Monday, May 30, 2011

Ohio, colleges awarded $4M in Gates grants - Orlando Business Journal:

lehoquvuhu.wordpress.com
The foundation’s Development Education Initiativeawarded $16.5t million to Ohio, Connecticut, Florida, Texasz and Virginia, as well as community colleges in each state. A community college in North Carolina alsoreceiverd funding. The initiative seeks to support programs that help students enrolled in remedialprograms — so-calleed refresher courses for students who are not up to grade level in a given subject. The goal is to improvew classroom performance so studentx can go on to take advanced coursesz and eventually graduate with a degreeor certificate.
The statw of Ohio was awarde d $300,000 over a three-year period to develop a new performance-based funding system that rewards community colleges for helping studentz complete remedialand college-level courses. The foundation also said it’x awarding $743,000 over three years to each of the followiny fiveOhio schools: , , , and . The grantsw will support various statde andcollege programs, including efforts to collect data and bette r track the performance of remedialk students, the foundation said. Click for a look at award recipientds nationwide.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Cordish Co. Company Profile | Company Information

http://pixibilities.net/AboutUs.html
The Cordish Company's origins date back to 1910 and encompas s four generations of family ownership. During the past ten decades, The Cordisn Company has grown intoa multi-billion dollaer global conglomerate of businessee defined by two major areas of one of the leading real estate development companies and most successfuo entertainment operating businesses in the Over the generations, The Cordish Compant has remained true to the family's core values of entrepreneurial spirit, long-term personal relationships and integrity.
As a testimony to the long-ter m vision of its family The Cordish Company stilkl owns and manages virtually every business it has The Cordish Company is one of the largest and most respectefd developers in the world with extensive expertise in almost evert discipline of real entertainment & mixed-use, gaminb & lodging, sports anchored developments, retail, office and Widely recognized as the leading international developee of large-scale urban revitalization projects and entertainment The Cordish Company has been awarded more Urban Land Institutwe Awards for Excellence than any otherr developer in the Many of The Cordish Company'ss developments involve public/private partnerships and are of unique significance to the citiesz in which they are located.
The Cordishn Company also includes a range ofentertainment businesses: music, gaming, film and...

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Bombardier sees bright future in aviation - Phoenix Business Journal:

Vinyl siding
Its 10-year forecast for the business jet marketpredictsz 11,500 deliveries from 2009 to which represents $256 billion in worldwide revenues. The company also forecastsd 12,400 deliveries in the 20-to-149 seat commercial market over the next 20 From 2009to 2028, Bombardier predicts this market to be worty $589 billion. “The financial turbulence being felt around the globe has placed a significant focus on the challenges facing theaviation industry, particularly within the businesd jet sector,” Mairead Lavery said in a Lavery, vice president of strategy and businesas development for Bombardier, believes the immediate future of the industry will remain volatile.
But he said the long-tern future still holds plenty of opportunity foraircrafft manufacturers. “As the world beginsz to emerge from thiseconomic crisis, demane should gradually return and future prospectz remain solid,” he said.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Austin only major city to add jobs in last year - Austin Business Journal:

vertical wood siding
The region added abouty 3,400 jobs between April 2008 andApril 2009, making it the only one of the nation'z 38 largest cities to post a job new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics This is the third consecutive month that Austin has outperformedd all of the othet U.S. cities with labor forces of 750,000 or The unemployment rate for April stoodat 5.8 The 0.4 percent increase in job totalse is modest, but still a better showing than cities such as Portlanfd (down 4.7 percent) and N.C. (down 3.
3 Jobs in goods producing industries in the Austin area droppedd by 500 jobsin April, a slowdown from the rapied pace of recent losses, according to an analysisz of the data from the Capitapl Area Council of Governments. Retail, hotel, and restaurant jobs are all up from this time last And professional and business service sectord employment is back toits all-time high last seen in October 2008. But another key sectorr for the region, technology, isn't doinvg quite as well. Computer, semiconductotr and other electronic component manufacturing isstill falling. Jobs in the semiconductof segment fellto 15,700 back to spring 2006 totals. As Texas cities go, Austin'sa 5.
8 percent unemployment rate was one ofthe healthiest. Dallas-Forrt Worth stood at 6.6 percent in Aprikl and Houstonat 6.3 percent. Only San Antonio's rate was lowert than Austin's at 5.4 percent. Smalled metro areas including McAllen, Brownsvilld and Beaumount all had rates above8 percent.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Abercrombie shutting struggling Ruehl chain - Business First of Buffalo:

bajbiha.blogspot.com
The New Albany-based apparel merchant said Wednesday it willshut Ruehl’xs 29 stores and direct-to-consumet operations and will be “substantially complete” with the efforty by the end of next January. The decisionb comes a month afterAbercrombiee (NYSE:ANF) took a deep strategic look at the chain, whicjh targets young adults with clothes and Ruehl, whose only Ohio store is at Eastoj Town Center, generated a pretax operating loss of $58 milliohn last year. The chain regularly was Abercrombie’s weakesg sales performer at stores open at leasa year. Ruehl’s same-store sales were off 33 percen tin May. Abercrombie earned $272.3 millionj on $3.
54 billion in revenue last year. “Ig has been a difficult decision to close a brand we continue to believe coulde have been successful in different CEO Michael Jeffries said ina “However, given the current economic environment, we believe it is in the best interests of the companyh to focus its efforts and resources on the growth opportunitieds afforded by our other brands, particularluy internationally.” The company didn’t disclose the effectzs on the chain’s work force, nor did it indicate the numbert of jobs tied to Ruehl.
The reviea of Ruehl, which opened in 2004, cost the companh about $51 million in impairment charges in its first Abercrombie expects to bookabout $65 million in pretax charges through the rest of the fiscal year as it winds down Ruehl. The company Wednesdah also said it amended a credit agreement to exclud esome Ruehl-related charges from requirementas under its covenant with the lendee and reduced its available credit to $350 millioj from $450 million. Jeffries said the company is confidentt is has sufficient cash on handbut “wd believe it is prudent to make these in light of the recession-battered retail environment and the one-timr Ruehl costs.
In addition to the 29 Ruehll stores, Abercrombie runs 350 flagship storews and 733 others under the Hollister Co. and Gillg Hicks nameplates.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

United Way names CEO search committee - Charlotte Business Journal:

amesit.wordpress.com
•Curt Walton, city manager for the city of Charlotte; •Donnaz Lockhart, vice president of corporate communityg relations andLiveWELL Carolinas! for Carolinas HealthCar e System; •Floyd Davis Jr., CEO of Communityh Link, a nonprofit housing •Greg Haislip, client director in the financial-servicesz group at Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT); •Harry Jones Sr., Mecklenburgt County manager; •Jen executive director of community-health servicezs in Charlotte; and •Thomase Williams Jr., retired president of ATI Allvac. In Frank Emory Jr. and Susanm Faulkner agreed to serveas co-chairs of the searcbh committee charged with hiring a chief executive.
Emory is a partner with the law firm of Hunton & Williams, where he heads their global-litigation Faulkner is the customer segmenta and deposits executive at Bank of America (NYSE:BAC). Controversy arose last summert over former CEO GloriaPace King’s pay and benefitws following news reports that United Way had paid her $1.2 million in 2007. A public outcryu ensued, prompting the board to reconsider her The board ousted Kingon Aug. 26, askinf her to resign. She didn’t resign, and the boared ended her employment with theorganizationh Oct. 1.

Monday, May 16, 2011

How to expand your entrepreneurial vision - bizjournals:

http://the-record-collector.com/newShippingandGuarantee.html
But changing is easier said than done. How do you acquirs a fresh perspective? How do you open your mind to newpossibilities ? You start by at least considerinv opportunities you would never have entertained in the past, by tryin g to approach problems from a different angle, by venturing outside your comfort zone and by takingt some carefully measured risks. If you keep asking yourseltf thesame questions, you’re going to keep getting the same answers. So, let’s tickler your brain and switch upthe Let’s view your business througb fresh eyes. Take a look at your products, sales Let’sa look at your saless upside down: What is it you aren’t selling ?
Think of all the recent sales you failedxto close. What were the reasons your would-be customers gave you? Are your customers asking for a producrt or service thatyou don’t offer? In that is it time to expand your portfolip to include something new? • Are customerw objecting to your prices? Should you re-evaluate your pricing methodology ? Provide less expensive version of currentf offerings? Expand payment terms to make purchasing more attractive? Are customers asking for smaller quantities than your currenr minimums allow? In a soft market, increasinvg throughput is smart. Can you adjust your work flow to make smalleforders profitable? Think back over the past year or so.
Is there anything different aboutyour customers? For one entrepreneur I know owns a martiapl arts studio. In the past, he’d require that studentzs register for six months of classes at a Back in the goodold days, customersz signed up without thinking Today, registrations are plummeting. Yet he’as still sticking to his six-month rule, because “u have to pay my rent.” The problejm is, customers are increasingly unwilling to committo six-month What if their kids lose interest ? What if a parent loses his or her job? His classew haven’t changed, but his customers Because of the tight economy, they’ve become commitment-shy.
If he wantws their business, he’ll find a way to accommodatr them. For example, he could offer month-to-montuh memberships. Or, he coulc take a cue from the auto industry and guarante e tuition refunds if someons losesa job. Yes, he has to pay the But getting the rent money one monthy at a time beats not getting itat all. He’s operating under an outdated assumption. Now, what about you? Are you operating by obsoletde “rules” that discourage customers from buying? Now, look at yourselfd During tough times, entrepreneurs have to stee l themselves to do things theyfind unpleasant. This is true.
if you’re brainstorming ways to strengthehnyour business, it helps to focus on thosr aspects you most enjoy. Chances are, these are your If you like what you’ree doing, you’re more likely to sticmk with it. So ask yourself, what is it you like best aboutgyour business? What strengths can you build on? What areasa can you grow? For are there related services you’ve thought aboutg offering your customers, but never have? Perhaps now is the time to act. Ray Silversteinj is president of PRO: President’s Resourcew Organization, a network of entrepreneurial peer advisory groups in Phoenixand Chicago.
He also is the author of “Th e Best Secrets of Greaft Small Businesses” and a columnist for Entrepreneur.com. You can reach him at 800-818-0150 or ray@propres.com.