Small business banks on IT backup
BlueLock provides IT infrastructureâ??or serversâ??to companies for loading software applications, and the startup is growing at a fast rate.
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Marc D.
Articles
Family business repairs what others toss
Much of downtown has been erased and rebuilt over the last 38 years, but quietly and with almost no notice, Cento’s Shoes has remained one of the few constants.
Faerber endures despite changes in its industry
Founded in 1983, Faerber’s Bee Window’s main product — windows — has changed dramatically, as has almost every aspect
of
its business, from manufacturing to marketing.
Tonic Ball raises money for Second Helpings
Tonic Ball — an annual fundraiser for Second Helpings — takes place the Friday before Thanksgiving, featuring 30
local bands
each playing 10-minute themed sets and local artists selling their work.
VIEWPOINT: Sounding out new stadium was painful
During the Kenny C h e s n ey / Ke i t h Urban concert on Sept. 13, Lucas Oil Stadium passed its first test as a concert venue. Not acoustically-the sound ranged from barely acceptable to awful, depending on where you sat-but customer service-wise. Anticipating some problems, stadium management had set aside a number of seats for people who complained. When I went to the first-floor ticket window, they replaced my seats in Section 635-upper level, rear of…
Smaller Indiana gives cultural events a boost: Web site’s bloggers share IndyFringe experiences
With a mere $11,000 to spend on marketing, IndyFringe Executive Director Pauline Moffat is always on the lookout for low- or no-cost promotional opportunities. So when Pat Coyle, founder of online community smallerindiana.com, approached her about a novel arrangement to spread the word, Moffat jumped at it. The deal was this: The Fringe would give two tickets to each of its festival shows to Smaller Indiana, which would hand them over to members who would write blogs about the performances…
Smaller Indiana gives cultural events a boost
Smaller Indiana gives cultural events a boost Web site’s bloggers share IndyFringe experiences With a mere $11,000 to spend on marketing, IndyFringe Executive Director Pauline Moffat is always on the lookout for low- or no-cost promotional opportunities. So when Pat Coyle, founder of online community smallerindiana.com, approached her about a novel arrangement to spread the word, Moffat jumped at it. The deal was this: The Fringe would give two tickets to each of its festival shows to Smaller Indiana, which…
EVERYBODY’S DOING IT: SECONDHAND PROSE: Volume discounts offered at library sale
EVERYBODY’S DOING IT SECONDHAND PROSE Volume discounts offered at library sale Inside Secondhand Prose, a CD of old-timey bluegrass music plays softly as a half-dozen volunteers quietly go about their business. They’re emptying bags and boxes, sorting through thousands and thousands of books and stocking shelves in preparation for the Indianapolis-Mar ion County Public Library’s next book sale, March 7-9 and 14-15. Six times a year, the library opens up its shop inside the Library Services Center, 2450 N. Meridian…
Indesign LLC: Engineers designed firm after losing corporate jobs Ownership stake gave workers even more motivation to succeed
Eleven years ago, AT&T/Lucent Bell Laboratories announced it was closing its wired consumer product design division in Indianapolis and consolidating operations in New Jersey. That left about 90 employees here with a choice: Move or find another job. Most went or joined other companies. But 34 decided to stick together and start their own business here-Indesign LLC. Today, the high-tech electronic design and development company near Fort Benjamin Harrison is a $6 million-a-year business with 53 employees and clients that…
Niche firms thrive despite anonymity: Some small businesses don’t need storefronts to keep customers coming
Whimsical Whisk isn’t your neighborhood bakery. Pastry chef Clare Welage never wanted it to be. She started the patisserie in 2004 with plans to differentiate herself from the competition by making desserts from scratch using all-natural ingredients, designing items specifically for the customer and-just as important-going without a storefront. “I’ve always felt that if you open up a storefront and you have a specialty product, something somewhere gets compromised,” Welage said. “Ultimately, it’s the quality of the product or it’s…
PROFILE: Roundpeg: Narrowing its focus helped Roundpeg find the right hole Networking also makes a difference for marketing firm
Roundpeg Narrowing its focus helped Roundpeg find the right hole Networking also makes a difference for marketing firm Lorraine Ball is a human energy bar who seems to have more ideas than there are minutes in a day. She left her job as vice president of creative services for Conseco Inc. in early 2002 to start her own business focusing on team building and strategic planning for large companies-only to discover that in the post-9/11 world, big companies weren’t investing…
Leader Corporation of Indiana: Chasing the American dream Couple dives into deep end from the start
Couple dives into deep end from the start Tom Foreman had worked for other contractors, but in 1993 he decided the time was right for him and his wife, Donna, to start their own business. So they founded Leader Corporation of Indiana, which provides control systems (think temperature controls, security and automation systems) for commercial and institutional customers such as Lucas Oil Stadium, the Conrad Indianapolis hotel and the Pendleton Correctional Facility. He was 53 at the time. Donna was…
McBroom Industrial Services: Relationships critical to business survival Repair service keeps evolving to meet customer need
When Hilton McBroom founded McBroom Electric in his parents’ garage in the midst of the Depression, he couldn’t have envisioned that the company would exist 75 years later-or what it would be doing. Back then, McBroom repaired anything someone would pay him to fix. Over the years, the company evolved from repairing washers, dryers and furnace motors (and selling Maytag products) to fixing electric motors in manufacturing machinery to its current concentration-repairing and remanufacturing specialty devices used by industrial customers…
Wright Development LLC: Providing the missing piece Development company aims to recreate neighborhoods
Driving around the Holy Cross area just east of Lockerbie, the CEO of Wright Development LLC points out several properties her company has bought and refurbished-starting with 1209 and 1210 E. Vermont St.-as well as the many rehabs in the works. “Our goal is to re-create neighborhoods and make them viable, thriving, desirable places to live,” she said. “That’s usually left to the city, the not-for-profits and the [community development corporations]. We feel like there’s been a component missing.” The…
Management’s traffic cop: Administrative assistants play numerous roles, gain more respect
As a girl, Lori Drzal dreamed of becoming a spy, a policewoman-something where she’d be helping others. Her father had different ideas. “Become a secretary,” he told her. “You’ll always have a job.” “Today,” she said, “I think, ‘Why did he tell me that?’ But … I’ve always had a job. I’ve always grown in my jobs, and I’ve always been challenged.” Drzal, 48, executive assistant to Steak n Shake President and CEO Peter Dunn for the past four years,…
WORTH SEEING COWBOYS & INDIANS Eiteljorg showcases famous artists’ not-so-famous work:
WORTH SEEING COWBOYS & INDIANS Eiteljorg showcases famous artists’ not-so-famous work Cowboys and Indians aren’t what come to mind when the world thinks of Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, two great American pop artists better known for comicbook imagery and Campbell’s Soup cans. And that’s what makes “Roy Lichtenstein: American Indian Encounters” and “Andy Warhol’s Cowboys & Indians” so fascinating and surprising. The artists’ exhibits, presented under the common title “Pop! Goes the West,” run through April 15 at the…
PROFILE: Home Safe Homes Inc.: Locking up the local market New dad built a business around keeping kids safe
Home Safe Homes Inc. Locking up the local market New dad built a business around keeping kids safe Kent McCool went looking for childproofing products just before his daughter was born in 2001. He didn’t like what he found. After making several trips to various stores, buying products that didn’t work properly or he didn’t end up needing, he saw a business opportunity. “I saw that there were lots of other childproofing companies across the country, but there was nobody…
EVERYBODY’S DOING IT: BICYCLING: When spring is sprung, it’s time to let it ride
EVERYBODY’S DOING IT BICYCLING When spring is sprung, it’s time to let it ride After months stuck indoors, at least 100 bicyclists-and maybe more-will hit the road March 18 for the Central Indiana B i cy c l i n g Association’s St. Patrick’s Day Ride, the organization’s spring season kickoff. “It gets the cobwebs off; it’s usually the first nice day of the season and everybody’s excited to get on their bikes again,” new CIBA President Nancy Tibbett said…
Making the connection: Lobbyists represent diverse client base in navigating complicated legislative maze
Indiana’s wineries faced potential ruin in early 2006. The U.S. Supreme Court had handed down a decision requiring states to treat in-state and out-ofstate wineries the same. That meant if Indiana wineries were allowed to continue to ship directly to Indiana consumers, out-of-state wineries would be entitled to the same access. Or the state could ban all direct shipments of wine to Hoosier consumers. That’s exactly what wholesalers wanted. But that would have spelled disaster for Hoosier wineries. The wineries…
SMALL BUSINESS PROFILE WTH: Firm mapping out its own success Owner shifts focus from old-school engineering to GIS
SMALL BUSINESS PROFILE WTH Firm mapping out its own success Owner shifts focus from old-school engineering to GIS Rex Jones wants to show off his company’s work, so the lights go down, a computer comes on and a map of Starke County appears on a screen. The map is a maze of green lines representing county and local roads, red for state/interstate highways, blue for water. Jones zooms in further, picking a random street in the rural county. Up pops…