Category: Small business
By Danielle Walker
danielle.walker@insidebiz.com
The city of Norfolk is helping companies cash in on OpSail with an online program that will keep businesses up to date on business opportunities.
The OpSail 2012 Virginia certified business initiative gives businesses free access to vendor and merchandise forms, government training resources and email updates on Opsail events.
OpSail, a traveling international array of tall ships and naval vessels, will make it way back to Norfolk June 1 to 12. The event last came to the region 12 years ago.
By Teresa Talerico
SBN editor
Over on the Cox Small Business Navigation website - www.coxsbn.com, our expert columnists have definitely clicked with visitors.
Their columns get a lot of traffic, and for good reason: They know their stuff.
From a former business journalist to a technology specialist to an experienced entrepreneur who helps "unstick" small businesses, these national experts contribute regularly to the website.
A group of business professionals has developed a series of workshops with the idea of educating fellow small business owners on what it takes to stay in business.
Anne-Lise Gere, a Newport News human resources consultant, and Mark Gottfried, a Williamsburg business management consultant, along with Peninsula professionals Dan Baxter, Bill Boyer, Bob Rodriguez and David Singletary, started the nonprofit Business Development Group of Hampton Roads in November 2011 to help business owners and business professionals keep up with the latest trends.
By Teresa Talerico
SBN Editor
In 1963 mechanic Damon Moore and his wife, Irene, opened a small garage in Virginia Beach. That year, gas was 30 cents a gallon, "Lawrence of Arabia" won the Oscar for best picture and the Moores' first two kids were barely out of elementary school.
Today London Bridge Motor Co. is still going strong as a quintessential mom-and-pop business. The Moores, both in their 80s now, have expanded the family-run company into a full-service center for auto repair, body work, paint jobs and state inspections.
By Susan Smigielski Acker
Correspondent
When Orlando Loiercio took over his parents' restaurant, the Veneziano in Norfolk's Riverview section nearly two years ago, he set out to make some changes to improve business.
Now his gamble is showing signs of paying off with increased customers nightly at the 65-year-old restaurant, what he calls the oldest Italian restaurant in Hampton Roads.
By Danielle Walker
danielle.walker@insidebiz.com
Too ashamed to tell your friends you're headed to Fatty's Cupcakes? Don't want people to get the wrong idea if you tell them you shop at Stoner Drug Store? These are just a couple of business names that Dean Workman would have reconsidered, had he had any say in the matter.
One of Workman's duties as the president of Creative Retail Works, a consulting firm in Virginia Beach, is to help businesses with a name change - and the marketing that goes along with it.
Every company, no matter the size, should have a drug-free workplace policy, according to local employment experts.
"If an employer does not have a drug-free policy, they are 10 times more likely to have drug users working for them," said Stella McClain, operations director for Taylor Made Diagnostics, an occupational health company in Chesapeake. "Having it means you are hiring the right people."
Is your post-holiday budget stretched thin? Kick-start the new year with these free webinars from the National Federation of Business, the Internal Revenue Service and a marketing whiz.
7 Steps to Marketing Success
Time 11 a.m.
Date Jan. 5
Presented by PWG Marketing
Identify your ideal customer, develop marketing strategies and generate leads with tips from Patrick Giammarco, an Ohio-based social media expert and Duct Tape Marketing consultant. To register, email patrick@pwgmarketing.com, call 419-329-4256 or visit http://conta.cc/tctc8D.
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner was on a whirlwind tour of Hampton Roads last week, listening to complaints from the small business community and pitching his bill, the Startup Act.
His first stop was a meeting of small business owners at Stella's Café on 21st Street in Norfolk, organized by the Retail Alliance, a lobbying group for retailers in Hampton Roads.
Warner, the junior senator from Northern Virginia and co-founder of Nextel, has supported legislation for small business owners as Virginia governor and senator.
Top holiday gifts for employees
Want to make some spirits bright in the office? Play Santa for your employees. But before sliding down the chimney, make sure you know what's on their list.
Not surprisingly, monetary gifts ranked high among workers polled in a Dec. 6 survey on Glassdoor, an online career site. Nearly three-quarters of respondents chose cash bonuses as the gift they'd most enjoy unwrapping, while 62 percent preferred a raise. A third of employees wanted paid time off.
Cash aside, here's what everyone else hoped to find in their office stockings:
