Paglow Automations

10/30/2026

Heads up, Lima business owners. Ohio public radio ran a piece this week on scammers using AI to go after small businesses. Fake emails, fake voices, fake "tech support" calls.

One thing that helps a lot: knowing exactly who runs your software. If your website, phone line and customer list all live with some company three states away, a scammer only has to sound like them. If they were built by someone here in town, you just call that person. Or you stop by.

Keeping your tech local keeps your money in Allen County. It also makes you a lot harder to fool.

Cincinnati FBI Agent Matt Rosenberg joined representatives from Fifth-Third Bank to discuss online scams with small business owners in Kettering.

10/29/2026

Quick one for Lima business owners. A report released Oct. 27 estimates companies lose about $4,751 per employee a year on software. That's logins nobody uses plus price hikes above what the market charges, and it doesn't count the time your staff spends wrangling it all.

Most of that money leaves Allen County on autopay.

Set aside 20 minutes this week, scroll your statements and write down every subscription. Cancel what nobody opens. If you're paying three companies to do one job, that's something we can build once, right here, so the money stays local.

Independent research commissioned by Supernal and conducted by Red Tape Index exposes the costs behind software subscriptions and introduces a free...

10/27/2026

If you run your books on Xero, your bill went up this month. The new U.S. prices started October 1: $27 for Early, $59 for Growing, $97 for Established. Insightful Accountant covered the change.

Here's a quick one for a slow afternoon. Open your bank app, find every software charge from the last 90 days, and write down where each company is based. Chances are not much of that list is in Ohio.

Some of those tools are worth every penny. But the customer tracking, the reminder texts and the after-hours phone line can be built here in Lima, for the way you work. The money stays in town, and when something breaks you've got someone local to call.

Effective Oct. 1, 2026, some Xero subscription prices in the U.S. will increase, with changes varying by plan. The adjustment supports continued product enhancements, innovation, and future improvements.

10/23/2026

Main Street America asked 1,568 small business owners how things are going this fall. Good news first: confidence is back up, and about a third saw revenue grow. The worries are familiar. Finding new customers (57%) and keeping cash flowing (nearly half).

One number stuck with us. The share of owners actively pushing back on AI went from 17% to 23% in a year. Honestly, we understand. If AI to you means another monthly charge to a big out-of-state company for something that doesn't fit your shop, you'd push back too.

It doesn't have to work that way here. A tool built for your business by folks in Allen County keeps that money in town and does the job you actually need done.

Our Fall 2026 Small Business Survey found that Main Street business confidence is growing, profits are rising, and business owners remain deeply rooted in their communities.

10/22/2026

Quick one for local business owners. Ohio's TechCred round closes Oct. 30 at 3 p.m.

Got an employee who'd benefit from a short tech certification? The state will pay back up to $1,000 per person for each credential, and up to $30,000 per application.

That's a real chance to grow skills inside your own shop instead of paying someone out of town for them. The approved list of credentials is on the state's TechCred site.

LIMA — Northwest Community College and Customized Training Solutions are hosting virtual TechCred update meetings at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 9 and 2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16 to help Allen County employers understand the changes to the TechCred guidelines released by the Ohio Department of Develop...

10/21/2026

People around here are good about buying local. Coffee, contractors, the hardware store, the diner. It's part of how Lima works.

Software almost never gets that same thought, and it's easy to see why. It's invisible. It shows up as a line on a card statement.

When we meet with a local owner, we start by writing out every subscription they pay for. Then where each company is based. Then how much of each tool they really use.

That last part usually tells the story. A big platform paid for every month to do one small job. A tool somebody signed up for three years ago that nobody opens anymore.

Those are the ones that can be replaced with something built here, around how that business actually runs. The rest stay. Some software is the right software, and that's fine.

Buy local, but for the software line too. Swipe through for how it works. 👉

10/17/2026

Mark Nov. 5 on the calendar. The Lima/Allen County Chamber is putting on the Beantown Biz Bash at the Veterans Memorial Civic Center, and the Lima News has the details.

We love this kind of thing. You buy from a neighbor, the neighbor buys from someone else in town, and the money keeps moving around Lima instead of leaving.

Software works the same way. A lot of local shops pay a company out of state every month for their phones, their website or their customer list. All of that can be built right here, by people who know where Elida Road is. 🙂

LIMA — The Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce will host the Beantown Biz Bash from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5, at the Veterans Memorial Civic Center, 7 Town Square, Lima.

10/16/2026

Mark your calendar 📅 The Lima/Allen County Chamber's Beantown Biz Bash is Thursday, Nov. 5 at the Veterans Memorial Civic Center downtown, according to The Lima News.

It's a good chance to meet the people running businesses all around you. And here's something to think about on the drive over. How many of your monthly bills go to software companies that couldn't find Lima on a map? Your phone answering, your website, your customer list.

That money could stay here. Local folks can build those things for you, and they'll actually answer when you call. Go meet a few of them.

LIMA — The Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce will host the Beantown Biz Bash from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5, at the Veterans Memorial Civic Center, 7 Town Square, Lima.

10/15/2026

Mark your calendar. The Beantown Biz Bash is Thursday, Nov. 5 at the Veterans Memorial Civic Center, 11 to 3. The Chamber's putting it on, and the Lima News has the details.

Here's some homework before you go. Look at every monthly software and tech charge on your business card. Then count how many of those companies are in Allen County. 😅

We're not saying cancel everything. But your phone answering, your website, your customer list: a lot of that can be built and supported right here by people you can actually call. Go meet them. Tickets are $10 for Chamber members and $15 for everyone else.

LIMA — The Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce will host the Beantown Biz Bash from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5, at the Veterans Memorial Civic Center, 7 Town Square, Lima.

10/14/2026

Community health work in this county depends on data, and the tools behind that data often come from vendors in Chicago or other big cities. That can run $30,000 a year or more.

For years, if you needed that kind of software, you bought it from somewhere else because nobody here was building it.

We've been working on a local version, to show it can be done in Lima. Same idea, built around our own county, supported by people who live down the road.

Thirty thousand dollars a year is a lot of money for a community group. Kept here, it pays local wages and gets spent at local shops, restaurants and service businesses. It keeps working for Allen County instead of leaving it.

The groups doing this work are the ones doing the hard part. We'd love to see more of what supports that work built here at home. 🌱