Exhausted, Jay returned to his office to discover his answering machine was blinking 14. Frustrated, Jay set his toolbox down with a thud and plopped into his chair. He grabbed a scrap of paper and hit “play.”

The air was filled with urgent calls from businesses with computer issues and network problems. Jay scribbled madly as he listened to each of the fourteen messages. Then, he left his desk to grab some coffee.

Jay was both pleased and overwhelmed. His new business, Link …

Dennis Harris, owner of ACSI Business Machines faced a problem. His office machine business had a high number of calls at certain times of the day and during particular times of the year that he couldn’t keep up with. He was losing customers who couldn’t get through due to busy signals or whose calls they weren’t able to answer in time.

Additionally, Dennis knew many of his customers were entrepreneurs who often worked late and on weekends, sometimes needing a service tech outside of…

Robin peered through the water cascading down her windows. Tree branches, roofing materials, and garbage streamed past her house in a swarm of debris, dirt, and rain. With a loud crack, she watched her 60-foot Sugar Maple tree split and crash to the ground, blocking the driveway. Then the lights went out.

While Robin watched the storm, her insurance agent, Terry Cullen, was monitoring the events online. The thunderstorm began around 7:15 p.m., just as he and his wife finished dinner.…

Sarah looked out the car window at the changing leaves. She couldn’t wait to get home so she could ride her pony Bobbi down the country lanes under the trees’ golden canopy. Once home, Sarah skipped out the back door towards the corral.

As she got near, what she saw made her heart stop, not believing her eyes. Bobbi, her best friend in the world, was lying on his side, one leg tightly entangled in the barbed-wire fence.

Sarah rushed to Bobbi, her chest bursting and eyes welli…

Tim Koenig poked his head in David Lynde’s office Monday afternoon, wearing a big grin. “We got the Fitzgerald Natatorium job!”

David beamed. “That’s a 2.6 million dollar project!”

“I know,” Tim replied. “I quoted it, remember?”

“Well, now that we’ve got it, how are we going to manage it?” David asked.

“That’s your department, not mine. I do know that we seriously need to do something to track shipments. We have a $10,000 a day fine for every day this thing ru…

Kylie began searching the internet for photographers. She and her fiancé were making slow progress at planning their wedding in June. Their next task was finding a photographer.

She knew she should have started earlier, but six months seemed like plenty of time; she was about to learn differently. Kylie looked at an impressive online ad and punched the number into her phone.

A harried woman answered. She showed no interest in talking to a potential customer. Kylie explained s…

Jennifer called her husband at work. “Phil,” she said, “you are never going to believe the call I just got.”

“What?”

“The real-estate agent has three more offers on the house, and…”

“What do you mean? They’ve already accepted ours.”

“Phil, I know, but these offers are higher. If we don’t close in seven days the seller can take the higher offers.”

“No problem. The appraisal is done, and our loan is approved. What are you worried about?”

“Hey, I’…

Good optometry management affects the quality of life for many people, particularly the elderly. This is an even bigger concern in rural areas where residents have to travel many miles to visit their eye care professional. Usually this means the loss of a day’s work for the patient’s driver, which has to be coordinated with the doctor’s schedule. As a result, patients often put off making appointments for routine care and checkups.

However, Dr. Alison Chaussee of the Prairie Hills Vi…