Globe Furniture Galleries will soon be changing its name.

The longtime furniture retailer, with stores near Findlay Market in Over-the-Rhine and on Montgomery Road in Loveland, will become Inspired Interiors by Globe starting next week, owner Peter Levick confirmed.

Mr. Levick bought the business two years ago, and has lived through a stagnant economy ever since. He can't solve that instantly, but one issue he can erase is the confusion between his stores and Globe Furniture Rentals, which has long been a separate business.

"People who have never been into our stores assume we're a rental business, and that's not who we are," Mr. Levick said.

A new marketing campaign created by Holland Communications will accompany the new name, along with the tagline, "Your Home, Your Way."

Mr. Levick said he was committed to keeping the Over-the-Rhine store, and that the company still is profitable. Globe has about 60 employees.

He also said sales are improving.

A profitable hello

If employees at Argosy Casino really want to smile and say hello when you show up at the Lawrenceburg riverboat, it's hard to blame them.

Employees who have regular contact with employees compete in teams, and can earn more than $1,000 for the effort, called "Eye, Hi and Goodbye" at Argosy. That's a nice dent in the Christmastime credit-card bill. For the casino, it added up to $880,000 paid to some of its 2,300 employees last year.

Taking time

We haven't heard much at all about the Minority Business Accelerator, the program to help large minority-owned companies get more contracts from the Tristate's largest corporations.

Announced last April, as business leaders pressed to show progress a year following the April 2001 race riots, the effort includes four of the region's biggest companies and the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce.

One business plan later, the chamber hopes to hire a full-time director for the program by March. It will concentrate on the 200 or so minority-owned companies here with more than $1 million in annual sales.

Steve Love, the former Blue Chip Broadcasting executive, is heading the "economic inclusion" effort at the chamber. He didn't want to reveal details, but said more activity will come soon.

Tops on the agenda: Trying to get more big corporations to commit to awarding more contracts to local companies owned by African-Americans.

E-mail cpeale@enquirer.com