Professional & Business Services

Tampa – – September 13, 2026 -- Greg DuPey, owner of a Pillar To Post Home Inspectors franchise in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, has been named a 2026 Franchisee of the Year by the International Franchise Association (IFA), the trade group's highest honor for individual franchise owners.

DuPey grew his territory nearly fourfold since buying an existing franchise in 2012

DuPey, a former foodservice operations executive, and his wife Theresa acquired the Morrisville franchise in 2012. Under their leadership, the business expanded to nearly four times its original size, according to Pillar To Post.

DuPey rebuilt the business after a severe roof-fall injury left him in a body cast

Shortly after taking ownership, DuPey suffered a serious back injury falling from a roof. He continued working through recovery, and the couple steered the franchise through the injury and subsequent economic downturns while continuing to scale operations.

St. Louis – September 13, 2026 -- Esquire magazine has featured T.A.C.T. franchise owner David Lesaffre in a profile titled "The Trauma Cleaners," documenting his expansion into three franchise territories amid rising demand for professional biohazard and hoarding remediation services.

Franchisee builds three-location operation across two states

Lesaffre, operating alongside Leanne, expanded his T.A.C.T. franchise footprint to include T.A.C.T. 48, T.A.C.T. AZ, and T.A.C.T. Fort Worth, according to the company. The Esquire feature examines how the pair navigated high-stakes scenarios spanning biohazard recovery, vehicle decontamination, and large-scale hoarding management since completing training in St. Louis.

Richardson, Texas – September 13, 2026 -- Trey Thomas-Piazza, the first-ever franchisee of Service Experts, has been named a 2026 Franchisee of the Year by the International Franchise Association (IFA), marking a milestone for the residential HVAC company's year-old franchise system.

Service Experts launched franchising in 2025 after three decades as a corporate-owned business

Thomas-Piazza, who previously served as General Manager of the company's Tulsa market after years in maintenance, installation and operations leadership, became the system's inaugural franchisee when the program launched. His transition gave Service Experts an early test case for refining franchise infrastructure while maintaining continuity for employees, customers and vendor partners in the market he already managed.

Lufkin – September 13, 2026 -- Lemon Seed Marketing will host its seventh annual Lemon Seed Conference, themed "Into the Wilderness," on March 3-6, 2027, at Timber Creek Church's Lufkin, Texas campus.

Event combines two days of education with three days of networking for home service leaders

The conference targets home service business owners and leaders, offering sessions on finance and operations, leadership and team building, and community engagement alongside a vendor expo. Crystal Williams, co-owner and lead strategist at Lemon Seed, said the "wilderness" theme reflects how independent home service owners navigate a competitive marketing landscape.

Toronto – September 13, 2026 -- The Sales Factory has ranked #2 globally in the Outsourced Sales category of G2's Summer 2026 Grid Reports, marking the third consecutive quarter the outsourced sales and lead generation firm has held a top position on the review platform. The company also earned Leader status in the Lead Generation category, based entirely on verified customer reviews and market presence data compiled by G2.

G2 rankings rely solely on verified buyer reviews, not marketing spend

G2, described as the world's largest software and services marketplace, builds its quarterly Grid Reports from authenticated user reviews combined with market presence metrics. Leader status requires companies to sustain high customer satisfaction scores alongside demonstrated market traction, a methodology G2 says filters out purchased visibility.

Frankfurt am Main – September 12, 2026 -- The F.A.Z. Institute and QuantiQuest Research & Consulting GmbH will publish the second edition of their "TOP Anwalt" study, awarding Germany's leading lawyers in two special editions of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Rankings split across private and business law segments in September 2026

Results covering private-client lawyers will run on September 9, 2026, followed by the business-law ranking on September 16, 2026. Both will appear in the F.A.Z. print edition and online at topanwalt.faz.net.

Methodology combines peer input, client feedback and self-disclosure

QuantiQuest conducted the underlying analysis, which factors in peer recommendations, client assessments and lawyer self-reporting to produce rankings across selected legal practice areas. The F.A.Z. Institute then awards the "TOP Anwalt 2027" seal to qualifying attorneys based on those findings.

Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler – – September 12, 2026 -- Tax advisory firms lose measurable time every day when ten employees handle the same task in ten different ways, according to tax advisor Ken Keiper, technical director of coaching system Novist. The inefficiency stays invisible during normal operations but surfaces immediately when a colleague covers for an absent staff member or a new hire takes over a case.

Augsburg – September 12, 2026 -- German B2B marketing budgets grew a nominal 2.1 percent to an average of €3.57 million in 2026, even as prices for externally purchased marketing services climbed roughly 12 percent over the same period, leaving companies with less real spending power than a year earlier. The findings come from the 14th edition of the "B2B-Marketing-Budgets 2026" study published by the Bundesverband Industrie Kommunikation e.V. (bvik), conducted with scientific support from Prof. Dr. Hannes Huttelmaier of the Technical University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt.

Budget growth fails to keep pace with rising service costs

"Whoever invests counter-cyclically now secures a market advantage tomorrow. Cutting marketing budgets is convenient in the short term and costly in the long run," said Ramona Kaden, Managing Director of bvik.

McLean, Virginia – September 12, 2026 -- Amy Griggs of Tysons Trial Law, PLLC has secured dual recognition from two of the legal industry's leading rating platforms, marking her 13th consecutive year on the Virginia Super Lawyers list and a new listing in the 2027 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®.

Griggs receives 2027 Best Lawyers honors in two plaintiff practice areas

The 2027 Best Lawyers in America® recognition covers Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs and Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs, two categories central to Tysons Trial Law's practice. Griggs was also ranked Top 5 among 2026 Personal Injury Plaintiff Virginia Super Lawyers®, having appeared on that list annually since 2014.

New York – September 12, 2026 -- Zaiger Linden Roberti & Pepe LLC (ZLRP) has hired retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert E. Gerber as Of Counsel, adding a jurist whose docket carried a combined case value exceeding $1 trillion during his tenure on the Southern District of New York bench.

Gerber presided over ten Chapter 11 cases exceeding $1 billion in debt

Appointed to the bankruptcy bench in 2000 and reappointed in 2014, Gerber served on recall status from 2015 until his move to private practice. He issued roughly 200 published opinions on complex bankruptcy and corporate governance matters, presiding over landmark cases including Global Crossing, Adelphia, Ames Department Stores, Lyondell Chemical and General Motors.