Community Business Fall 2016

Community

FALL

Business 2016

COMMUNITY • HEALTH • FINANCIAL • REAL ESTATE FUNERAL • BUILDING MATERIALS • DINING

INSIDE: Profiles of local businesses and organizations © 2016 Schurz Communications, Inc. Published by Hoosier Times • Bloomington, Indiana

SMART Girls, STRONG Women 2016 December 1, 6-8 p.m.

Boys & Girls Club, 311 S. Lincoln St.

Featuring Joani Crean

Tickets $40,Table of 8 $300 Sponsorship opportunities events@bgcbloomington.org or call 812-332-5311, ext. 14 HT-143047-1

You’re invited to this signature event, including dinner and dessert, to help raise awareness and funds for female mentoring programs at the Clubs like S.M.A.R.T. Girls which help girls reach their full potential.

• Panel discussion including Joani Crean, Laurie Burns McRobbie, Mae Cassady and Gracie Turner; moderated by Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan.

Live auction conducted by Jennie Vaughan.

bgcbloomington.org for details and to purchase tickets

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“

From birth until they leave the nest, our kids must have an experience that is rich with unconditional love, mentorship, expectations, challenge and encouragement.”

–jeff baldwin, executive director

Boys & Girls Clubs of Bloomington

By Lee Hadley

T

he Boys & Girls Clubs of Bloomington has a lot of statistics to prove it changes lives. Executive director Jeff Baldwin can point to the significant improvements in the math and reading scores of club kids who are in the Indiana Kids Tutoring Program.

He can mention the 220 club teens who completed 4,274 total hours of volunteer service to the Bloomington community in 2014 — or cite a recent Economic Impact Study by the Kelley School of Business which shows that every $1 of money donated to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Bloomington generates $5 worth of benefits to the community at large.

Baldwin can also proudly report that 92% of Boys & Girls Clubs of Bloomington members say that they intend to go to college. For a youth organization that focuses on healthy lifestyles, academic success, good character and active citizenship, that might be the best indicator of all.

“We measure success in the

impact we have in each child’s life,” said Baldwin. “From birth until they leave the nest, our kids must have an experience that is rich with unconditional love, mentorship, expectations, challenge and encouragement.”

The Boys and Girls Clubs of Bloomington serves kids ages 6 to 18 through after-school services on weekdays and during school holidays and summer breaks. The original Boys Club was established in 1956 and the Lincoln Street club opened in 1961 as the first permanent home of the organization.

Camp Rock was established at Lake Lemon in the 1970s to offer fullday camp programs during school breaks. The Crestmont club launched in 1990 and in 1992 all clubs began serving girls. The Ellettsville unit opened in 2009.

The clubs deliver services to members for $20 per year — and for just $5 at the Crestmont club. The membership fee provides transportation from schools to local clubs, supervision by

trained adult mentors in a safe environment, healthy snacks and access to more than 60 specialty programs that include tutoring, drama club and cooking club.

These services are provided by a devoted staff of 14 full-time and 18 part-time employees. The organization also relies on an extensive network of sponsors, interns, work-study participants, AmeriCorps VISTAs, service learning volunteers, program volunteers and hundreds of one-time volunteers to conduct programs and special events.

“We’re always looking to expand our capacity in being able to serve our club kids and their families in an efficient and cost-effective way by partnering with community and company partners,” said Baldwin. “We couldn’t do what we do without them.”

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Bloomington is currently conducting a capital campaign to construct a new Crestmont club, which will be slightly larger than the Lincoln Street

club. The organization also hopes to renovate the Lincoln Street club and expand its program space.

The Lincoln Street club is hosting a new event called SMART Girls, STRONG Women to help fund female mentoring programs at the clubs — a counterpart to the Man Up event for the male mentoring programs. The women’s event will take place Thursday, Dec. 1, 6 to 8 p.m. at the Lincoln Street club gymnasium.

Joani Crean will be joined by panelists Laurie Burns McRobbie, Mae Cassady and 2016 BGCB Youth of the Year Gracie Turner. Sherry DunbarKruzan and Jennie Vaughan will also be part of the program.

“The single most important thing we can do as a community is rally around our youth, opening doors that give them every opportunity to realize their fullest potential,” said Baldwin. “Building strong, confident, responsible and caring children allows them to take their place in this world.”

Courtesy Midwest Center for Joint Replacement

“W

e want to give people the highest quality of life they can possibly have,” said Richard Jackson, one of the four surgeons at Midwest Center for Joint Replacement.

Midwest Center for Joint Replacement (MCJR) is an Indianapolis private practice specializing in hip, knee, and partial knee replacement surgery. MCJR’s four surgeons, Michael Berend, Wesley Lackey, Richard Jackson, and Joshua Carter have more than 50 years of combined experience in total joint replacements, and they are eager to serve each patient with an incomparable level of skill, care, and respect.

MCJR desires to put the patient back at the forefront of the healthcare experience. Everything about MCJR’s office is designed to make the patient experience as pain-free as possible. When you call to make an appointment, a live person will answer the phone. If you come in for a consultation, you will be greeted by smiling faces amidst a cheerful color palette of turquoise, green, and crisp white. Should you have an emergency after office hours, you will have access to your surgeon’s cell phone number.

“When folks see us for the first time, they’re often fearful of what we might discuss,” said Berend. “I think it’s a vulnerable time for people, but it’s a privilege to walk in that space with them. We want to exude compassion, experience, and skill, and then really bear the patient’s burdens in the time of recovery.”

All four of the MCJR surgeons specialize in total knee, partial knee, total anterior hip, and complex joint revision surgeries. However, Jackson also provides care for general orthopedic conditions including shoulder, hand, ankle, and foot disorders and injuries. Twice a month, Steven Herbst, a foot and ankle specialist of Central Indiana Orthopedics in Muncie, sees patients out of the Indianapolis office.

“

Every person on our team is involved in the best outcome for the patient.”

Berend and Lackey also see patients at the Bloomington Bone and Joint Clinic several times a month for the convenience of patients in southern Indiana.

“The benefit about having the private practice model has been the freedom to do the best thing for the patient,” said Lackey. “Every person on our team is involved in the best outcome for the patient.”

“We have gathered around us a host of folks who genuinely care about the patient,” said Carter of the

Photos courtesy Midwest Center for Joint Replacement

office staff. “The healing process is really a product of the entire team approach. We want to go through this together with the patient.”

The MCJR surgeons are national leaders in outpatient joint replacement surgery; even total hip and total knee replacement surgeries can now be done in the outpatient setting.

“Thirty years ago, we didn’t have joint replacement surgery the way we do today,” said Berend. “People used to stay in the hospital for over a week, and now 60 percent of our patients are home within six hours.”

MCJR surgeons perform outpatient surgeries at the Midwest Specialty Surgery Center, located on MCJR’s first floor. Midwest Specialty Surgery Center provides two state-of-the-art operating rooms with advanced infection control systems

and eight private recovery suites.

Patient satisfaction with the surgery center has been rated at 98 percent in the past two years.

“Any surgery is a big life event, but if we can minimize the impact on the patient’s life, that’s a huge step in the direction of making surgery less invasive,” said Lackey. “Quicker recovery, less pain, and a quicker return home with family are our goals in any joint replacement surgery. We’ve gotten very good feedback about outpatient joint replacement. We find that patients enjoy being able to get home and recover there as opposed to the hospital.”

For those patients who need additional medical attention, the MCJR surgeons also perform surgery in the inpatient setting at the Franciscan Center for Hip and Knee Surgery in Mooresville. The Center for Hip and Knee has performed more than 40,000 successful total joint replacements in 30 years.

“I have a great deal of respect for the other doctors here at MCJR,” said Jackson. “They’re great physicians and they’re very compassionate. The patient is the center of care here.”

SEE OUR AD ON THE BACK PAGE

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Midwest Center for Joint Replacement

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HT-141671-1

–Sean k. lewis, owner

Instinctive Financial

By Lee Hadley

W

hen Sean K. Lewis decided to work as an independent financial advisor, he wanted to brand his new company in a way that represented his unique approach to advising.

As a two-sport athlete in college and throughout his 14 year career in financial management, Lewis always found success when he followed his instincts. Even the decision to branch out on his own was in part listening to his gut, and so Instinctive Financial was born.

“As an advisor, you’re using the best information that you can and you essentially have to trust your instincts when making advice on investments,” said Lewis. “It’s what’s gotten me where I am in the business.”

Lewis made the move from a large national brokerage firm to the midwest-based Thurston Springer this past summer. Partnering with Thurston Springer allows Lewis to serve his clients

with a broad range of resources while leaving him free to offer the services best suited to meet their needs. It’s the first time Lewis has struck out on his own and he’s still getting used to being responsible for every aspect of operations, from paying bills to developing new clients.

“When you’re out on your own and you’re independent, you can create your own brand and run your business the way you want to,” said Lewis. “But it is a little bit scary.”

Like any financial advisor, Lewis makes financial recommendations to people and provides advice to help them achieve their financial goals. He’s able to offer a wide range of financial and wealth management services, individual investment opportunities and insurance products.

Every client has different needs and the most important part of Lewis’s job is finding out what they are.

“There are a lot of advisors in the business and it’s hard to differentiate yourself. We all have the same investments that we can pick from,” said Lewis. “It’s the level of service that you provide, the sophistication in your practice with different software and different technologies that are available now.”

Instinctive Financial is built upon the principles of building relationships, maintaining transparency and establishing trust.

Lewis believes that he provides his clients with a higher level of service than they were getting where they were before, regardless of where they were.

“We’re all hoping that the investments that we pick do what we want them to do, but the markets are essentially out of our control,” he said. “The only thing I can do is make sure I ask my clients the right questions and do the best that I can for them by providing the best service that I

can.”

This emphasis on providing great service is proving successful. Most of Lewis’ new business comes from word-of-mouth and referrals from clients. Lewis doesn’t purchase lists of potential investors or practice cold calling — because it’s difficult to build trust with complete strangers — so networking through satisfied clients is an important avenue for him to generate new business.

Part of the Instinctive Financial approach is to generate a casual and relaxed atmosphere to make clients feel comfortable. Lewis’s office is simple and elegant instead of dark and somber. Talking about money is stressful for many people, so Lewis wants to make it as smooth an experience as possible.

“It doesn’t have to be that hard,” he said. “What we do is relatively simple if you put it the right way, and that starts the second you walk in the door.”

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“

What we do is relatively simple if you put it the right way, and that starts the second you walk in the door.”

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Seerving Monroe and Surrounding Counties

Thank You to all Past and Present Customers

JASON MILLICAN, BROKER/OWNER 812-333-0550

HT-141573-1

MICHELLE STANGER Agent - 812-219-2307

BRAD HOLMES Agent – 812-606-5252

MARYANNE MOHNEY Agent - 812-340-5625

JANET LANE Agent - 812-360-3195

AUTUMN MCCOY Agent - 812-325-6182

MINH NGOC SCHIMMELMANN Agent - 812-320-1966

JACK CONLEY Agent - 812-361-0345

SARAH KLAIBER Agent – 812-322-6002

NATALIE MATHIAS 812-325-9813

www.millicanrealty.com

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Millican Realty

By Kasey Husk

A

s a newly-minted 20-year-old real estate agent, Jason Millican found he could use his youth and inexperience as a selling point, rather than a liability.

“I’d say, ‘The good thing about this young guy is I’ve got a lot of energy and I’m excited and I’ll work for your needs and put you first,’” Millican said of starting out in the business in 1988. “So they would give me a chance.”

Now, more than 25 years later, Millican is the owner and Jason Millican managing broker of his family business, Millican Realty.

But while his business has grown and his title has changed, that hustle and customer-first attitude that served him well as a young man continues to be his credo.

“To this day, I tell my realtors, ‘Do what you say you are going to do, and put the client first,’” said Millican, who took over as owner after his father’s death in 2004. “(The customer) is number one. We are here to serve you, not us and not our commission.”

Millican Realty is located at 3111

W. Venture Boulevard in Bloomington. The company’s main focus is on residential real estate, followed by multifamily housing. Millican is a third-generation real estate agent, following in the footsteps of his late father, Robert Millican — who became a real estate agent in Madison, Ind. in 1966 and opened Millican Realty in Bloomington in 1982 — and his grandfather, who held his real estate license through his son’s firm. Early on, however, Jason Millican was more interested in making it as a DJ than pursuing the family business, at least until his father pointed out that he could do both. Soon, he was selling homes to newly-married couples after being their DJ. Over the past 28 years, Millican has seen his share of changes to the real estate business. Technology has been the chief engine behind those changes.

“The way business is done now, it has changed vastly with technology from what it was like 20 years ago or even 10 years go,” Millican said. “We went from getting text books of listings and (having) big store fronts, to now electronic signatures, scanning and emailing, and closings where nobody is in attendance.”

Still, he said, the firm has always benefited from having years of experience behind it. Early on in his career,

“

We are here to serve you, not us and not our commission.”

–Jason Millican

Millican would say he had the benefit of experience dating back to 1966 because “if I didn’t know something, my dad was my teammate and he’d help.”

Now, as an agent for more than 25 years, Jason is often the one helping others. That’s not to say that he’s stopped learning himself. Right now the company has nine active agents, but another six or seven may be joining the company soon. Newer people often bring with them more familiarity with technology, which can be an advantage. But regardless of age or experience level, working with the right people — whether agents, loan

officers or inspectors — is key, according to Millican.

“I learn a lot from people older than me and I certainly learn a lot from people who are new to this business,” he said.

Though Millican’s father died in 2004, his memory and his teachings remain an inspiration. Robert Millican was well-known in the community for giving back. He delivered fish he’d caught himself — already cleaned and filleted — to people in the community he knew would enjoy them. Giving back has always been an important part of the Millican philosophy.

“I’m blessed enough to have a successful business. It feels important to give back,” Jason said. “I try to tell my agents that. Stay humble — you are in this to help others and with that, I have faith that your needs will be met as well.”

Even now, he looks to his father for help at times.

“If I get stressed or have a challenge or problem to solve, I close my eyes, sit back in my chair and it is like he is sitting right there on my shoulder,” Jason said.

“I can imagine him talking to me and telling me, ‘Here is what you should do.’ Treat people like you want to be treated — that was his best advice.”

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Pet Cremations As we’ve progressed through the years with our expanding scope of services, modern and convenient facilities, and our on-site crematory, it was only natural we expand our services and facilities to help families and individuals say goodbye to their pets.

Whether you’ve experienced the death of your companion or are preparing for what lies ahead, our caring and compassionate staff will guide you through the difficult farewell of your beloved pet. We will provide h comfort and peace you with of mind while ensuring your pet is given a loving memorial.

customized pre-planning South-Central Indiana’s most complete funeral service provider

4155 S. OLD SR 37 • 812-824-5905 allencares.com

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“

Allen Funeral Home and Crematory is always ready to assist families in times of need.”

Photo courtesy Allen Funeral Home and Crematory.

Allen Funeral Home

By Victoria Dinges

A

llen Funeral Home and Crematory has been helping the residents of Bloomington celebrate the beauty of life since 1917. In the years since W. Walker Allen and his brother opened the first mortuary, five generations of the Allen family have made the Allen name a symbol of reliable and trustworthy service.

Through multiple expansions and locations, Allen has always provided the most modern and convenient facility.

Grief experts agree that a ceremony is an important part of the healing process. A funeral or memorial service is the first step to healing. Your service can be anywhere and any way you want. Traditional or modern, burial or cremation — there are many possibilities.

Allen Funeral Home & Cremato-

ry helps create the most memorable and meaningful service to honor a loved one. As Bloomington’s only locally owned and operated funeral home, and the only crematory in Monroe county, Allen Funeral Home and Crematory is always ready to assist families in times of need.

From helping residents with pre-planning services to offering 365 days of grief support, Allen’s comprehensive and uniquely customizable services allow customers to create a funeral as unique as the life of a loved one. With the use of modern technology, services can be made available to far-away family, and videos of a beloved life can be shown and kept for years to come.

Keepsake gifts of wildflower seeds or tree seedlings can be given, and doves, butterflies or balloons can be released near the end of the service.

Pre-planning is a thoughtful gesture to loved ones, and a way to let them know of your wishes. Those who pre-plan can relax and let go of anxiety about the future, knowing loved ones are spared the burden of planning during the emotional time of loss. Pre-planning services can also create healing experiences for loved ones who are left behind. A pre-planning checklist and pre-planning form are available at allencares. com.

In 2016, Allen expanded its services to include pet cremation.

Animals are so much a part of a family that it was only natural to help families say goodbye to their pets.

When it comes time to let go of an animal companion, making the decisions about caring for their physical remains can be heart wrenching.

Having options for pet cremation

can make those decisions easier. A private cremation means that a pet is placed in the cremation chamber alone. Upon completion of the cremation, the remains are removed from the chamber and returned in the urn of your choice. Many times families want to be involved in the cremation of a pet. A viewing cremation is just like a private cremation, but the family is present in a nearby viewing room. Another option is individual cremation, where a pet shares the cremation chamber with other pets, but each pet carries a unique identification tag into the chamber. Allen staff can provide further information.

Allen Funeral Home and Crematory has provided caring and compassionate service to families in the Monroe County area for nearly 100 years — because Allen cares.

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An Inspired Design Deserves Custom Details.

At Marvin,we take pride in the craftsmanship put into every window and door. We are committed to creating distinctive, beautiful products that continually elevate the standard of quality and innovation. Built on a foundation of values passed on through four generations, our windows and doors are an investment you will value for many years to come.

Bender Lumber Co. 6002 W. 46 Bloomington, IN 47404 812-339-9737 www.benderlumber.com HT-115767-1

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Bender Lumber J

By Kasey Husk

ohn Bender was just 23 years old when he and his father, Harold, made a life-changing decision: together, they would purchase the company where Harold had been working since before his son was born. Harold started working for the company in 1937, not long after it was founded. In 1962, he and John purchased it from the original owners.

Fifty-four years later, John Bender remains at the helm of that company, Bender Lumber. Though his father passed a few years ago, John Bender still works with one of his brothers and two of his sons in what has always been a true family business.

“I think it is very rewarding to have a family business,” said Bender, company president and part-owner alongside his brother, Paul. His brother David was also an owner.

“We’ve always gotten along very well, we’ve been very compatible, each of us had different talents and we’ve always been able to take advantage of each other’s talents.”

The company was founded in 1931 and originally supplied lumber and building supplies mostly to farmers. Today, it has eight locations in southern Indiana, including Bloomington, and supplies most builders and individual consumers with all their building needs.

“It is always interesting. There’s always something new,” Bender said.

“The products have changed over the years, and there’s a wider variety of products — probably higher quality products.”

While Bender said the business has had its ups and downs over the decades, no time has been more challenging for him than the years immediately following the 2008 housing market crash and subsequent recession.

“

We don’t sell the same thing in every store, unlike big box stores. We can let each manager be very entrepreneurial.”

–john bender, president “In our industry we call it the depression,” he said. Sales dropped dramatically in those years and while the company was lucky in that it did not have to close any stores, it was a difficult storm to weather.

“It is back now,” he said. “We are doing more business than we were before. But it took a long time to

Photo by Kathy Truss

come back.”

One of the biggest challenges, Bender said, has been “continuing to please the customers and find employees who enjoy the business.”

Flexibility is also key.

“Over time businesses change, products change, customers change,” he said. “I suppose the biggest challenge is to adapt to changing conditions.”

Two of Bender’s sons are also involved in the family business: the oldest, Mark, works in information technology for the company while his younger son, Scott, is the field manager.

Over the years Bender has developed a special kinship with those who work with him — and not just those who are related by blood.

Some employees have been there almost as long as he has, among them a truck driver now in his 40th year with the company.

“The people who we work with — I almost hesitate to call them employees because I consider them family,” he said. “Most of them have been with us a fairly significant amount of time, and we have very little turnover.”

In 2002, Bender Lumber became

an employee-owned company, meaning each employee is a shareholder in the organization.

“The idea is to reward people who stay for a long time,” Bender explained. He believes that the company’s great customer service has been a factor in its growth over the years, as well as its ability to meet changing needs.

“We try to be sensitive to what our customers’ needs are,” he said.

“Our managers have the authority to add products if their customers want them because we operate in different markets. We don’t sell the same thing in every store, unlike big box stores. We can let each manager be very entrepreneurial … We are not cookie cutter. Each one of our stores is slightly different. “ Bender said while it is difficult to picture the business in another 85 years, he is focused on its continuing prosperity well into the future. He believes the business will thrive “as long as we adapt to changing conditions.”

“Security is obtained by changing to meet the existing conditions, and that’s what we’ve always tried to do and that’s what we’ll do in the future,” he said.

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Welcome to

Southwest Funding, LP is a Direct Endorsement HUD approved mortgage banker and broker with over 75 locations nationwide. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas since 1993, the company has funded billions of dollars in mortgage loans. Southwest Funding currently is licensed to transact mortgage business in 14 states.

As a mortgage banker and mortgage broker, Southwest Funding, LP offers the most flexible loan programs for every situation. Whether it be through the company’s own underwriting, closing and funding division, or through p its vast bank network, Southwest Funding, LP maintains a competitive other mortgage edge in the industry. We can arrange financing that many m he best in the industry. companies can not. Our rates and terms are among th Southwest Funding, LP works closely with a numbe er of local and national builders, real estate agents, and financial planners to provide the best advice possible regarding real estate finance to our customerrs.

MAKE SOUTHWEST FUNDING THE KEY TO YOUR NEW HOME! CONNECT WITH US!

3900 S Walnut Street Suite A, Bloomington, IN 47401 Lisa Arowcavage - NMLS 283512 Terry Arowcavage - NMLS 992921

Phone (812) 323-3008 Fax (812) 323-3009 HT-127433-1

S

ecuring a mortgage for a client looking to purchase or refinance a home is all in a day’s work at Southwest Funding.

Lisa and Terry Arowcavage say that their business is about more than just closing loans. It’s about making people’s dreams come true! Southwest Funding, located at 3900 S. Walnut Street Suite A, (812) 323-3008, can help people with great credit and also those who have some bruised credit and might have been turned down elsewhere. When they come in after being turned down elsewhere, they come in with their head down, said Lisa. By the time they leave, they feel very optimistic and hopeful about their chances of owning their own home. Terry said that local banks have very tight requirements making it tough to qualify. They operate in a tight box. We have a bigger box, said Terry. We’re able to help many people who don’t qualify at the local banks.

Part of that is because my wife Lisa does the processing and she knows more than the underwriters which helps close the more difficult loans.

And our rates are equal to or better than other lenders even with bruised credit. Along with the Arowcavages, they have another loan officer working for them. Janice Payne is not only a family friend but a loan officer with over 40 years’ experience in the loan industry. Along with Janice, the Arowcavages never tell a customer that they can’t do a loan for them.

They say that they can’t do it at this time and give them a path with time on what it would take to become eligible in the future. The Arowcavages understand that home ownership means stability and security for families. Caring about their customers and going the extra mile to make dreams of home ownership a reality is what fuels them to continue in this crazy line of work. We have had closings where customers have cried and then we end up crying said Terry. They invite us over for BBQs and introduce us to the rest of their families and that is awesome to us. We consider our customers family at the end of

Provided by Terry Arowcavage, Southwest Funding

Photo courtesy The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce

the loan process. Too many people in this world just look out for themselves, but we care about people. You have to make money to live but our joy is when we help people’s dreams come true. There is more to life than money! Going above and beyond has earned them word-of-mouth referrals that have strengthened their reputation for over 16 years in Bloomington.

They started out as Ocean Midwest Mortgage back in 2001 and when they opened, there were over 20 mortgage companies in town. Now, Terry states that there are only 2 or 3 remaining from that time. He said that over the years, the economy changed, the lending laws changed, and in 2009, if you had your own mortgage company and you wanted to provide government backed loans such as FHA and VA, you had to have a lot of money in the bank to be approved to do them, and they didn’t. So this led them to be affiliated with Allied home mortgage, a major nationwide company. But one day in 2011, when the Arowcavages arrived in their office, they received a phone call from a local title company asking them what happened to their company. We had no idea what

was going on until we turned on our computers. They quickly learned that Allied was being sued by the government on loans that they had done years before the Arowcavages’ affiliation with Allied. We were in shock said Terry. We never heard anything about this and even though we had nothing to do with the bad loans, we were out of business that day. Me and Lisa just hugged on the floor and cried. Not only were we out of business, but we were owed a lot of money by Allied and lost our pipeline of customers that day. Allied claimed bankruptcy and we never saw a dime. So after our brief cry, we got on the phone and computer to find our new company. So we found Southwest Funding. They’re not the biggest but they’re the best for us and our customers. Through Southwest, they are able to offer conventional, jumbo, VA, FHA, USDA rural housing, reverse and investment property (with fixed rates) loans, first time home buyers, no PMI loans (private mortgage insurance) and down payment assistance programs.

In the spirit of honoring heroes who serve others, they offer free

appraisals to veterans, active duty military personnel, doctors, nurses, EMTs, police, fire, sheriff’s department and teachers. This is for either purchases or refinances closed in their office. Southwest has very low closing costs and do not charge an application fee or a processing fee! Their new office is very family friendly. They have a very home like atmosphere with a play area for kids. We want our customers to feel comfortable and not stressed going through the loan process said Terry.

And if our clients have to come after hours and bring their kids, we make that available to them. So through all the tough times, the Arowcavages made it through with the help of all the referrals and also with the help of the local BBOR which stands for the best board of realtors around! We’re honest and will treat you like family.

If you’re a first time borrower or haven’t bought a home in a long time or just want to see if we can save you money on a refinance, just give us a call and we will answer any questions and help you through the home buying process said Terry. Why? Because we care!

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Southwest Funding

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Taste of India

By Kasey Husk

L

ocal restauranteur Dharminder Singh was about 13 years old when he approached his father, a chef, to ask for $100 to buy a bicycle.

“He said, ‘No, you have to work and earn it,” remembers Singh. “He said, ‘I brought you here to the United States (because) if you work, you can achieve whatever you want here.”

It is a lesson that Singh took to heart. As of about 18 months ago, Singh is the new owner of Bloomington’s Taste of India restaurant. The restaurant is the second in Bloomington and fifth overall for Singh, who — at just 32 years old — has already spent more than half his life working in restaurants.

Taste of India, located at 316 East Fourth Street, serves predominantly traditional northern Indian fare, but is the only Indian restaurant in Bloomington that also offers southern Indian dishes, according to its website.

If patrons haven’t noticed changes at Taste of India in the last year and a half since Singh quietly purchased it, it is for good reason. Between his and his family’s restaurant acquisitions in the last 16 years, Singh has learned that you don’t mess with a good thing.

“When you take over a business, you learn from your mistakes,” he said, recalling his father’s early forays into the restaurant business. “If that business has a good reputation, you don’t do anything to it. If people have complaints, you close for 15 to 20 days and remodel and put a new name and say there is new management so people who had issues can try it again and see if they like it.”

Singh learned about cooking early from his father, who immigrated to the United States from Punjab, India, when Singh was young. As the youngest son, Singh spent a lot of time

“

I train the people myself so that way if they go away, the quality stays the same because I know how to cook.”

–Dharminder Singh, owner

helping out his dad and consequently learned to cook well himself. By the time he was 17, Singh found himself stepping into the role of chef at the family restaurant when their chef abruptly quit, as his father was too old to do so himself. Without Singh

Photo by Kathy Truss

to step in as chef, the then-struggling restaurant would have had to close until they found a replacement chef — something Singh could not bear to see.

Those cooking skills have been a key factor in his success, said Singh, who also has restaurants in Terre Haute, Evansville and Champaign, Ill. run by family members. While other restaurants struggle to maintain the same quality of food during the all too frequent times of turnover in the restaurant business, Singh’s skills help insulate him from those struggles.

“I train the people myself so that way if they go away, the quality stays the same because I know how to cook,” said Singh, who says he loves cooking and still prepares favorite recipes for special buffets twice a month.

“I train them — ‘This is how you make the bread, this is how you make the gravy.’” Singh said. “A lot of owners, they don’t know anything about cooking. When the chef is gone, the second chef isn’t making it the same way. That’s how they fail — because employees switch so much, the cooking quality doesn’t stay what it is supposed to be.”

Singh already owned Amrit India Restaurant on the Bloomington courthouse square before buying Taste of India, but was frustrated by the limitations of the restaurant’s location.

When he heard a rumor that Taste of India would be up for sale, he decided to make a phone call. Soon enough, he was buying it — and deciding to leave the menu, the recipes and almost all the staff exactly the same.

People often ask why Singh would “compete against himself” by having two Indian restaurants in the same town that share many of the same menu items. His answer: They don’t compete because they are so different.

“Indian cuisine and Indian culture is so big and diverse because every state has their own cuisine and dishes,” he says. “When I took (Taste of India) over and went to see the place, I realized that the cuisine was way different than what I’ve been doing — different gravies and different textures I didn’t use in my other restaurants.”

“This is what sets them apart,” he said. “Taste a butter chicken at Amrit and a butter chicken at Taste of India — they’ll be completely different.”

F16 | C O M M UNI TY B USI NESS | No vember 10, 2016

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