Hilton Head Business

Children need nutrition to concentrate, learn, and participate in school activities. A growling stomach is a real distraction. Healthy school lunches are another way to show your children that you love and support them and that you are thinking of them during the day.

Aging facility crowded and in need of facelift

“The rec center was built with ATAX money. But there are so many demands on that money that I’m not sure how we could justify that today as a tourism component. “

The Island Recreation center was once a jewel of Hilton Head.

But that jewel has long been tarnished.

Now, however, the center may get long-needed and long-awaited updates.

NOT ONLY DO FARMERS MARKETS GIVE LOCAL GROWERS A PLACE TO SELLTHEIR HARVEST, THEY ALSO SERVE AS AN INCUBATOR FOR SMALL BUSINESSES WITH BARGAIN-BASEMENT START-UPCOSTS

At Bluffton, rent is $15 per market for farmers, $25 for specialty food vendors. At Port Royal, it’s just $20.

Vendors get immediate focus groups for their products as they hand out samples and watch people’s facial expressions and jot down initial comments.

With more than 120 farmers markets in South Carolina, the state Department of Agriculture created the S.C. Specialty Food Association and S.C. Farmers Market Association. They offer education, tips and networking to help makers and managers make a go of it.

A TASTY COMBO OF COMMUNITY AND COMMERCE

SUSAN BRANT NEVER IMAGINED BEING A FARMER. “It was something my husband always wanted to do,” said Brant, a retired nurse. “I didn’t like to get my hands dirty. I do now,” she said, laughing from her perch atop a cooler at the Port Royal Farmers Market while overseeing her grandchildren tending to customers.

When her husband, Don, proposed they start Brant Family Farm in Varnville three years ago after he retired as a chemical engineer at Exxon, Susan said, “‘I want it to be all natural.’ He said, ‘Are you sure? It‘s a lot of work.’ I think I’m doing it to atone for those years working for Exxon.”

For many Lowcountry companies, business is family

For example, daughters of two local business owners chose to study international affairs in college, likely putting them on trajectories that would lead far from Hilton Head Island or Bluffton. One son started his own business apart from his mother’s jewelry store. The other tried working in child care.

But after a few years, that next generation realized there are immeasurable benefits to the family livelihood: understanding bosses, dedicated and loyal co-workers and the chance to preserve and build on their parents’ lifelong endeavors. Thanks to that next generation, our community can count on another generation of successful local businesses.

Jiva Yoga Center has opened a new studio on the north end of the island at 55 Mathews Drive. The center is celebrating with free yoga classes all day on Wednesday, June 12.

Sons learn from their fathers. Whether it’s how to throw a ball, ride a bike, shave or tie a tie, the lessons fathers teach can last a lifetime. But how do those lessons change when a son joins his father in business?

Hilton Head Monthly met with three local father-son teams about how their relationships moved from the family circle to the daily grind. Our subjects were Mike and Robert Rivers of Low Country Shelving and Glass, Charlie and Andy Reed of Charter One Realty and Mike and Nick Kristoff of The Mortgage Network.

Mothers may fight with daughters. Daughters may spend their formative years embarrassed by their moms. But the bond they share through it all, from the playroom to the boardroom, is a unique kind of love. It’s the mentoring guidance of a trusted advisor. It’s the support structure of a close sisterhood. It’s the invaluable bond of a best friend. 

And if you take that sort of relationship into a business, as you’re about to see, it makes for one happy family.

Rick and Vicky Stamey travel from North Carolina to Hilton Head Island twice a year. Each visit includes a trip to Shelter Cove Harbour, so they can look at a longtime friend’s boat docked in the marina. The Stameys also bring along their binoculars to get a closer look at local wildlife.

“You’ve got pelicans, barn swallows, egrets, cedar waxwings,” Rick Stamey said. “There’s just a bunch of different kinds of birds down here. It’s a nice place.”