By: Micki Vandeloo, GPC While our team at Lakeview Consulting has vast experience finding and writing proposals for both federal and state grant programs, we are particularly specialized in helping companies obtain training grants for their own and their customers’ operations. For example, we regularly help a large industrial distributor find and access grant funding

By Micki Vandeloo, GPC As we prepare to enter the last two months of 2022, I have seen some exciting trends that will impact the manufacturing community for the remainder of this year into 2023, and for decades to come.  These trends will address some of the biggest challenges facing manufacturers and enable manufacturing to

By Micki Vandeloo, GPC In the world of real estate, the key to success is “location, location, location”.  In the world of economic development incentives, including grants, the key to success is “job creation/capital investment, job creation/capital investment, job creation/capital investment”.  Admittedly, this is more of a mouthful than the real estate equivalent, but it

By Micki Vandeloo, GPC According to the Department of Labor, the number of new apprentices in the United States has grown by 67% since 2012. In 2021, there were 22% more active apprentices than the previous 10-year average (593,000 versus 484,000)[1]. Why is this the case? Apprenticeships have long been utilized for construction trades.  However,

By Micki Vandeloo, GPC What do you think STEP grants are?  Grants to support career pathways (STEPs to a better career)? Grants to support installing STEPs on your building? If I told you that STEP grants were actually grants to help companies expand their markets through exporting, would you believe me?  What if I told

By: Micki Vandeloo Growth is a good thing but the flip side of growth is equipping your new and current staff to address higher volumes of work.  With the low unemployment rate, manufacturers are hiring less skilled workers and training them on the job rather than trying to find an employee with a strong set