| New local businesses
Started a new business? Have you started a business within the past six months? Let us know about it. Please visit recordonline.com/business for more information, or send the news about your new business to bgilhooly@th-record.com, with We're in Business in the subject line. Here's what we'd like to know: Name of business:Location:Owners:Number of employees:Phone number/Web site:Hours (if relevant):What made you decide to open this type of business?Who is your target customer?What makes your business special?Describe your business in one word.What are your long-term plans, if any? We'd be happy to run a photo, as well. Please identify all people in the picture. Please send jpeg attachments of at least 200 dpis. Golden Circle Preschool Location: 5 Everett Road, Campbell Hall Owner: Cathryn Bump Phone: 294-1227 Web site: www.goldencirclepreschool.org Hours: 9 a.m.- 4 p.m.
Iowans enter holiday season with increasing debt
DES MOINES — With the holiday shopping season in full swing, economists and credit experts say they're concerned about a rise in credit problems in Iowa. The average Iowan's debt, including such things as credit cards and car loans, grew 4.1 percent from June to September to nearly $13,000, according to the Experian National Score Index. Nationally, the average debt rose 2.2 percent to just over $16,000. The average debt of people seeking help from Consumer Credit Counseling of Des Moines, a nonprofit counseling service, rose 54 percent from 2002 to this year to about $17,400. The number of bankruptcies also is rising to more than 600 new filings in Iowa this month. Counselors who work with debtors say there was an unusual rise in clients this fall — a typically slow season.
Kenya: Language Entrepreneur's Walk to Fame
She describes herself as a go-getter, God fearing and a people's person. When US Ambassador Michael Ranneberger spoke about her during this year's International Women's Day, he termed her as the "unsung hero" But 28-year -old Jacqueline Machaka, director of Language Solution Centre, is no longer an unsung hero. This month she became the first woman to win the first ever business plan competition targeting the youth in the country. .
Thompson happy with look of his funeral home
For the past 25 years, the W.C. Thompson Funeral Home stood modestly tucked between a car dealership and an office building and was easy to miss when riding by on North Main Street. But with recently added new siding, windows, lighting, doors and a fancy new sign, the building is hard not to notice these days. The Culpeper County Chamber of Commerce noticed, naming W.C. Thompson Funeral Home the Most Improved Small Business Location at its annual awards ceremony Nov. 1. Owner Wilbur Thompson, who opened the business at 503 N. Main St. in 1982, said he's been getting lots of compliments about the new look. "I'm telling you, plenty of them, calls too," he said. "With the front done, I was not surprised (about the chamber award). I expected it.
Small business owner: Carrie Shapiro
Category winner: Carrie Shapiro Age: 32 Lives: Broughton, near Cowbridge Carrie designs exclusive jewellery handmade in Wales, using anything from glass and shell through to wood and Swarovski crystals. She founded her jewellery business, Carrie Elspeth, eight years ago, and since then, has seen it rapidly expand. Carrie is fast gaining a reputation in the industry for her stylish and unique designs, and is now considering a move into the export market. Carrie said, "I never thought I'd win the award – the calibre of the other contestants and previous winners was high. On the night I was just concentrating on having a good time. "But when I found out I had won, I was absolutely delighted. In the early days I ran the business from my parent's house.
Build versus Buy, Best Practices Approach - community blog from Michael Goldman
Recently I interviewed a number of CEO's, COO's and Head of Operations within Asset Management and Wealth Management and found a trend in London, Paris, Lisbon and Amsterdam: The most innovative and agile businesses were able to better serve their clients by adopting best of breed technologies and innovative processes. One firm spoke of their long-standing relationship with a leading back office provider and described how they were able to grow thier business by 30% per year by following a best practice technique: Working with their back office vendor and front office vendors to fund new functionality in their systems rather than building functionality or modules in-house. The result has meant more focus by the operations and IT staff on providing new services to existing clients and always being one step ahead of the client / front office staff requests.
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