Features Kristi Kates Petoskey is regionally famed for a lot of things, including its ‘million dollar sunsets,’ Gaslight Shopping District and the Odawa Casino Resort, to name a few. But now, one man and his ambitious small company are aiming to be the Next Big Thing out of P-town. Keith Schmidt and New Focus Creative are calling themselves “Northern Michigan’s only iPhone, iPad, and Android developer"...

Features Al Parker

Shanny Schmidt has found an art niche that offers something special for animal lovers.

She paints pet portraits, mostly dogs, which feature vibrant colors and unusual poses. Her growing collection of works ranges from Airedales to Wolfhounds and most breeds in between.

Features Erin Crowell

Today’s industry trends aren’t lost on Carter Schmidt.

“Selling lemonade? You just don’t make much doing that; and, well, the newspaper boy may have disappeared,” the eight-year-old tells me, a journalist, on the logistics of childhood employment. The third grader at Eastern Elementary School in Traverse City is an entrepreneur, having just completed the milestone of one year in business with his company, Carter’s Compost. The bike-powered, kid-driven kitchen scrap pick-up service has been turning dirt since last April, charging its Traverse City neighborhood customers $5 a month for fresh compost.