Category: Business

Debbie Demboski Celebrates 30 Years Of Decorating Your Dens (& More!)

In 2019, Decorating Den Interiors is celebrating 50 years in business.

Tampa Bay-area franchise owner and decorator Debbie Demboski has been a Decorating Den franchisee since 1989. She is proud to be celebrating 30 years in business herself, as one of the company’s longest-tenured representatives.

She says Decorating Den continues to be successful because clients appreciate that the business comes to them with a completely free consultation and no hourly fees, whether you want to update a room, a piece of furniture, your window treatments, or redecorate your entire home from top to bottom.

“There are not a lot of 50-year-old companies,” says Debbie, especially as home design businesses seem to be contracting because so many people now turn to online shopping. “But, Decorating Den is growing, and the last couple of years have been really tremendous for us.”

Debbie says one of the biggest benefits of working with Decorating Den is that her design studio gets parked right in your driveway.

Stocked full of samples of fabrics and colors, the Decorating Den van at your home or office means your designer will help you choose how to decorate your interior space while standing inside and looking at that very space.

That’s something online shopping just can’t do.

“So many people have a vision and get excited, purchase something and bring it home, before realizing that it just doesn’t work,” says Debbie. “Having a professional opinion can actually save you time and money. I will come to you and assist you in picking out something that not only fits your style and budget, but also works perfectly in your space.”

Debbie has a Bachelor of Arts degree in design and business from West Virginia University in Morgantown. She says she got into the interior decorating business when she was living and working in Atlanta and a friend became a Decorating Den franchise owner. Debbie went to work as a decorator for that business and, soon after, started her own franchise.

Debbie’s daughter, Sara McKenzie, has been her partner for the last five years.

“Sara takes most of our new clients and has built her clientele to where she is now getting repeat business and referrals, as well,” Debbie says.

Sara and Debbie admit that their biggest competitor today is the online shopping craze, but once people try working with Decorating Den, they realize how much better it is than the trial-and-error process of buying online themselves.

“Every now and again, maybe the best product is from one of those online sites,” Debbie says. “But, Decorating Den has such vast product lines and we know the quality, size and proportion of all of those products.”

Decorating Den offers a “good, better, and best” mix of product lines to meet every budget.

“A decorator can help you so much versus doing it yourself,” Debbie says.

Why Decorating Den?

While other designers charge an hourly fee for their time, Decorating Den does things differently. Debbie says the reasons why her clients love working with Decorating Den are outlined in the following “NIFTY” benefits:

•N-National umbrella: Decorating Den has the buying power of a national company.

•I-In-home decorating: Design decisions are made in your home, in your existing lighting, working with what you already own.

•F-Free consultation: Not only do Debbie and Sara come to you, there is no cost for the consultation and never any hourly fees for their time.

•T-Training: Decorating Den provides opportunities for decorators to constantly update their skills and learn about the latest trends through conferences and working with other franchise owners in the region.

•Y-Your lifestyle: Your likes, dislikes and budget are Debbie and Sara’s highest priority, to be sure that your home reflects your personal taste — not theirs.

Jennifer Pressley became a client of Debbie’s when she lived in Apollo Beach and hired Debbie to decorate her home as her budget allowed — one room at a time.

When the Pressleys moved to FishHawk Ranch in Lithia just a few months ago, they immediately hired Debbie to begin decorating their new home, too.

“She’s amazing,” says Jennifer. “She really understands how to ask the right questions and get the feel of how you want to decorate the house. Coming into this house, I had no clue where to start.”

One of the first rooms they decided to tackle was Jennifer’s daughter’s bedroom. Jennifer says Debbie had to endure the 11-year-old saying, “No, I don’t like that,” to many, many options.

“Debbie’s so patient,” says Jennifer, explaining that she didn’t get frustrated, but just kept looking until she found the absolutely perfect curtains for the room.

Jennifer says that when she originally was looking for help to decorate her former home, she talked with several designers who charged $100 per hour for a consultation. “Debbie doesn’t do that,” Jennifer says. “The consultation is free and then her fee is ‘hidden’ in the cost of what you purchase.”

That’s why Jennifer says she has recommended Decorating Den Interiors to her friends. She loves working with Debbie because, she says, “She’s not pushy, she’s not expensive, and she works with you on a budget.”

Franchises Throughout Central Florid

For the past 25 years, Debbie also has owned the regional Decorating Den territory license and can sell franchises from coast to coast in the central part of Florida.

“I just sold a franchise on the east coast,” says Debbie. “The new franchise owner is currently in corporate training. I’ll help her set up her business, go with her to her first few appointments, help her with marketing ideas and do ongoing training.”

In fact, Debbie says, franchise opportunities are available right here in the Tampa Bay area, too.

“There’s a new subdivision every time you blink,” says Debbie.

While Debbie and Sara currently cover everywhere from Odessa to the west to Thonotosassa in the east, and Wesley Chapel to the north to Lithia in the south, Debbie says that’s a large enough geographic area that could easily support a new franchise.

Debbie also offers her expertise, at no cost, to groups who are looking for a unique guest speaker.

“We constantly do free workshops,” explains Debbie. “One of my most popular talks is on decorating for the holidays. We can show before-and-after pictures, trends and talk about products.”

She says groups of Realtors, homeowners associations or any group looking for a guest speaker is welcome to reach out to her.

Decorating Den Interiors comes to you at your home or office in Wesley Chapel or New Tampa for an absolutely free consultation. For more information, call Debbie at (813) 982-2820 or visit DecDens.com/DebbieD.

Decorating Den

The North Tampa Bay Chamber’s 20 Years Celebrated At Breakfast!

I have known North Tampa Bay Chamber (NTBC) president & CEO Hope Allen since the day she took over the leadership of the former Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce in 2013.

I and the Neighborhood News also have been strong supporters of the Chamber since it first formed back in 1998, so I have seen all of the changes the Chamber has gone through during its 20-year history.

Therefore, the Chamber’s monthly Business Breakfast at Pasco Hernando State College’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch on August 6 was a great trip down memory lane for me, as Hope was the featured speaker and she definitely hit the highlights of the still-growing Chamber’s incredible 20-year journey.

Fresh off her first major vacation away from the Chamber she leads and loves, Hope’s Power Point presentation at the breakfast told the tale of a fledgling Chamber that first met in one of its then-65 members’ garages in July 1998.

The old Wesley Chapel Chamber unveiled its first logo in January 1999, and held its first awards banquet and hired its first part-time employee later that year. In January of 2000, the Chamber unveiled its first website and held its first Community Festival in March 2001.

And, even though there was a 12-year gap in her presentation between 2001 and 2013 (when Hope took over as executive director), as someone who attended most of the Chamber’s ribbon cuttings and events prior to 2013, I can assure you that things didn’t really start to take off for the old Wesley Chapel Chamber until Hope arrived on the scene.

“The Chamber evolved over time, as it has to, in order to serve the needs of the businesses in the community where it is situated, and we certainly have,” Hope said at the breakfast. “In 2013 (when the Chamber had about 300 members), the Board decided that we were going to switch our focus from being into parties, pageants and parades, to being the connector, convener and catalyst for businesses. We wanted to be the best, the go-to organization, for local businesses.”

In February of 2014, the Chamber unveiled its official Facebook page and in 2015, it acquired the faltering New Tampa Chamber and its primary asset — the Taste of New Tampa, which wasn’t held for several years because of that defunct Chamber’s issues.

“That’s when we really started to grow,” Hope said of the merger with New Tampa. “More businesses started to reach out to us on both sides of the county line.”

Hope also told those in attendance that she was particularly proud of the fact that the Wesley Chapel Chamber earned the Florida Association of Chamber Professionals (FACP) Certified-Plus designation and that she has earned her Florida Chamber Certified Professional (FCCP) certification.

“Of more than 300 Chambers of Commerce throughout Florida, only 18 have earned certification and only seven are Certified-Plus Chambers with a CEO who also is certified,” she says, adding that it takes five years of consecutive senior leadership to become FCCP-certified. “And you have to have three peer reviews and submit a dissertation.” Hope’s dissertation was on the fiduciary responsibilities of a Chamber.

And Still More Changes…

During her presentation at the breakfast meeting, Hope also talked about her Chamber’s 2017 asset acquisition of/joining forces with the former Greater Pasco Chamber, which helped the NTBC increase its membership by more than 200 businesses, although it also brought with it a fresh set of new challenges for Hope and her small staff.

The Greater Pasco Chamber’s membership was mostly on the west side of Pasco County (it also had some western Pinellas members). One of the challenges was trying to host networking and other business events on both sides of the Suncoast Pkwy.

But, perhaps the biggest challenge was to come up with a new name for the Chamber, which now had members in Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough.

Many Wesley Chapel Chamber members, including yours truly, were concerned that unless Wesley Chapel was still in the Chamber’s name, some members might defect and the Chamber could lose its identity altogether.

The North Tampa Bay Chamber name was officially adopted in January 2018 and neither Hope nor her staff has taken a backwards step since then.

In fact, the Chamber moved its office from The Grove in Wesley Chapel to just off S.R. 54 in Lutz and has grown to 730 members and four full-time employees.

Although I personally haven’t attended many events on the west side, my understanding is that they also are well-attended, and the ribbon cuttings, breakfasts, Final Friday and coffee events continue to attract new faces in our area.

Hope and the NTBC also have continued their advocacy efforts regarding transportation in our area, including the Diverging Diamond Interchange at I-75 and S.R. 56, the S.R. 56 expansion to U.S. Hwy. 301 in Zephyrhills, the planned Overpass Rd. exit off I-75 and others.

“Our Vision is to be the trusted leader and driving force for the growth and success of our business community,” she said. “And our Mission is to provide valuable services to our members, advocate for a positive business community and sustain and further develop a thriving economy for the North Tampa Bay Region.

All I can say is mission accomplished…so far…and keep it going!

For membership & other information, visit the NTBC at 1868 Highland Oaks Blvd., Lutz, or at NorthTampaBayChamber.com, or call (813) 994-8534.

chamber

Nibbles and Bytes!

Two New Soft Serve Ice Cream Shops Now Open

New Tampa has recently added two new soft-serve ice cream shops — Mr. Penguin, which is located at 18089 Highwoods Preserve Pkwy., between Michaels and Pure Barre in The Walk at Highwoods Preserve Plaza; and Sprinkles Ice Cream (photo, right) located in the same Mobil gas station building as the recently relocated Saffron Indian Cuisine and Deano’s Pizza & Pasta (formerly Hawkeye’s NYS Pizza) at 10865 Cross Creek Blvd.

Mr. Penguin, which also has a South Tampa location, has your basic vanilla and chocolate (or swirl both) ice cream flavors, but I’m interested to see how they combine soft-serve with any of about two dozen Italian ice flavors (including some unique ones, like sugar-free cotton candy, green tea and sour apple) in what they call “gelati” (not to be confused with “gelato”). For more information, visit MrPenguinIce.com or call (813) 252-7625.

Meanwhile, Sprinkles is a tiny little, not-sit-down place featuring vanilla, chocolate and swirl soft serve ice cream, plus delicious shakes (Reese’s and Nutella are among the flavors), smoothies (try the strawberry mango), slushies (watermelon, fruit punch and more), plus healthy additions like chia or flax seed, protein powder, carrot and spinach.

Original Saffron Owners Reopen In New Location!

For those who were confused as to why the original Saffron in the Cross Creek Center plaza became Saffron Palace (which is now closed), original Saffron Indian Cuisine owners Sunita and Nimesh Chheda say the important thing is that New Tampa’s original Indian restaurant is back in business.

Try the soups and other quick, hot foods to go, from vegetable samosas to chicken tikka masala. Although there are a couple of tables inside, this is not the old sit-down-dining Saffron, but Nimesh promises me that my favorite lamb chops in New Tampa are back.

For more info, call (813) 600-3315 or visit SaffronIndianCuisineTampa.com.

Check Out The Juice Factory!

Are you trying to eat and drink a little cleaner? You definitely should check out the Juice Factory, located next to Five Guys Burgers & Fries at 6431 E. County Line Rd.

This unique mom-and-pop (photo on previous page) is actually owned by four brothers, and has a huge selection of healthy juices (you also can create your own — they have virtually every fruit and vegetable available), plus two dozen different boosters (even echinacea) and shots (from ginger to turmeric), plus smoothies, bowls, salads, wraps and even six kinds of healthy toast, with breakfast coming soon! For more info, visit JuiceFactory.net or call (813) 345-8884.

Island Fin Poké Co. Coming Soon!

If you’ve been waiting to hope on the Hawaiian-and Caribbean-style poké bowl craze, or you’ve already gotten excited about the poke restaurant coming to the Villages at Hunter’s Lake plaza (next to the under-construction Sprouts Farmers Market), you won’t have to wait a year or more — because Island Fin Poké Company, which has existing locations in Worcester, MA, and in Winter Springs, FL, with more central Florida and other new locations coming soon, is expected to be open at 6417 County Line Rd. (between Winn-Dixie and Ginza, across from Juice Factory) by the end of October.

Franchise owners and long-time New Tampa residents Brenda and Jeff Sproat (I coached against him in Little League between 10- 15 years ago) promise that once you’ve created your own poké bowl at Island Fin, you may never want to visit another poké place.

I’m definitely looking forward to trying both the ahi and spicy ahi tuna and the chicken bowls…and to catching up with the Sproats.

For more information, visit IslandFinPoke.com. — GN

USF’s New Tampa Business Climate Study Begins With Packed Meeting

In order to begin a study by students in Master’s degree programs at the University of South Florida as to why so many businesses have exited New Tampa the last few years, USF helped organize a unique meeting on July 16, featuring a panel of elected officials and local business owners.

The meeting was Phase 1 of the USF group’s efforts to study New Tampa’s faltering business climate as the students endeavor to figure out what, if anything, can be done to stem the business red tide.

A panel that consisted of the director of the USF School of Public Affairs (where the Master’s degree candidates are studying) Ron Sanders, Rotary Cub of New Tampa past president Karen Frashier, Oliver’s Cycle Sports owner Randy Myhre and three local elected officials (see below) was greeted by a packed house of spectators (who were mainly New Tampa residents; see photo on next page) at the meeting, which was held at Compton Park in Tampa Palms.

Hillsborough County District 2 commissioner Ken Hagan, District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera and newly elected District 63 State Rep. Fentrice Driskell agreed to be on the panel because all of them share concerns about why major companies and mom-and-pop businesses alike are having so much trouble surviving, much less thriving, in zip code 33647.

Sanders said that the study is being conducted by USF students seeking their Master of Public Administration (MPA) degrees in either Urban & Regional Planning or Public Affairs, after then-mayoral candidate (now Tampa Mayor) Jane Castor campaigned in New Tampa.

Castor said many local residents asked her why the business climate in zip code 33647 seemed so poor, especially when compared with the booming economy in Wesley Chapel, just to New Tampa’s north, on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. and S.R. 56.

One of those Castor was talking to just happened to be Sam Becker, a graduate assistant in the School of Public Affairs, and she asked Becker to look into what, if anything, USF could do to help her figure out what could be done to help New Tampa’s businesses. By the time Castor was elected in March, the wheels were already in motion.

“This meeting is the kickoff to Phase 1 of the study — to meet with the community,” Sanders said at the meeting. “Phase 2 will be individual interviews with community staples — elected officials, business owners and residents — such as those in this room. In Phase 3, the students will look at the literature (facts and figures) and the (business) practices going on in the area. For example, is (New Tampa’s situation) just part of a national phenomenon or are there local factors” causing our area’s economic gloom (or both)?

Although Hagan, Viera and Driskell all agreed that the meeting was important, there didn’t seem to be too much help for the USF students coming out of this first get-together.

Among the factors pointed to as to why so many businesses have closed in New Tampa were the high rents, the lack of tax incentives to open major businesses, and even some things brought up by Frashier and Myhre.

Frashier, who also is the co-chair of the Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel, mentioned that New Tampa doesn’t have a large enough gathering place for major events, such as the Wiregrass Wobble 5K road race her club hosts (at the Shops at Wiregrass) every year on Thanksgiving morning, or the Taste (held at AdventHealth CenterIce), “So, we have no choice but to put on these events in Wesley Chapel.”

Hagan and Viera both touted the new Village at Hunter’s Lake development that will be home to a 20,000-sq.-ft. New Tampa Cultural Center, as well as several unique restaurants and retailers (as we reported last issue), but that those are all coming online in 2020 or even 2021.

Myhre said he thinks that bicycle paths connecting the subdivisions in New Tampa would make getting to and from local businesses easier, without having to drive a car, but Hagan said, “Connecting communities is great, but have you seen how hard it is to get even one road connected between communities?” — an obvious jab at the whole Kinnan St.-Mansfield Blvd. flap between Hillsborough and Pasco counties.

Residents at the meeting also brought up how long the widening of BBD in New Tampa took, which affected local businesses, while one noted that S.R. 56, where so much of Wesley Chapel’s growth is taking place, currently has very few residences directly off of it. No one came up with any reason why this helped or how it has affected the economy in the Wesley Chapel.

For New Tampa’s businesses, the hope is that more answers will come out of Phases 2 & 3 of the study.

Hagan New Tampa usf viera

An Update On Our Distribution & The Latest About NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net

Over the course of the past several months, we’ve received quite a few calls from long-time, avid readers who said they’ve always received the Neighborhood News in their mailboxes in the past, but suddenly stopped receiving them.

As the guy who has to write the checks to the post office to mail our publications in both of our markets to every residence and business in every postal carrier route we serve, I knew I had to investigate.

But somehow, even though I first started taking a look at our recent distribution numbers when we received the first phone call, I’ll admit that other things always seemed to take precedence — e.g., I got married in March, celebrated my 25 years of Neighborhood News in April and have been redoubling my efforts to use the funding we have received from the Google News Initiative to continue to expand our video and online content.

Towards that end, we also recently finally changed our website’s address — to NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net (see below) — and our primary YouTube channel is now “Neighborhood News Online,” instead of the old WCNT-tv.

In other words, we’ve been busy, but not too busy for me to finally sit down with the online Every Door Direct Mail service offered through the U.S. Postal Service (USPS.com) and figure out how people who always got our publications — especially the Wesley Chapel edition — suddenly stopped receiving it.

I also had another hint that something was up because our distribution number in fast-growing Wesley Chapel had actually gone down since late 2018 — even though we were still paying to mail to every home and every business in all of our carrier routes.

Just as an explanation, our communities are all on what the post office calls “rural” (and a few “contract”) carrier routes, where we don’t have to address each individual piece that gets mailed, as you have to do with “city” carrier routes, like in South Tampa. All of our large, master-planned communities have multiple carrier routes serving them, and we always try to make sure we distribute to all of the carrier routes serving all of the largest (and some of the smaller) communities in zip codes 33543, 33544 & 33545.

The problem is that Wesley Chapel continues to grow so fast that even we — and the post office (like your GPS, right?) — have had trouble keeping up with all of that growth.

What happens is that when a new community — like, says, Estancia at Wiregrass or Epperson — first starts building, the USPS simply adds those homes to an existing carrier route, usually a route that is geographically near the new development.

But, once that community reaches a certain threshhold, the post office will usually create a new carrier route, with all of that new community’s homes and businesses. And no, the USPS doesn’t tell us when they take this type of action — it’s up to us to update our count every 30 to no more than 90 days.

In the case of Wesley Chapel, several hundred addresses were taken off a few existing carrier routes to create new routes. If we didn’t immediately add those new routes, not only did those new communities not receive our editions, there were even some older, more established communities (like WaterGrass) that may have been taken off one route and added to one of the new routes, to “fill them out” with more “drops” for the carriers handling those new routes.

So, after I did my research, I found that in late 2018, the carrier routes we delivered to included more than 23,000 “drops” total. As of April of this year, however, those same carrier routes had closer to 22,000 total drops. I knew that there had to be new routes that absorbed some of the drops from our existing routes, but it took me a while to figure out which routes I had to add in order to serve all of the homes and businesses in all of the communities we choose to send issues to by direct mail.

So, welcome back all of Epperson, all of WaterGrass, all of the homes in Wiregrass, and welcome Union Park and a couple of the newer sections of Meadow Pointe. In all, our new all-direct-mail distribution in Wesley Chapel is now more than 25,400 residences and businesses (and nearly 60,000 people) — and we might still add one or two more routes to that total.

So, go ahead — ask any other local publisher how many homes and businesses receive their publications in the mail — and ask to see their postal receipts. I’ll gladly share mine if they share theirs with you.

NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net

As I mentioned earlier, we have now officially changed over our website to NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net. If you’ve already been visiting our website to keep up on all of the latest local news of New Tampa and Wesley Chapel — with new news stories added every weekday — you can still find us at our old web address, but now, you will be redirected to our new site.

However, if you’ve normally been accessing our website through our “Neighborhood News” Facebook page, the change to the new web address won’t affect you at all.

Whether you’re trying to watch one of our ever-increasing stockpile of new videos or just want to read a story that may or may not have appeared in your print edition of the Neighborhood News, you can still click through to our new website from any of our Facebook posts.

We also recently changed over our YouTube channel from the former WCNT-tv (Wesley Chapel & New Tampa Television) to “Neighborhood News Online” on YouTube and yes, our videos continue to attract a lot of attention — and we are still adding more advertisers buying our Video & Online Subscriptions.

I will update you about our impressive viewership stats next issue. For more info about Neighborhood News print and Video/Online advertising, call (813) 910-2575!