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Get a handle on customers, competition:

To succeed, small businesses must attract and retain a growing base of satisfied customers. This activity is called marketing. There are two overriding principles: Company policies should be directed toward satisfying customer needs. And profitable sales volume is more important than maximum sales volume. To best use these principles, smallbusiness owners should: Determine the needs of their customers through market research. Analyze the company’s competitive advantages to develop a market strategy. Select specific markets to serve by targeted marketing. Determine…

Pizza Express stores changing name amid court battle: New Hot Box Pizza poised to expand into Fishers

Locked in a court battle with its Bloomington affiliate, the company that runs Pizza Express stores locally is renaming them and expanding into Fishers. Indianapolis-based Pizza Head LLC has renamed Pizza Express stores downtown and in Broad Ripple as Hot Box Pizza. Menu boards and store interiors have been revamped. Meanwhile, Pizza Head is negotiating a lease for a Fishers location, said Gabe Connell, one of three partners in the firm. Exterior sign changes at existing stores were almost complete….

Lauth plans huge business park

Lauth Property Group is working to complete the purchase of 550 acres it has under contract at the northeast corner of Interstate 70 and State Road 39, one interchange west of Plainfield. Lauth plans to build 7.5-million-square-foot industrial park, dubbed Westpoint Business Park.

Indiana’s Red Gold has become a tomato-industry big boy

Twenty years ago, the only thing coming out of Red Gold Inc.’s small Orestes plant was diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato puree. The processor now makes products that sell in all 50 states and 16 countries under its brand or private labels.

IEDC shelves proposal to copy Ohio initiative: Program matches promising startups with capital

An Ohio program launched in 2003 to urge development of extremely earlystage companies has already spurred investments worth $239 million in 68 Buckeye startups. Venture capitalists would like to duplicate the program here. But their proposal has been languishing at the Indiana Economic Development Corp. for a month. “We have the application. We haven’t done anything with it,” said IEDC Director of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Bruce Kidd. “This is a classic steeple chase. You’ve got lots of hurdles to…

MARKETING: Are you in a position to hear your customers?

Our family’s license plate renewal tags have always arrived by the deadline date each year, but this year the end of the month rolled around and our five cars still carried last year’s stickers. It dawned on us that we’d all be driving illegally. Our son drove to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles office nearest his home to see if he could get his two tags. My husband and I both had client appointments to which we had to drive….

PROFILE FIRST JURY INC.: Practice makes perfect Local trial consultants aim to help lawyers prepare for litigation

PROFILE FIRST JURY INC. Practice makes perfect Local trial consultants aim to help lawyers prepare for litigation Blame the name. Attorneys could be forgiven if they thought hiring Indianapolis-based First Jury Inc. would get them advice on choosing a jury sympathetic to their clients’ cause. But its staff won’t tell them to avoid the woman with her arms crossed or the man who won’t make eye contact. Instead, they’ll assemble a jury of their own and stage a mock trial,…

Woman sets sights on freedom: Disability isn’t keeping shop owner from goal

Two doors opened for Pam Evans on Aug. 5-one to her own clothing store and the other to her independence. The Cherry Shop represents both to Evans, who lost most of her sight over the course of a weekend in 1998 to a genetic eye disease called angioid streaks. Left with only her peripheral vision, she also lost her career in real estate and corporate sales. After a period of depression, Evans decided she wouldn’t lose it all. “I felt…

Charter schools leader tackles new role: Mayor chooses Harris to launch broader public education program

The Indiana General Assembly’s decision in 2001 to hand Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson the keys to the city’s new charter schools initiative marked the first time in the nation that a municipal leader had been given the authority to grant charters. The unusual approach to improve educational opportunities here has earned the city several accolades, including last month’s prestigious Harvard University Innovations in American Government Award. Now the mayor wants to expand upon the program’s success and launch a not-for-profit…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: State employment growth is weaker than you think

There’s a real buzz about job growth in Indiana these days. Announcements of job creation, big and small, are echoing through the business media, and many economic development officials tell us their phones are ringing with calls from new prospects at a rate they haven’t seen in years. Yet the data used by most of us to track job growth tell a slightly more sobering story. The 2.94 million workers on Indiana payrolls in July, as reported by the Department…

EYE ON THE PIE: If you make a mistake, then ‘fess up to it

I spoke at a meeting last week on the prospective impact of Honda in Greensburg on the Columbus economy. Several speakers had preceded me and I did not know what they had said, since I arrived an hour late. Naturally, I apologized for my tardiness. Punctuality is a virtue in societies, like ours, that value efficiency above comfort. Then I proceeded, unwittingly, to make a fool of myself. I proclaimed, in my best stentorian manner, that the key factor for…

SPORTS: Behind the ‘rock’: Confessions of an IU football fan

Ah, it’s almost that time again. For the pomp. The pageantry. The Bloody Marys and brats in the parking lot. There are few things I look forward to more than college football season. And that would include Indiana University’s season. Especially IU’s season, in fact. File it under perverse pleasure. Somehow, I find ecstasy in the continuing agony of IU football. Time and again you get punched in the gut only to respond, “Sir, can I have another?” It’s easy…

Lean manufacturers take stock of accounting innovation: Fishers company optimistic movement will gain favor

The leanest aspect of lean manufacturing is moving from the shop floor to the accounting office, where a new recordkeeping system is gaining a following. Proponents of so-called lean accounting say it’s better than traditional accounting at measuring the cost savings and efficiencies of lean manufacturing, a business-improvement strategy that shortens the time between customer order and shipment. Instead of simply looking at inventory levels and sales numbers as traditional accounting does, lean accounting measures things such as worker productivity…

INVESTING: Long term, China and India offer opportunities aplenty

To put it mildly, the hype about China (and now, increasingly, about India) has been enough to choke a horse. I know. I got right to the front of the bandwagon three years ago when I started writing about India. But when it comes to your cash, it’s only worth talking about stuff that is going to make you money. We are not in a classroom. And with your money firmly in the front of our mind, let’s find out…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Simplistic ideas get in way of efforts to increase wages

To the small cadre of economists who have worked their entire professional lives trying to understand the complexities of how and why the labor market rewards some skills, occupations and people more than others, the popularity of the idea of a government-mandated minimum wage must be depressing. But it shouldn’t be surprising. The notion that complex market outcomes can be explained by simplistic notions like greed or discrimination-solvable by the stroke of a lawmaker’s pen-will probably always have a superficial…

Putting a spin on 911: Law-enforcement agencies embrace reverse system

Langsenkamp, CEO of Sigma Micro Corp. in Indianapolis, began conducting research on the patented Reverse 911 Interactive Community Notification System in 1990. The technology, however, didn’t hit the market en masse until a decade later. Today, roughly 350 law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada, including those in Carmel and Beech Grove, use it to blast warnings to residents. “It was the first system that ever allowed people to dial phone numbers and deliver messages based on the…

NOTIONS: Mailbox of plenty could yield empty pockets

Bruce Hetrick is on vacation this week. In his absence, this column, which appeared on Aug.19, 2002, is being reprinted. Dear Reader: In our nation’s capital, at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and North Capitol Street, the Smithsonian Institution has converted a former post office into the National Postal Museum. Carved into the white granite wall is an inscription called “The Letter.” Written by former Harvard University President Charles W. Eliot and edited by former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, it…

Lazy Daze Coffee House: Coffeehouse brews niche market for itself Independent shop welcomes competition, even from industry giants like Starbucks

You might call Lazy Daze Coffee House the “Cheers” of Irvington. This is a place where everyone does know your name-and what kind of coffee you drink. Lazy Daze is the brainchild of Jeff Coppinger, a 34-year-old Howe High School graduate who returned home after serving in the U.S. Navy. He’s working on a major in political science and a minor in philosophy at IUPUI, a good foundation for creating a coffeehouse that “crafts the art of conversation,” as he…

EYE ON THE PIE: Yes, Virginia, there is an ‘Indiana economy’

“Is there really such a thing as the ‘Indiana economy’?” The question came from Ed Doric, a pillar of our community. We were at one of the many fests that provide camaraderie and calories during our humid Hoosier summers. The crowd moved us apart so I could not answer his inquiry. Let the following be accepted as my response. Yes, Ed, there is an Indiana economy. As certainly as there is a U.S. economy, as surely as you or I…

Modernized Dunkin’ Donuts plans 10-plus area stores

Boston-based Dunkin’ Donuts is salivating over the prospect of ringing up big sales in Indianapolis and wants to franchise at least 10 stores here within the next year as part of a national expansion.