story would include the internet, doctors from when it was present before and possibly someone who had it during that time also.

Assignment #5

Profile Article

The person that I plan on trying to interview for my profile article is Duane Below. He is worth interviewing because he plays for a minor league baseball team and someday might even play for the Detroit Tigers. This is interesting because he graduated from a really small school (Britton Macon Area School). He graduated the year before me and I didn’t really know him in high school so I believe that this will be an interesting article. Right now though he has to take a year off because of an injury that happened to him at the beginning of the year. The reason why I’m not sure if it’ll be possible for me to interview him is because he’s always really busy and because…he’s not exactly the nicest person (or at least that’s how he was in high school).

Questions:

1. What’s it like knowing you might play for the Tigers someday?
2. How will your injury interfere with your pitching?
3. What’s it like knowing that you accomplished something this big with coming from such a small school?
4. How do you feel about becoming an idol in Britton?

Enrollment

“This is only my second semester here at Eastern Michigan University. I transferred from Washtenaw Community College because I wanted my bachelor’s degree,” Andrea Dennison said. “I’m really happy to see it though because I think it opens up more opportunities for diversity.”
With the enrollment increasing at Eastern Michigan University it means more opportunities for students to interact with each other. It also will increase the size of classes for professors. “I don’t think that this will affect my one on one time with professors because they seem pretty good about making sure the students are doing well in their classes,” Dennison said.
Eastern Michigan University’s enrollment jumped up 4.26 percent for the 2009-10 school year. The reason behind the increase could be a factor of reasons including more on-line classes being offered and students wanting to transfer from two-year colleges to a four-year to get a bachelor degree. Dennison said, “I don’t think that the enrollment will continue to increase though because of the economy though. If the economy doesn’t get better I think that the enrollment with actually decrease.”

Assignment 4

Feature Story Idea: Where to take inexpensive trips with your family.
Main website: http://www.visitlenawee.com/
Website #1: http://hiddenlakegardens.msu.edu/
Website #2: http://www.thetca.org/
Website #3: http://www.visitlenawee.com/page40.html
Website #4: http://www.visitlenawee.com/page5.html

Article 1

Everybody loves having a good time with their family and friends. It doesn’t matter whether it’s spending time with each other during the holidays, birthdays, parties or weddings. How about going out together on the busiest bar night of the year? It’s been rumored that Thanksgiving Eve is the biggest night that bars make their most money.
Britton, MI consists of a library, fire department, gas station, school and a bar. When driving from Dundee to Tecumseh you could miss it if you blink. In Britton the small bar in town is called The Whistle Stop (this is due to its location next to the railroad tracks that go through town). When you walk into the bar that is located in between an antique store and a building that’s for sale, you can feel the small town energy take over. There are booths on each side of the building with tables down the middle of the room. It’s very dimly lit and quiet in the afternoon with only a few students and retiree’s eating lunch. The four televisions that are lining the walls have sports, the weather or Keno on.
“Thanksgiving Eve is one of our busiest nights of the year. With everybody coming in with family and friends that night we can increase our business by 50 percent compared to a weekend night,” Diane Straits answers about what night is the busiest for them. Straits knows the bar business considering she’s been a waitress for 27 years with the last three spent at The Whistle Stop. “I think it’s mostly because people know that they don’t have to work the next morning and want to get out. I do think that it’s also because people want to get together with their family that night.”
Britton is a very small town (it’s actually considered a village) that has only about 600 people within the city limits. You would never know it was there unless you were from the area or you knew someone from town. “Most of the people that come out that night are usually locals, we don’t get very many people from out of town,” Straits continues.
The bar hours for The Whistle Stop are consist of staying open until only 11 pm Monday thru Thursdays, 2 am on Friday and Saturday and then only until 8 pm on Sunday nights. Straits said that Thanksgiving Eve they usually keep the bar open until 2 am though, even though it’s a weekday night. When asked if she thought they would get more business if they were located in a bigger town Straits answers, “I think the only way we would get more people is if we were located in Ann Arbor. But my guess is that we would have about the same amount of people whether we were located here or in Tecumseh. We do have to prepare for that night though. We order extra of everything and we have specials that go all night.”
When doing a search for the best bar to be at on Thanksgiving Eve I run across nightclubvip.com. This website holds six bars advertising for all of their specials that they are going to be having on the night before Thanksgiving. Three floors of music, open bars for an hour, dinner buffets and DJ’s are just some of the perks that they’re going to hold that night. These are facts that it’s not a rumor that Thanksgiving Eve is the busiest bar night of the year.
Waiting at the bar for more people to talk to about bar nights Thanksgiving Eve, Clinton, MI resident Emilie Cadmus walks in with a couple of her friends. “I do usually go out the night before Thanksgiving with my mom and some of my other family. We like to drink so when we’re all together that night it seems like going to a bar is the thing to do.”
When looking for something to do the night before Thanksgiving, grab some friends or family members and go to your local bar. They’re most likely having a lot of specials and you might even run into some people that you haven’t seen in awhile. Cadmus goes on saying, “It’s always good to catch up with people that you haven’t seen in awhile. My friends are usually coming back into town that night for the holidays and they just also happen to be at the bar also.”