You Can Teach an Old Gym New Tricks
For nearly 40 years, Gainesville Health & Fitness has kept itself small and extremely successful, all while staying relevant.
talk small, hear small, eat, sleep and breathe small. Because when you’re trying to connect with a small business, you must understand everything about those who run them.
New Orleans Startup Makes On-the-go Device Charging Easier
MobileQubes started up in 2014 with the goal to make sure everyone could keep their phones charged away from home, and away from their chargers.
Minneapolis-Based E-Commerce Biz Caters to the Modest Fashionista
High fashion doesn’t need to mean half-naked. That’s where online store Mode-Sty comes in, co-founded by Zahra Aljabri.
One Part Coffee, One Part Salon. All Parts Awesome.
The CoffeeHouse Company and Salon Systems is a real-world example of symbiosis. Let’s back up to your fifth-grade science class—symbiosis is when two unlike creatures develop a long-term relationship that produces mutual benefit. So think Finding Nemo: clown fish, meet sea anemone; coffee shop, meet beauty salon.
Anew Nature Brings Renewed Futures to its Community
At just three years old, St. Louis-based Anew nature has already made a huge impact on the lives of its employees and shifted the perspectives of the city.
Clementine’s Naughty and Nice Creamery Gives a New Name to Ice Cream
Clementine’s Naughty and Nice Creamery is a boozy micro-creamery located in the heart of St. Louis. Started by Tamara Keefe, Clementine’s offers both a wide variety of boozy and kid-friendly flavors for visitors.
Boutique Firm, Big Vision
In 2014, Brett Gilliland and Tim Hammett formed Visionary Wealth Advisors to provide world-class, client-centered wealth management services and to promote a culture of faith, family and giving back to the community. With its main office in Edwardsville, Illinois, Visionary Wealth Advisors’ is comprised of experienced professionals that work together to advance the company’s culture, growth and development.
Juicery Finds Big Love in a Small Town
Founded by Michelle Motley, Lisa Hudson and Chrissy Stevens, Source brings healthy, homemade recipes to life using wholesome fruits and vegetables and unprocessed ingredients. The owners shared a mutual commitment to providing their neighbors, friends and families a convenient, great-tasting way to stay healthy. “We wanted to fill a gap for healthy food for healthy people on the go. You get busy and find yourself turning to unhealthy choices because it’s convenient,” said Michelle, in an interview with Sauce Magazine.
The Refugee Story You Won’t See in the Headlines
Anoosheh Oskouian left her Iranian home in 1978 at the ripe age of 14. Seeking opportunity and a quality education, she headed for the U.S., where she would soon become the only high school student among her friends with an autonomous lifestyle and an apartment to call her own. Unwillfully stranded in the U.S. by the Iranian Revolution, she set forth to forge a new path out of a rock and a hard place. In 2000, Oskouian started Ship & Shore Environmental, an engineering firm with the goal of helping businesses curb their air pollution. Now a multimillion-dollar operation employing over 100 people internationally, Oskouian’s business and overall career is a testament that turns popular vernacular about the liability of refugees on its head, proving that out of hardship rises ability: to prevail, to contribute and to grow.
MONEY.CNN.COM
How One Passion-preneur is Using Her Voice for More than Singing
The recent Braun Research/Bank of America Report on Small Business indicated that 15% of all new business startup owners are career changers, simply defined as people who want to do something different. A subset of this group are “passion-preneurs”, a word coined in the mid-1970s to describe the small business owners who pursue a commercial endeavor for the love of it. Usually the term applies to someone who strikes out on one’s own, leaving behind them a passionless job. “They’re increasingly turning their backs on the corporate grind to launch businesses that made their hearts sing”, according to the Daily Telegraph.
When Business is a Family Affair
Leo Tolstoy posited at the start of Anna Karenina, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” How about family-owned businesses (FOBs)? They represent 16% of small businesses in the U.S. Are all the happy ones alike, and the unhappy ones uniquely miserable?
The Rare Birds that are “Serial Entrepreneurs”
According to a recent survey of small business owners, 9% of them are termed “serial entrepreneurs”; that is, this is not their first rodeo. Entrepreneur.com suggests these rare birds have several characteristics in common, including killer time management skills, insatiable curiosity and the ability to use their professional networks strategically.
Sometimes Businesses Need a Little Tough Love
For small businesses that are floundering, failing or faltering, George Cloutier’s business consultation company is just a phone call away. Cloutier, 69, started American Management Services as a business turnaround service based on the insight that many small business owners don’t know what they’re doing.
From Cars to Conditioners
According to a 2012 Bank of America survey, 16 percent of small business owners inherited their business from a family member. 30 percent were motivated by the desire to be independent. 15 percent simply wanted to try something new.
Lori Feldman Helps SBOs Identify that “Secret Something” to Boost Repeat Customers
We invited Lori Feldman, founder and chief diva at The Database Diva, to tell us her story.