Photographer Lindsey Hall finally has a place to rest her gear after years of working on location to build her business. This Friday, Nov. 2, she opens her own studio, Lindsey Hall Photography, in downtown Ypsilanti, joining other creative entrepreneurs in the area. "There are a lot of new businesses opening up [downtown] and there are a lot of existing businesses. The Rocket is a good one," Hall says. The 700 square-foot second-floor space at 133 W. Michigan Avenue contains an office, waiting area, and studio full of props. Hall specializes in wedding, maternity, family, and portrait photography, done indoors or outside. Hall is working on her own for now, but hopes to hire an assistant as business picks up. "I've had a pretty busy fall...as I get busier I will have a lot of extra work so hopefully I can partner with someone that's very artistic and like-minded and gets as excited as I do about photos." Hall will host an open house on Fri., Nov. 2 from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m. Guests will receive a complimentary short photo session. Source: Lindsey Hall, owner,  Lindsey Hall Photography Writer: Tanya Muzumdar

With its high proportion of college students, rental housing makes up a significant chunk of the housing stock in Washtenaw County. In Ann Arbor alone, rentals comprise about 50% of the residential market, according to Jamie Kidwell, a sustainability associate for the city of Ann Arbor. Accordingly, the city received a grant to improve the energy efficiency of rental units in Washtenaw County, under the umbrella of the county's $3 million U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Sustainable Communities Challenge grant. The three-year, $250,000 "greening rental housing" grant will be implemented through a partnership between Washtenaw County, the cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Eastern Michigan University, and the University of Michigan, and will focus on two big categories of rentals: student and affordable housing, Kidwell says. Landlords tend to pass utilities costs onto tenants, which gives them little incentive to make energy-cutting improvements to their properties. "Just to put it in scale a little bit, I think U-M cranks out about 7,000 new renters each year...Our residential sector counts for about 20% of our community-wide greenhouse gas emissions. When you start to stack these numbers up, you see that making an impact on our rental housing is going to help our community a lot in terms of energy conservation, increasing our housing affordability," says Kidwell. While there are already city and countywide energy-savings programs in effect, such as the PACE (Property-Assessed Clean Energy) program for commercial properties and the Better Buildings for Michigan program for homeowners, "I think the challenge will be those smaller-scale landlords, trying to figure out what's the right kind of program for them." The grant funding will cover staffing for the program over the next three years, as well as education and outreach. Over the next couple of months, focus groups of tenants, landlords, and contractors will be convened, with policies and programs likely defined by fall of 2013, says Kidwell. She adds: "Our community energy spend, excluding [U-M's buildings], I believe is about $140 million for natural gas and electricity, so even if you could save 10% of that energy, you've got about $14 million in theory that would go back into our local economy." Source: Jamie Kidwell, sustainability associate, city of Ann Arbor Writer: Tanya Muzumdar

Downtown Ann Arbor-based re:group is setting some personal bests this year as the Internet marketing and branding firm continues to grow. The 9-year-old company has hired five people over the last year, including a copy writer, a digital strategist and some creatives. The firm now employs 25 people and an intern and it sees its business growing more in the near term. "This has been our best year ever," says Carey Jernigan, vice president of business development for re:group. "We added DTE Energy and Citizens Bank as agencies of record. It's been a big, big year." Over its first decade, re:group has traditionally handled clients in finance, bio-tech, retail and franchising. The addition of an energy utility and banking institution is helping the company grow its customer base and set the stage for more growth in 2013, a strategy that has worked well so far. "Every year we built onto the prior year," Jernigan says. "The economy is improving so our clients have more money to spend." Source: Carey Jernigan, vice president of business development for re:group Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Pure Visibility is all about change in 2012. The search-engine-optimization firm has transitioned its leadership earlier this year, is executing a move to a new space and revamping its business model over the next year. "It's the year of change in a very positive way," says Linda Girard, president & CEO of Pure Visibility. Pure Visibility made its home in the First National Building in downtown Ann Arbor for a number of years. It is now relocating to the former offices of Menlo Innovations in Kerrytown, a move that is expected to take place in mid to late November. Girard not only welcomes the additional open space, with fewer walls and hallways, but more opportunity for her staff to communicate. "I always wanted an open collaborative space where we are all in one room," Girard says. "We're in sections right now." The move will also help accomodate the company's growing staff. It has hired three people this year, expanding to 20 people and one intern. It's looking to add one more staffer, a sales director, right now. Pure Visibility is expecting the new staff, home and leadership (one of the company's co-founders left earlier this year) will allow it to revamp its business model and enable it to offer more product and service offerings. "We want to be buzzing with energy in our new space," Girard says. "I want the company to be highly energized. Sky is the limit around here." Source: Linda Girard, president & CEO of Pure Visibility Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

TechArb is graduating 31 business teams this fall, making for almost 100  student-led start-ups that have passed through the small business incubator since its launch in 2009. The University of Michigan developed the incubator with the idea of creating a space designed to encourage college student entrepreneurship. It has since helped launch a number of new economy-based start-ups, including companies in software, bio-tech and alternative energy. Each semester-long class has carried about 30 start-ups on average, but the leaders behind TechArb are planning to shrink those class sizes in the new year, cutting particioation in half to 15. "These teams we're letting in are much more mature and venture quality," says Moses Lee, associate director for student ventures at TechArb. In the past, TechArb had welcomed both mature start-ups that went onto score investment from venture capital firms (Are You A Human) and the raw entrepreneurial ambitions of students with business ideas. Lee expects the future, more mature start-ups will still span a number of industries and expects this class to have start-ups in the software, bio-tech and engineering spaces. Source: Moses Lee, associate director for student ventures at TechArb Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.