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Entrepreneurs getting younger: Corporate downsizing gives rise to ‘e-generation’

From selling shark tooth necklaces to his neighbors during summer vacations in Florida to running an online auction site that benefits charities, he’s no stranger to the hard work that comes with starting a business. “I’m interested in new things and looking into new things,” said Gough, who is among a burgeoning group of young entrepreneurs not content to work for others. They’d rather strike out on their own. In fact, nearly 71 percent of the 1,474 youth who participated…

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Startup drug firm lands veteran help: Immune Works, a fledgling firm with a promising lung drug, attracts former Indiana Health Industry Forum leader Lange

A startup firm using Indiana University medical research to treat a fatal lung disease is raising money for clinical trials and has recruited a prominent life sciences veteran to lead the effort. Michael Klemsz, an associate professor at the IU School of Medicine, and Dr. David Wilkes, director of the school’s Center for Immunobiology, founded Immune Works LLC in January 2006 along with Ronald Meeusen. Meeusen, a former Dow-AgroSciences researcher and BioCrossroads executive, served as a part-time president and CEO…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: For a healthier economy, we need healthier Hoosiers

Indiana needs a trip to the doctor-and a stern lecture when we get there. We’re among the nation’s unhealthiest states. More than one of every four Hoosiers is obese, and we rank among the 10 worst states for smoking and high cholesterol. The outcomes should come put more stress on the system and drive up prices and premiums for everyone. Gov. Daniels has signed a progressive bill that provides affordable health insurance with a medical savings account plan to Hoosiers…

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State beefs up incentives available to tech companies:

Companies receiving a Phase 1 SBIR match from the state need to apply for second-stage funding by July 20. Applications can be downloaded on the IEDC Web site. The proposal for funds should be no longer than 12 pages and include a commercialization plan describing how the product would be moved to market and any challenges that would need to be overcome. The proposal also should include a budget describing the funds required for The Indiana Economic Development Corp. has…

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Insurers hope new law boosts their speed to market: But some entrepreneurs fear dereg could burn them

Small businesses should be able to purchase new kinds of property, casualty and Worker’s Compensation insurance quicker than in the past under a new state law that delays regulatory oversight of new products. But some business owners say the law puts them at risk of buying insurance that includes surprise clauses — since regulators won’t be checking them in advance. The law rolls back regulations that slowed insurance sales in Indiana by effectively requiring insurers to clear new products with…

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PROFILE: Georgetown Chiropractic Clinic PC: Demand spurs chiropractor to grow clinic Massage, Pilates, yoga classes round out northwest-side practice

P RO F I L E Georgetown Chiropractic Clinic PC Demand spurs chiropractor to grow clinic Massage, Pilates, yoga classes round out northwest-side practice If life gives you a pain in the neck, chances are you’ve sought relief from a specialist at working out the kinks-like Georgetown Chiropractic Clinic PC. Chiropractic use has tripled in the last two decades, according to research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. To accommodate some of that growth locally, Georgetown Chiropractic has doubled…

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Law firms team up to encourage minority participation: Bingham McHale forms alliance with Coleman Graham & Stevenson

A surge in the number of corporations seeking minority participation on contracts has prompted an alliance between two local law firms looking to capitalize on the trend. The June affiliation between Bingham McHale LLP, the city’s fifth-largest practice, and Coleman Graham & Stevenson LLC, a minority-owned upstart, resulted from mutual friendships within the two firms, said Toby McClamroch, Bingham McHale’s managing partner. “The marketplace is becoming more complex, and the business community is demanding and expecting a multicultural and diverse…

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New management brings youth, profit: Industry experience makes hotel more professional

After unwrapping gifts on Christmas Day 2005, Colleen Fanning got something else from her dad: an offer to run the small inn he bought in 2002. Bill Fanning spent more than two years tearing down, rebuilding and expanding the Brick Street Inn, a fixture on Main Street in Zionsville. But it struggled financially after reopening in the fall of 2004, and his patience was at an end. “He told me: ‘Either I’m going to sell the inn or you can…

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VIEWPOINT: When visionaries, bean counters collide

I am a dabbler. The upside of dabbling is that one gets involved in a number of diverse projects throughout one’s career. Some great successes, some galactic failures. Either way, the dabbler learns much about many things along the way. One of the lessons learned in a life of dabbling is the unlikely symbiosis between visionaries and bean counters. Like particles of matter and anti-matter in the universe, one cannot exist without the other. And yet, their uncontrolled collision can…

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Phone providers eyeing small biz: Competition heats up to serve growing companies

It seems that, in the phone world, everybody loves small businesses these days. AT&T, central Indiana’s primary landline provider, is highlighting small-business offerings in its recently re-branded Cingular stores throughout the region. Cable company Comcast, meanwhile, is rolling out its small-business phone options over local lines and Bright House Networks plans to get in the game within a year. Then there are the scrappy, independent providers such as locally based Indiana Telephone Co. Inc., which have expanded their offerings to…

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IU life sciences startup attracts former Lilly exec: INphoton attempts to commercialize high-tech cellular imaging techniques

It doesn’t have a headquarters or any full-time employees yet. But local life sciences startup INphoton LLC has attracted something equally important: an experienced manager. This month, INphoton hired Steven Plump, Eli Lilly and Co.’s former chief marketing officer, as its CEO. Plump, who retired from Lilly in 2006 after a 30-year career there, hopes to commercialize the high-tech research imaging techniques that INphoton’s founders discovered in Indiana University laboratories. In the process, INphoton could cut pharmaceutical companies’ cost of…

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Veteran grocer plays new role: O’Malia teaches customer service as training-firm VP

In the late 1950s, when Daniel O’Malia was a kid working in the first store his father owned, he would often keep busy weighing and bagging potatoes. But on occasion, a customer would ask for something the small grocery didn’t stock. Joe O’Malia would hand his son some change and tell him to run to a nearby Kroger grocery to pick up the item. He had the competitor’s prices memorized and always gave his son the right amount. “He would…

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Classic Niche: Local insurer riding wave of classic-car enthusiasm

In 1993, Dan Yogodnik started a business with a friend that leased out exotic cars for special occasions. The biggest hurdle the partners encountered was lining up insurance for the cars. That experience spurred Yogodnik, who had been working in the banking industry, to start his own insurance firm. “If we had our own insurance agency, then we wouldn’t have to chase all over the country [for the niche policies],” he said. What started out as a side business targeting…

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Law lets small employers band together for insurance: Experts disagree on whether associations will take off

The Healthy Indiana Plan, which enacts a system to bring affordable health insurance to low-income Hoosiers, is one of the most far-reaching pieces of legislation to arise from the General Assembly this spring. The noble cause could provide coverage to about 15 percent of the state’s population. Yet it could affect the small-business community as much as the state’s growing number of uninsured. House Bill 1678, introduced by State Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, and signed by Gov. Mitch Daniels May…

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Charity sees hope in Third World ‘micro’ lending

In the village of Armenia, in western El Salvador, the Barahona Bautista family last month got a $246 loan to start a pig
farm from Ambassadors for Children. Micro loans are new to Ambassadors, which assists children in more than a dozen countries.

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Admitted ‘geek’ builds product-development prowess at Priio

By Larry O’Cull’s own admission, his company’s northwest-side office is staffed with “a bunch of geeks,” including himself. But as clients of product-development firm Priio will attest, it’s hip to be geek. A tour of the office offers a glimpse at a playground for engineering-inclined grown-ups. One of the firm’s 12 employees fiddles with the trigger on a paintball gun, while another tinkers with a concept for a propane-tank vending…

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Embarking on a new Venture: New leader planning progressive changes at center, not a total revamping

The new leader of the Indiana Venture Center is beginning to put his stamp on the not-for-profit that mentors promising startups. James Eifert, 64, is the former president of Terre Haute-based Rose-Hulman Ventures who took charge of the center in December following the July resignation of Steve Beck. Beck left to become co-managing director of IVC Equity Partners, a new local seed-capital fund. Chief items on Eifert’s to-do list are broadening the donor base, revamping the Venture Center’s proprietary network…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Whom will the state subsidize next?

Last week, I was walking on the Statehouse grounds and I saw some folks with large green pins on their lapels. “What do those stand for?” I asked. “Small businesses need Electronic Gaming Devices” one wearer told me. “That’s for bars,” I commented. The reply I got was not friendly. In the newspapers and on TV during the same week, there were features about horse breeders “needing” more state subsidies from slot machines at racetracks to “keep the industry alive.”…

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Invoice-borrowing a growing credit option

Bank loans and credit cards are common solutions to small businesses’ cash-flow crunches, but small-business owners increasingly
have another option: using unpaid invoices as collateral to borrow money from investors.

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