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MANAGEMENT: Even big clients need to be evaluated every now and then

Our business Q: has grown to $5 million in annual revenues and 30 percent of our sales come from one customer. I feel captive to this revenue and our growth is limited because of the demands placed on us by this account. How do I balance the desire for this revenue with the impact this account has on our operations? Managing a company that is highly A:dependent on one client presents special challenges. It is a “love/hate” relationship. You love…

Required agent, broker education now available online: Rule change gives them option of Web or classroom

Indiana real estate agents and brokers need not venture outside the comforts of their homes to complete continuing-education requirements, thanks to a rule change allowing providers to offer courses online. Licenses expire every two years, and 16 hours of continuing education must be completed in that span for professionals to remain in good standing. The Indiana Real Estate Commission adopted the change that took effect April 1. “Rather than having to go to a hotel room or a physical classroom…

NASCAR a big deal for IRST: Role as security products provider could be worth $100M

Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies has been named NASCAR’s first official provider of security products, a deal that could mean substantial growth for the company’s Carmel headquarters and an Indianapolis manufacturing plant, which together already employ 900. IRST is a division of Bermuda-based behemoth Ingersoll-Rand Co., which is better known for agricultural, construction and transportation equipment sold under names such as Bobcat and Thermo King. The link with the racing circuit is expected to drive home the point that Ingersoll-Rand is…

Gamer cashes in on hobby: Arcade cabinets combine old titles, new technology

Rick Barretto started filling his basement with arcade games soon after graduating from Indiana University. An avid gamer since his youth, he loved to play, but to get the games he wanted, he had to buy fullsized arcade cabinets-12 of them. His basement was only so big, and his wife’s tolerance only so high. “My wife was saying, ‘There’s got to be a better way,'” said Barretto, 39. So he put his college computer-science classes to work and spent more…

Tower’s leasing power should weather storm: Brokers say One Indiana Square will remain attractive

Several downtown leasing agents doubt the storm damage incurred at One Indiana Square will have a significant impact on the tower owners’ ability to attract future office tenants. In fact, a few contend their quick response to containing the fallout from displaced occupants could even make the building more attractive. “There are a lot of people who never have this challenge put in front of them,” said Jeff Harris, president of locally based Meridian Real Estate and a former marketing…

TOM HARTON Commentary: Infield hero crashes corporate suite

Gene Simmons, the blood-spitting “demon of Kiss,” has been hired to make the Indy Racing League and the Indianapolis 500 a hot commodity again. Sounds like a stoner’s dream. Black T-shirts with the iconic Kiss logo were everywhere in the beersoaked, weed-perfumed infield of the 1970s and early 1980s. Some of those shirts were on people walking upright. Others were very publicly removed and some covered the limp bodies of those who’d overindulged. Mud, sweat, sun, booze, bongs and Coppertone….

Ivy Tech to focus more on results, not just growth: Student success and broader ties with employers among goals of community college system’s five-year plan

After growing its enrollment 75 percent the last decade, Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana is shifting its focus to student retention. A top administrator also wants to expand the number of training courses offered at businesses, as a way to supplement the system’s $253 million annual budget. Some who’ve studied the state’s educational system have recommended that Ivy Tech spend more to hire additional full-time faculty to strengthen its effectiveness. The school’s five-year student retention plan calls for doubling…

Avoid 5 common hiring mistakes:

Small-business owners struggle every day to find adequate time to address key business issues. Not surprisingly, when a hiring need arises, whether from growth or turnover, a business owner’s time-or lack thereof-is a major factor in the success or failure of the initiative. Bad hires take a toll on an owner’s time and emotional energy, the company’s overall productivity, and customer/supplier relationships. It is better to invest adequate time in the hiring process to ensure a good hire than to…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Just before sentencing, failed exec judged incompetent

Angry investors in James T. O’Neal Jr.’s failed auto mall company have waited nearly a decade for the Carmel native to get his comeuppance. They thought that day would come this spring, at his sentencing on two felony charges stemming from what investigators say was a scheme to swindle the rich and famous in Indianapolis and central Florida out of millions of dollars. But now a psychiatrist has concluded that “O’Neal is suffering from a mental disease rendering him unable…

Real estate club members gain industry knowledge: Indiana University organization enjoys growth spurt

As the new headquarters building for Simon Property Group Inc. was going up downtown last fall, a group of Indiana University students donned hard hats and toured the 13-story building. After riding the construction elevator to the top floor, students got a bird’s-eye view of the city and a firsthand account from the developers about the building’s cost, size and challenges in constructing it. The students were members of the IU Real Estate Club, and the tour of the 350,000-square-foot…

Real estate experts examine the market: Indianapolis in good shape overall, panelists say, but job growth, incentive issues, among concerns

On April 14, as part of its Power Breakfast Series, the Indianapolis Business Journal gathered a panel of commercial real estate and construction experts to discuss industry conditions in the local market. In a discussion moderated by IBJ Editor Tom Harton, panelists took on a wide range of issues, including tax incentives and the status of downtown’s residential and retail markets. Power Breakfast guests were Mike Curless, executive vice president and principal with Lauth Property Group; Mike Wells, president of…

Ending overdue: Library shows progress amid legal tussle

There’s finally visible progress on the city’s Central Library expansion project. But the litigation over who’s responsible for its construction problems still has no end in sight. City-County Councilor Isaac Randolph is frustrated. So he wrote a proposal to order all the players in the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library’s legal dispute to enter binding arbitration. “I’m trying to find a resolution to what’s clearly become an embarrassment to the citizens funding this,” Randolph said. “I’ve lost confidence in the leadership…

WEB REVIEW: Internet provides means for millions

I’ve had quite a few odd things cross my desk recently, none of which require much attention individually, but taken together are worth a mention. They deserve some attention because at the heart of each is an idea-sometimes a great idea. The first is probably the greatest idea of the bunch, and it’s one of those things that cause me to ask myself why I didn’t think of it first. Last summer, a student in England named Alex Tew was…

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: New rules make big changes to environmental reports

Every buyer and seller of commercial property is familiar with Phase I environmental reports-the ubiquitous due-diligence requirement for commercial property transactions or financing. When they first began to be used, the work behind the reports-and often the reports themselves-varied greatly in thoroughness and completeness. With the advent of ASTM standards, more uniformity appeared, even if quality remained spotty. The front is about to change dramatically. Recent regulations by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which take effect in November, have a…

BULLS & BEARS: Day-to-day market headlines get in way of wise investing

Every day, the financial press and market pundits provide us with the reason for the previous day’s stock market activity. Following a down day, we might read an article headlined, “Investors sell stocks on fears of rising inflation.” Perhaps the next day the market rises and we see, “Stocks climb as investors see end to Fed interest rate increases.” What exactly happened overnight that caused this apparent shift in sentiment? Did investors sleep on it and the next morning collectively…

FAMILY BUSINESS: Indiana Square damage offers lesson in disaster planning

The incident drove home the importance of disaster planning. When the storm struck at 10 p.m. that Sunday, who was prepared for the emergency? Employees were told not to come in the next morning, but how would they do their jobs? What files could be retrieved? Would computer systems work on Monday and later that week? What would happen to incoming and outgoing telephone and e-mail messages? The questions and potential problems were endless. Each owner of a family business…

SPORTS Bill Benner: A life lesson to remember: Television always rules

Even after all these years, my bride still sometimes forgets that there really are three sure things in life: death, taxes and the fact that television rules, especially in sports. As a guy who spent most of his life in the newspaper business, the increasing influence of television became an everlarger burr in my behind. Everything from the length of games (those four-hour-plus University of Notre Dame football games were especially excruciating) to deadlinecrunching late starting times to preferential treatment…

EYE ON THE PIE: Let’s open the doors wide to opportunity

Recently, the U.S. Census Bureau released 2004 data showing that Indiana had 264,936 persons of Hispanic origin among its 6,058,930 population. That would mean 4.37 percent of Hoosiers, themselves or their ancestors, came from Mexico, Cuba, Columbia, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Panama, Chile and other Spanish-speaking nations. Don’t you just love that precision? 264,936 and 6,058,930 are merely estimates, not census counts. Anyone who has worked with numbers should be embarrassed to be more specific than 265,000 and 6,060,000. The…

Tech acquisitions are bittersweet: Investors win, but state loses headquarters

In the past two weeks, central Indiana’s two fastest-growing high-tech companies have announced their sales to larger out-of-state firms. Local leaders are of two minds about it. On the one hand, there’s the enormous payday for investors. Massachusetts-based Hologic Inc. is buying Indianapolis-based medical-device maker Suros Surgical Systems Inc. for at least $240 million. And St. Louis-based TALX Corp. scooped up Carmelbased Internet testing firm Performance Assessment Network Inc. for $75 million. Optimists hope to see much of that money…

SMALL BUSINESS PROFILE WTH: Firm mapping out its own success Owner shifts focus from old-school engineering to GIS

SMALL BUSINESS PROFILE WTH Firm mapping out its own success Owner shifts focus from old-school engineering to GIS Rex Jones wants to show off his company’s work, so the lights go down, a computer comes on and a map of Starke County appears on a screen. The map is a maze of green lines representing county and local roads, red for state/interstate highways, blue for water. Jones zooms in further, picking a random street in the rural county. Up pops…