Archive for the ‘Business’ Category
Posted by hermanwong on November 23, 2008
Short Leash
The local economy is going to the dogs.
By Herman Wong
published: November 19, 2008
In the same way dogs can sense earthquakes, professional dog walkers can sense the tremors of bad times ahead. Since the summer, Lorrie Baranco, a 39-year-old with an American Staffordshire Terrier tattoo running up her left arm, has seen clients of her 9-year-old business, Bone-afide, cut back on hours. One longtime customer – an Internet-made millionaire – just handed his Labrador’s leash to his nanny to save money. “It’s the slowest I’ve ever been,” Baranco says.
San Francisco has an estimated 300 to 500 professional dog walkers, according to the San Francisco Professional Dog Walkers Association. In a city with more than 120,000 canines, dog walkers’ work connects them to all walks of life – gray-suited lawyers and hoodie-cloaked graduate students, financial types and high school teachers -making them a barometer of San Francisco’s economy.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Business, Published Work, San Francisco | Tagged: Bear Stearns, economy, professional dog walkers, San Francisco, slump | Leave a Comment »
Posted by hermanwong on September 16, 2008
Spinning straw houses
Red Deather Development Group helps build Native American communities.
By Herman WongSeptember 15, 2008: 8:58 AM EDT
(Fortune Small Business) — Cheyenne elder Winfield Russell is a real-life Joe Leaphorn. Like the character from the Tony Hillerman crime novels, Russell was a tribal criminal investigator, for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. For the past ten years he has lived in a drafty old trailer on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in southeastern Montana.
But in July, Russell, 60, moved into a new two-bedroom house with a solar-powered water heater and a covered porch, thanks to a gang of 125 reservation residents and volunteers, assembled by the Red Feather Development Group, who built the house in 28 days.
“We do it with the community, not for them,” says founder Robert Young, a former retail entrepreneur who now works full-time for the group. “It’s a better investment.” Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by hermanwong on August 11, 2008
Eat my wall
A vertical urban farm will seed community farming in a graffiti-scarred L.A. neighborhood.
By Herman Wong
August 8, 2008: 9:54 AM EDT
(Fortune Small Business) — George Irwin builds green structures for a living, but his latest project aspires to rebuild lives. This summer, Irwin is donating a vertical urban farm for residents of Los Angeles’ graffiti-scarred Central City East.
“Think of it as another way to make a community garden,” says Irwin, 39, a landscaper by training.
He’s installing four massive garden walls – a total of 750 square feet – in and around the neighborhood, including one in a high school yard and another at a local housing project. Each six-by 30-foot wall consists of 45 four-inch-deep, soil-bearing, irrigated vertical trays. Community farmers will be able to grow anything from strawberries to cherry tomatoes and melons.
Irwin estimates that each wall will generate as much as 400 pounds of produce a season. He envisions entrepreneurs opening “wall-side stands” and local youth getting work skills installing and maintaining the vertical gardens of L.A.’s Skid Row.
Posted in Business, Environmentalism and Low Income Neighborhoods, Published Work | Tagged: Central City East, George Irwin, green wall, Los Angeles, Skid Row, urban farm | Leave a Comment »
Posted by hermanwong on August 2, 2008
Fireworks sales blast off – but costs also soar
Heading into their biggest weekend of the year, fireworks producers are struggling to stay profitable in the face of sharply higher fuel and materials costs.
By Herman Wong
July 1, 2008: 11:54 AM EDT
(Fortune Small Business) — As Fourth of July fireworks light cities across the United States, the companies that orchestrate the epic productions face an uncertain future.
As in so many other industries, the cost of procuring materials and transporting goods has been rising precipitously. Add in shipment problems with China, where most fireworks come from, and the result is a rocky start to 2008.
“It’s probably been the most difficult six months in the fireworks industry,” said Greg Smith, national program director at the American Pyrotechnics Association (APA), an industry trade group based in Bethesda, Md. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Business, Published Work | Tagged: China, fireworks, Fourth of July, rising prices, American Pyrotechnics Association, APA, Western Enterprises, Grucci, Pyrotechnico, display fireworks, Rozzi, Zambelli, Melrose Pyrotechnics, Independence Day, Pyro Shows, Washington DC | Leave a Comment »
Posted by hermanwong on May 24, 2008
With record Sotheby’s sale, art market keeps booming
Collectors dropped a historic $362 million at Sotheby’s evening contemporary art auction this week – a sign that for dealers and gallery owners, good times are still rolling.
By Herman Wong
First Published: May 16, 2008: 6:22 PM EDT
(FORTUNE Small Business) — The sky may be falling on the economy, but the art market is flying high.
Sotheby’s spring contemporary art auction on Wednesday evening was the most lucrative auction in the company’s history, blowing past the high end of Sotheby’s estimate with sales totaling $362 million, including a record $86.3 million for a 1976 Francis Bacon triptych that had been expected to sell for about $16 million less.
Such extravagant consumption is an optimistic sign for art dealers. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Business, New York City, Published Work | Tagged: Aldo Castillo, art dealer, contemporary art, Francis Bacon, Greg Kucera, James Cohan, Josee Bienvenu, Sotheby, triptych | Leave a Comment »
Posted by hermanwong on May 24, 2008
A former Prosper Inc. employee is suing his ex-employer over an extreme ‘team-building exercise’: gang waterboarding.
Last Updated: April 23, 2008: 11:29 AM EDT
(FORTUNE Small Business) — Is the slumping economy depressing your sales team’s spirits? Here’s an idea: Pump them up with a little waterboarding!
In January, Chad Hudgens sued his former employer, Prosper Inc., claiming that what was billed as a team-building exercise ended up using a motivational tool previously reserved for enemy combatants. According to Hudgens’s complaint, it really was a bonding experience: Co-workers held his arms and legs to prevent his escape while a gallon of water was poured into his mouth and nose so he couldn’t breathe.
Other employees at the executive-coaching firm, based in Provo, Utah, remember things differently.
“According to one witness a lot of joking was going on, high-fives, and then they all went to lunch,” says Prosper president Dave Ellis, adding that he was unaware of the outing until Hudgens complained.
As for the actual technique, Ellis believes the employees weren’t channeling Guantánamo but Socrates, who reputedly dunked a prospective student’s head underwater to make a point about wanting to learn as badly as wanting to breathe.
“I don’t know if sales went up or went down” after the training exercise, says Ellis, 56. “I do know the response from the team members regarding the allegations: They felt so strong a backlash to the plaintiff, it solidified some of the morale of the team.”
Posted in Business, Published Work | Tagged: Chad Hudgens, Guantanamo, Prosper Inc., waterboard | Leave a Comment »
Posted by hermanwong on May 24, 2008
EBay’s Best Match search method is intended to favor sellers with strong customer feedback, but some merchants say their sales have sunk since its launch.
Last Updated: April 24, 2008: 5:43 PM EDT
(FORTUNE Small Business) — Improving the buyer experience is the core of eBay’s (EBAY, Fortune 500) growth strategy. The auction site is betting on Best Match, a new default search algorithm, to deliver. But the new system has left many sellers confused and angry.
Numerous eBay sellers have seen precipitous drops in their sales since Best Match became the company’s default search option in March.
EBay’s search algorithm used to be fairly straightforward, returning results based on sort options such as price, recent listings, or auction ending times. The proprietary, secrecy-shrouded new Best Match formula emphasizes seller feedback ratings from past customers, as well as past customer buying patterns. Consequently, some vendors now find their items buried deep in search results and can’t figure out how to surface them.
“Morale is at an all time low for sellers,” says Ina Steiner, 45, editor of AuctionBytes, a trade publication for online merchants. “There are obviously some sellers who are benefiting from these changes. But there’s an overwhelming number of sellers who are feel they are not benefiting and are frustrated.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Business, Published Work | Tagged: auction, best match, EBay, feedback, Joh Donahoe, sellers | Leave a Comment »
Posted by hermanwong on April 17, 2008
It’s no accident that two finalists on “Oprah’s Big Give” are small business owners.
April 16, 2008: 12:34 PM EDT
(FORTUNE Small Business) — Turns out that entrepreneurs aren’t just good at making money. Two of the three contestants in next Sunday’s grand finale of the ABC reality show “Oprah’s Big Give” are small business owners.
The Oprah Winfrey-produced show offers a philanthropic twist on the standard reality format. Contestants compete in a series of challenges to “change the lives” of needy people, typically by raising money to solve their problems.
Stephen Paletta, 43, and Cameron Johnson, 23, both serial entrepreneurs, wielded their sharp business skills on the way to the finale. (The third finalist, 24-year-old Brandi Milloy, is a former beauty queen.)
“If you just heard of the concept of the show you would think, ‘Wow, the most successful contestants are going to be charity workers walking around giving money out,’” said Johnson in a telephone interview. “But then when you actually watch the show it’s almost the same skills that would come into play on ‘The Apprentice.’” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Business, Published Work | Tagged: big give, entrepreneur, FORTUNE Small Business, Oprah | Leave a Comment »
Posted by hermanwong on April 17, 2008
Copeland built big, risked it all – and lost. Then he began building again.
March 28, 2008: 12:33 AM EDT
(FORTUNE Small Business) — Al Copeland, founder of Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken, died Sunday at age 64, succumbing to salivary glands cancer. The Louisiana native built one of the country’s largest fried chicken chains before losing the business – only to start again. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Business, Published Work | Tagged: Al Copeland, obit, Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken | Leave a Comment »
