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The stiff competition facing Indianapolis’ bid for the 2011 Super Bowl just got stiffer. Besides Glendale, Ariz., and Dallas, New Orleans officials have told NFL officials and team owners they want to host the championship game again as part of the city’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
The state’s best-known car wash company has found a new formula for success it hopes will rival its popular multiwash books: monthly passes that practically guarantee a permanent shine. Indianapolis-based Mike’s Express Carwash already has enrolled more than 3,000 customers in a monthly membership program, launched in September, that allows unlimited washes in exchange for a monthly fee. Express wash passes are $39.99 per month, and “Works” passes are $69.99. “It’s truly for the person who always wants a clean…
While many large companies have decided to scale back holiday parties or give them up entirely in recent years, small businesses continue to spend merrily on the annual gatherings. “They’re doing well, making lots of money and want to celebrate with their employees,” said Kathy Ray, director of catering at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown. Employees of small businesses are like families, so it makes sense that those companies would be less likely to eliminate or cut back on holiday get-togethers,…
The General Assembly is organizing itself. This is more difficult than getting fleas to join a union. But I am being disrespectful. My purpose this week is benign. I present for the consideration of our 150 legislators certain facts about Indiana and where it ranks nationally. The data are from the 2005 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. First, let’s consider sex. Of the 6.1 million Hoosiers, 50.9 percent are females, which leaves 49.1 percent…
In honor of the Indiana Pacers’ 40th anniversary season, let’s stroll down memory lane and gather some all-time picks: MVP: Reggie Miller First team: center Mel Daniels; forwards Roger Brown and George McGinnis; guards Reggie Miller and Vern Fleming Second team: center Rik Smits; forwards Billy Knight and Chuck Person; guards Mark Jackson and Don Buse Third team: center Jermaine O’Neal; forwards Dale Davis and Herb Williams; guards Freddie Lewis and Johnny Davis Best player that would have made the…
Music CD sales are falling–down 8 percent so far in 2005–while digital downloading of music jumped 163 percent. And nearly one-third of the nation’s record stores have closed in the past three years. Even so, Indianapolis record-store owners say they’ve been reasonably successful adapting to a changing marketplace.
U.S. celebrities making pitches for large corporations is nothing new. But John Mellencamp has been long known as an artistic purist with a disdain for commercialism. His debut this fall as a pitchman for Chevrolet’s Silverado pickup truck has surprised many and touched off a torrent of criticism.
My business Q: has grown to 32 people and $2.7 million in revenue. My managers have been promoted from within, but they had no previous managerial experience and they are not getting the most out of their direct reports. How can I help them become more effective? Managers either choose to be effec-A:tive or choose to do what is easy. Effective managers set clear expectations for performance, confront employees when they veer off track and coach with consequences. Ineffective managers…
SMALL BUSINESS PROFILE MILESTONE ADVISORS CFOs for hire: Company fills financial gaps Consultants provide expertise small businesses may be lacking Tom Gabbert and Glenn Dunlap started Milestone Advisors three years ago with a couple dozen clients already in tow, parlaying their previous experience and contacts into a new venture. They’ve been using it to help other businesses shore up their financial foundations ever since. Milestone Advisors provides financial management, strategic planning and related services to small to medium-size businesses with…
With $325 million in unclaimed property on hand, Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter has a simple request: Check the Internet to see if any of it is yours. To make the process as easy as possible, Carter is searching for a vendor to upgrade and host its clearinghouse Web site www.IndianaUnclaimed.com. The attorney general’s goal is to reunite Hoosiers with their cash-and in the process reduce a significant problem for businesses that need to get unclaimed property off their books….
Once upon a time not so long ago, Imax films were nearly synonymous with museums. In Indianapolis and elsewhere, the largeformat movie screens-some as big as the side of an eight-story building-featured 40-minute films that took viewers to exotic places like outer space or the top of Mount Everest, and were usually attached to educational and cultural institutions. But technology that debuted in 2002 is bringing Imax screens to suburbia-including to Noblesville in 2008. Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Goodrich Quality Theaters…
Plans are in place for a 400-acre mixed-use development off Interstate 70 just west of Plainfield–an area quickly becoming the next big thing in industrial real estate.
Several Hoosiers are at the forefront of a fledgling effort to deflect a growing barrage of criticism lobbed at retail giant Wal-Mart Stores by organized labor and worker’s rights advocates. The Indiana chapter of the Working Families for Wal-Mart formed earlier this month and includes in its membership local elected officials such as City-County Councilor Ron Gibson and State Rep. Vanessa Summers, D-Indianapolis. The national not-for-profit, which launched a year ago, is backed by the Arkansas-based retailer and also boasts…
Bus service to Hamilton County won’t begin this year, as some commuters and planners had hoped. But the 10-month reconstruction of Interstate 70 across Indianapolis’ east side, starting in February, could push the accelerator to get service started. “I’d certainly hope so ….The work on I-70 is probably going to make the commuters’ ride a little tougher,” said Gary A. Huff, town manager of Fishers. It was another interstate project, the 2003 Hyperfix of the interstates 65/70 split downtown that…
As a leader of your company, are you taking advantage of the benefits of diversity? Is your organization’s culture resistant to change? Are you considering the business advantages of diversity? Can a firm without a variety of internal perspectives and ex perience meet 21st-century challenges? In our industry, professionals come in all colors, shapes and sizes and from just about every culture in the world. We see a host of opportunities as a result of the incredible diversity in qualified…
When cousins Michael and Morris Maurer decided to start a bank from scratch in 1993, they had several major issues to work through. There were regulatory approvals to win and federal deposit coverage to secure. They needed investors, bankers, office space and technology. But even the seemingly small details required time-consuming care. For one: selecting a name. It had to evoke a feeling of local control and continuity. It had to call to mind the company’s strategy of long-term relationships…
A recent election ended in disaster. Voters revived a party that has no business coming back into power. I only hope the electorate wakes up soon and gets the situation back on track. No, I am not talking about the congressional elections in the United States. I’m talking about the presidential election in Nicaragua, where Daniel Ortega, leader of the Sandinista Party, was re-elected president after a 15-year hiatus. Real estate values plunged 10 percent instantly, and large corporations began…
Long ago, I did some work for Special Olympics. In the process, I learned a semantic preference of the organization: One never says “mentally retarded people.” One says “people with mental retardation.” The rationale: These athletes are people first, not a condition. Long ago, I also did AIDS education and prevention work. In the process, I learned a semantic preference of health organizations and their clients: One never says “AIDS victims.” One says “people with AIDS.” The rationale: Those with…
Retailers are optimistic they won’t find a piece of coal in their stockings this winter. Veteran jeweler Greg Bires has labored in retail long enough to recognize when a robust holiday shopping season is starting to take shape. Fortunately for the owner of the downtown Windsor Jewelers, this should be another strong year, experts predict. “So far, things have been pretty positive,” Bires said. “It’s been a long time, but I’ve seen years when you knew things were going to…
It seemed like a reasonable forecast at the time. After an extraordinarily violent and deadly hurricane season in 2005, predictions of a second straight severe summer in 2006 made big headlines. But 2006 has turned out to be a year where not a single hurricane-rated storm has made U.S. landfall, one of only 21 years on record here that has been hurricane-free. It’s hardly the first time forecasters have eaten humble pie. And the experience serves to remind us that…
