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I will freely admit that, while I am not the most religious person in the world, I don’t think God would mind if I offered Him another c o m m a n d m e n t : “Thou shall not grandstand and use my name in the process!” I think that advice would well suit some members of Indiana’s congressional delegation, or at least two of them: Reps. Dan Burton and Mike Sodrel. The two, along with State…
Most cities have mayors, police chiefs and tax collectors. But suppose for a moment they each had an additional staff position as well-the recruiter. Like a basketball coach or a talent scout, these recruiters would scour the country, looking for talented people who would fit into the community and add to the economic base. And when they found one, they would make their pitch, touting their town’s assets and strengths, and urging the recruit to relocate. The prospects, on the…
Now, Core Business Technology Solutions has gone down the aisle again, tying the knot last month with White Plains, N.Y.-based Convergence Technologies Inc.-a deal that makes Indianapolis headquarters for a company with 270 employees and $105 million in revenue. But, with apologies to Wynette, nobody at this wedding sang, “Stand by your LAN.” The good ol’ local area network is now just a slice of the increasingly diverse information-technology products and services Core offers small and midsize companies these days….
The launch of The Tournament Club at this year’s men’s basketball Final Four in Indianapolis is the first shot across the bow of brokers, travel agents, hotel room resellers and others who’ve stepped in to meet the demand for hospitality packages the NCAA previously ignored. In December, the NCAA hired rEvolution, a Chicago-based sports marketing and media agency, to launch the association’s own hospitality package, including lower-level tickets, access to an exclusive hospitality area at the game venue, premium hotel…
The downtown hotel operated by Dora Brothers Hospitality Corp. is unlikely to be confused with the towering convention hotels that sit, literally, on the other side of the tracks. While behemoths like the Westin, Marriott and Hyatt boast bustling restaurants, gleaming lobbies, meeting facilities and an attached walkway to the Indiana Convention Center, Dora’s modest Best Western Hotel offers little beyond clean, comfortable rooms, continental breakfast and a short walk to the heart of Indianapolis. Fishers-based Dora Brothers, however, is…
A little more than two months into the new year, deals destined to be among the largest office leases of 2006 are coming together on the far-north side. Two big tenants are headed for speculative office buildings under construction by Duke Realty Corp. and Lauth Property Group Inc. Software maker Aprimo Inc. will nearly triple its office space at Duke’s Parkwood Crossing when it moves into 42,400 square feet at Nine Parkwood at 96th Street and College Avenue. Aprimo, housed…
Central Indiana’s newest limousine company plans to make only 10 percent of its revenue from passenger fees. Indy Racing Limos’ three principals expect to generate 85 percent from sponsors and the other 5 percent from use of their unique racer-like cars in corporate displays and business promotions. The company is the first limo firm in Indiana attempting to generate the bulk of its revenue from corporate sponsors plastering their names and logos on vehicles. Even so, founders Roy K. Ward,…
Communications experts say the medium, which has been around only a couple of years, carries loads of marketing potential. “You’re immediately tying a voice to the company and a face to the company. That’s a powerful thing,” said Kelly Hendricks, president of BLASTmedia, an Indianapolis-based public relations firm. “It’s going to be interesting to see how this evolves.” Evans decided to try Clarian’s hand at podcasting after his research found it costs “almost nothing” to produce a message and upload…
The state launched the fund in 1999 to invest in new technologies and appropriated $137 million during the first five years of the program. The state awarded no money in 2005, partly because none was available the first half of the year. The administration took the second six months to get acquainted with the fund. Kidd left his job as vice president of the Indiana Venture Center in October to join IEDC. The veteran small-business consultant since has helped reshape…
The people of Hendricks County are no more stupid, greedy or ignorant than folks most places. Now they have a chance to prove they are more intelligent, far-sighted and wise than most Hoosiers. Let’s set the scene. Hendricks County lies directly west of Marion County. You can take U.S. 36 straight west from Indianapolis to Avon and Danville. Or you can go out Interstate 70, past the Indianapolis airport, to Plainfield. Alternatively, Interstate 74 will take you to Brownsburg, Pittsboro…
But it’s not because Roots doesn’t know how to write HTML code. Rather, he’s got so much business coming in the doors he doesn’t have any free time for turning wrenches on his own site-www.squishdesigns.com. That’s a good problem to have for an entrepreneur who’s still dotting the “i”s on his LLC application. He credits the influx of business to a new networking group for entrepreneurs that is attracting a sizeable contingent of women and minority business owners. The group-which…
Myles Brand needed a way for his organization to reach out to the public. It had to be direct and immediate and initiate an honest two-way discussion. Brand, NCAA president, chose an offbeat idea-albeit one with a growing following-to solve this age-old business problem. He gave the directive late last year for the NCAA to launch its first blog, an online presence that two years ago few corporate types understood, much less considered a viable means of communication. Now, the…
Why do we have a bicameral legislature, with four-year terms for senators and two-year terms for House members? Because, as George Washington reputedly told Thomas Jefferson, the framers created the Senate to “cool” House legislation, just as a saucer was used to cool hot tea. We’ve just seen evidence of this, and also of another important phenomenon, one that reminds us of just how separate our branches of government truly are. We recently mentioned how the “adults” in the Senate…
Mike Wilson recalls going to meetings of the Indianapolis Landlords Association in the late 1990s and listening to a “good old boys club” talk about property management problems such as how to fix toilets and get rid of cockroaches. “They were managing properties, not buying,” said Wilson, who at the time had just started purchasing single-family homes as investments. With a hunger for knowledge and a hunch that there were others like him, Wilson took a spot on the board…
A bill nearing the governor’s desk would make it illegal to sue Indiana restaurants-including the state’s ubiquitous fast-food joints-for those extra notches in the belt. Commonly referred to as the “cheeseburger bill,” the measure is part of a national effort by restaurants and small-business owners to protect themselves from enormous class-action lawsuits that have been filed against some national chains. House Bill 1113 passed out of the Senate Committee on Corrections, Criminal, and Civil Matters on Feb. 14 by a…
I have always been amazed at the confidence and certainty projected by those who stand before the television cameras at the end of the day and explain to us-in 90 seconds or less-why the stock market behaved as it did. I suppose if we are silly enough to ask for a simple explanation for the 5 million or 6 million trades conducted on any given day, we should expect nothing more in return. Of course, those trades take place for…
Ball State University has created what could be a moneymaking venture to help the nation’s wireless providers find dead spots in their signal footprints even before they put up the first towers. The university’s Office of Wireless Research and Mapping said it has at least $720,000 in tentative contracts from businesses and government agencies. “My hope is, in two or three months, we have a fully operational center that is going to be recognized nationally,” said Bizhan Nasseh, a Ball…
There will be no shortage of worthy successors to Mike Davis as the head basketball coach at I.U. Rick Majerus? I love Rick Majerus. He’s the absolute basketballjunkie with nothing like a wife, family or even a home to distract him from the job. He’s a tremendous motivator and strategist. But he’s also a guy who’s had heart problems and I worry if he could survive the stress-not from coaching, but from being within an hour’s drive of Iaria’s. Thad…
The Indiana Department of Education’s effort to outfit high schools with computers is a costly endeavor for a state strapped for cash. But installing what is known as open-source software is softening the blow. As the name implies, open-source programming is available for users to study, modify and share freely-a sharp contrast to the proprietary software sold by behemoths such as Microsoft Corp. and Oracle. Expensive licensing fees associated with the proprietary software sent the Education Department looking for alternatives….
When starting a business, entrepreneurs must make a multitude of decisions and research countless topics, from the demographics of the target market to the color scheme of the company logo. One of the most fundamental decisions demands careful analysis: choosing the legal form the company will take. Small-business owners have a great deal of flexibility in choosing a structure, but the decision could affect the tax burden imposed by the federal government. Consider three basic structures: proprietorship, partnership and corporation….
