Consumer Stories

Consumer Stories

Boost in manufacturing and nursing development programs to benefit CSRA

The U.S. Department of Labor has selected three colleges including Aiken Tech to form a consortium to develop a virtual Workforce Innovation Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Nursing — two sectors the agency identified as priority workforce needs. This comes with a large grant from the DOL to accomplish the task. Piedmont Technical College (PTC) and Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College (OCtech) are also included in a grant to address the needs of those two sectors. Combined, the three technical colleges are expected to have a big impact on the CSRA and

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Consumer Stories

Technical college offers forklift training program to local inmates

A group of local inmates is now eligible for jobs in the logistics industry, thanks to a partnership between the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office and Augusta Technical College. The college recently offered a two-day continuing education forklift certification course to 12 men who were about to be released from jail in Augusta. The detention center paid for the program. The college’s President, Dr. Jermaine Whirl said they chose a program that could be taught at the jail. He said the inmates were very excited about completing that program, which combined

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Consumer Stories

Will Artificial Intelligence take your job?

In case you missed Richard Brashear’s column last week, here is the link. How GPT-4 can boost your business marketing. Read it and read it again. He has done several columns about AI capabilities and the impact on marketing your business, but this article sent me down a research rabbit hole. As Brashear has reported, AI has revolutionized the digital marketing industry. In simple terms GPT-4 is an artificial intelligence model that is used to generate text, most of which comes from absorbing the internet, all of it. “From a

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Consumer Stories

Local company hosts book drive to benefit students

For many children, reading over the summer sounds like punishment, but one local business owner hopes to change that with help from the business community. Tim Cox, the owner of Leisure Time Pressure Wash & Restoration located on Columbia Road in Martinez, is hosting a book drive this month and next month with the goal of providing one book to every student at Warren Road Elementary School in Augusta, where his wife, Tiffany teaches. He said the school’s enrollment is about 600 students. “We figured we have to come up

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Consumer Stories

Local business owners honor father’s legacy by establishing entrepreneurial scholarship fund

Wilkes Goolsby is honoring his father’s legacy by helping local high school students achieve the dream of business ownership. Goolsby is co-owner of Goolsby’s, a popular family restaurant that specializes in Southern cuisine located at 4460 Washington Road, Suite 9 in Evans. Every year on March 24, the restaurant hosts Richard Goolsby Day, which honors his father, the restaurant’s founder who died in a car accident on Feb. 10, 2021. March 24 was his birthday. On Friday, Goolsby’s celebrated the second annual Richard Goolsby Day. All sales and donations collected

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B2B Stories

Local business services company helps business owners take a break

Occasionally, business owners need a vacation, but they often wonder if they’ll still have a business when they get back. A local business services firm can help. Richardson Professional Solutions provides a variety of services for small businesses and non-profit organizations, including project management, bookkeeping, and marketing. But they can also keep your business running, even in your absence by offering virtual assistance, according to its Marketing and Sales Director, Payton Prather. Prather said their team can perform various tasks based on a business’s needs. “We can help return phone

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Consumer Stories

Unique restaurant opens in time for Masters!

All poke bowls are not created equal, according to Angel Morgan. Morgan, co-owner of Build Yo Poke located in National Plaza, near Publix at 2816 Washington Road, Suite 101 in Augusta, loves poke, a Hawaiian dish made with raw fish or seafood cut into small pieces and served over rice. She runs the restaurant with the help of two of her children, Cayden and Shanna, who want to own their own restaurant someday. Her husband and other three children work at their other business: Pita Mediterranean Street Food located near

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Consumer Stories

CSRA businesses celebrate spring

We recently saw a post that Mother Nature will bake us this summer because she had seasoned us in pollen, then marinated us in the fridge. Regardless, North Augusta Forward and the Downtown Alliance are celebrating spring this weekend and it looks like the temperatures will be indicative of the season. The Downtown Spring Fest 2023 will be held in North Augusta Saturday, March 25, starting at 10 am. It will offer artists, food, and live music. Live music will feature Tanner Duckworth, Jaycie Ward, She N She, and Nick

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Restaurants/Food

Business Lunch Review: I ♥️ Mac and Cheese

Editor’s Note: Wes Hennings never met a meal he walked away from and is an opinionated eater! Each Thursday, he shares the results of a business lunch he’s had with a colleague as a way to advise our business community on the good, bad, and the tasty across the CSRA. He doesn’t let ABD or the restaurant know where he is going and his opinions are his own. He grades the restaurants he visits on a 1-5 scale with “5” being outstanding. We call this our “Real Business Lunch Review”.

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Consumer Stories

Construction begins for Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative

A 60,000-square-foot facility, expected to drive sustainability of the manufacturing sector, is in the works for USC Aiken. The project is a partnership between USC Aiken, the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM), and North Wind Construction Services, LLC (NWCS). The AMC will combine the capabilities of the DOE National Laboratories, industrial enterprises, and educational institutions to drive practical, cost-effective solutions to many of the most challenging environmental cleanup and energy security challenges while facilitating the long-term sustainability of the manufacturing sector. The new facility will be

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