Since 2009
Grand Rapids Area Professionals for ExcellenceMore About GRAPE
Our Mission
“To build a community of professionals who inspire others to reach their fullest potential: personally, professionally, and neighborly!”
Connect With Us
CLICK here to get our APP for easy convenient access: user friendly, no downloading necessary!
Sign up for real time text message alerts. Simply text GRAPE to 313131.
Become A Sponsor
We appreciate your support. Click here for more information. We are always looking to promote area venues too!
Meet GRAPE’s Leadership Team
Carolyn Lund
Board President
Co-Founder & Managing Partner with Earnest Apps (A division of Earnest Enterprises)
Lisa Kosak
Social Media Consultant
Horizon Bank
Patty Vanderklok
Board Secretary
Real Estate Investor
John Potter
Executive Director
Academic Librarian
GRAPE Events
Online Educate Event 2/18/2021
Create Your Life Plan, Live Doing Small Habits! You won't want to miss this online opportunity to Educate, Connect, and Inspire with your fellow members... Thursday, February 18th Online via Zoom 11:30-12:30 Hosted by Doug Kliewer, leading the discussion on "lessons...
Connect Event October 15, 2020
"Ignite Business Relationships" Join us for our Annual Speed Networking Event! Let's spend some time together!! Share your business with other local professionals!!! Even though we can't get everyone together in person yet, we can meet via ZOOM PRO and still help each...
Online Educate Event June 18, 2020
Join your fellow members for GRAPE's Online training via ZOOM... Breakout rooms for dedicated networking and collaboration, along with personalized feedback to build a stronger mission-driven business! June 18th, 2020 11:30-1p Registration is required to attend our...
Online Educate Event April 16, 2020
ONLINE EDUCATE EVENT April 16, 2020 11:30-1p Back for an encore with his 2nd GRAPE talk and share further discoveries on what it takes to upgrade your collaboration, communication, and commissions... Here with his Presentation "A HeroMaker Business" Doug Kliewer FOR...
Educate Event Thursday February 20, 2020
JOIN US for our 1st Event of the decade... We are excited to welcome guest speaker Troy Baker, Communications Manager, with the Better Business Bureau presenting... "Increasing your Influence through Moral Authority: The 5 Gestures of Trust!" * * * * * Thursday,...
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays to you and yours! Have a safe and joyful season! We will see you just around the corner in February...
Join our GRAPE Sponsorship program
Support. Recognition. Appreciated.
Please visit our sponsors.
What we do
Creating a Community of Excellence
Connect
Connect events are opportunities for entrepreneurs to meet and build relationships with others in the Grand Rapids area.
Educate
Every quarter, GRAPE hosts special meetings that provide members with relevant and helpful information.
Inspire
Annually, GRAPE highlights an issue or charity that members can learn about and support.
What Drives Us
Our Mission
To build a community of professionals who inspire each other to reach their fullest potential: personally, professionally, and neighborly!
Get Involved
As a non-profit organization, GRAPE always appreciates the support of volunteers!
Our Next Event
Online Educate Event 2/18/2021
Create Your Life Plan, Live Doing Small Habits! You won't want to miss this online opportunity to Educate, Connect, and Inspire with your fellow members... Thursday, February 18th Online via Zoom 11:30-12:30 Hosted by Doug Kliewer, leading the discussion on "lessons...
Read
Articles
A Millenial’s Guide to Spending and Saving
Despite several dangerous assumptions to the contrary, millennials have proven to be the most well-educated, highest saving, work-focused generation in the country. With a higher percentage of millennials in the full-time workforce than either their parents or...
Interview with LEAD Award Winner Becky Puckett-Wood
What are your five favorite pointers for career success? 1) Find a mentor, someone you can trust to be honest with you as you progress in your career 2) In all situations have a positive attitude, you always get further thinking the glass is half full versus half...
Interview with Lisa Armstrong, New Owner at Eat Local West Michigan
What did you exactly do in Sacramento? I created a start up culinary tourism company, Local Roots Food Tours 7 years ago. My company offered culinary walking tours in 3 different cities and different neighborhoods within those cities. Each tour consisted of 6 to 7...
Lean Thinking Remains a Critical Business Concept
In today’s competitive economy maximizing customer value and minimizing operational waste is a necessity. The working term for this is lean. Organizations that are lean recognize what customers value and the ways in which to increase that value. Whether a product or...
Incorporate Your Elevator Pitch Into Conversation
In Liz Lynch’s Networking Smart: Attract A Following In Person and Online, Liz explains how to incorporate your elevator pitch into a longer introduction sequence when networking. By relaying your “pitch” through one-on-one conversation, it becomes “a set of blocks...
3 Questions to Employ When Networking
For inexperienced networkers, attending a networking event to achieve certain business outcomes may seem like an uphill battle. They may circulate the room after brief introductions, distribute their business card to many, and still wonder what they accomplished in...
The Best Business Coffee Venues in Grand Rapids
As Executive Director of GRAPE, I make it a point to meet with a variety of people from the Grand Rapids area nearly every day. Not surprisingly, this has necessitated getting to know the best places for casual business meetings. A variety of good places to have...
The Art of Coin Collecting
“In coin dealing, a company’s integrity and honesty will drive a business’s success. If you don’t treat people right, if you’re not fair in what you’re doing, it will catch up with you, and you won’t have a business. (Mullen Coins) approach is simple, in that we try to look at coins and let people know what we would pay for them, what they’re worth to us as a dealer, and what we would expect to sell them for (what they’re worth on the retail market.)”
Tax and Record-Keeping Tips for Your Small Business
Small business owners face a great deal of challenges, but taxes always appears at the top of the list. Small business owners need to make sure they are paying what they should and taking the appropriate deductions to reduce their taxes.