Rising interest rates pinch small-business borrowers
The average prime rate, or the rate banks set as a reference for customer loans, was 4%. The prime rate has more than doubled since then, hitting 8.25% in May.
Small Business
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IBJ Podcast: He stitched handbags in his Irvington basement, and now it’s a $1M business
In conversation with podcast host Mason King, Howl & Hide’s Christian Resiak details the process of building the business from scratch and his grand plan to become a global brand.
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Podcasting is only the beginning for ‘Crime Junkie’ host Ashley Flowers
Flowers is eager to focus on new podcasting, publishing, and television and film opportunities . With four projects in the works for streaming platforms, the company plans to expand into filmed entertainment this year.
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Moon Drops Distillery ready to welcome customers in Fortville
On Dec. 8, the distiller will open a tasting room inside its 9,000-square-foot main building at 738 W. Broadway St.
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Hamilton County’s first cat cafe to open in Fishers
Smitten Kitten Cat Cafe will be Indiana’s sixth cat cafe when it opens later this year at 7852 E. 96th St. in Fishers.
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Articles
2023 Innovation Issue: Startup NanoBio Designs seeks to simplify genetic testing
A local small business is hoping to deploy technology in the coming years that could help seed producers and distributors more quickly determine the genetic makeup of their products.
2023 Innovation Issue: Inari aims to boost crop yields through unique gene-editing technology
From a base in West Lafayette at the Purdue Research Park, the company’s scientists are racing to create environmentally friendly, food-insecurity-fighting crops through special genetic technology.
Fishers firm turns old shipping containers into attainable housing
Cities around the country are beginning to look at container units to address homelessness and increase housing supply.
Small business owners feel growing credit crunch
Small businesses are seeing the already-tough process of getting business loans get even tougher. They say they’re getting rejected for loans or seeing more unfavorable terms, meaning some plans for expansion are being put on hold.
Patience helps build success for bacon, sausage maker
Zionsville native Mark LaFay founded Old Major in 2016, developing a hobbyist’s pursuit into a business that sells meat online, at farmers markets and to restaurants.
Proposal could ax business personal property tax for thousands
The bill would raise the exemption that determines which companies must pay the tax. It would exempt companies that own machinery, equipment and other tangible goods that cost them, in total, less than $250,000. The current threshold is $80,000.
Small businesses to tackle long list of challenges in 2023
A looming recession, still high (although easing) inflation and labor woes are some of issues carrying over from 2022 that small businesses will have to tackle.
Inflation dampens otherwise bright small biz holiday season
Small retailers say this year is still far from “normal” because decades-high inflation is forcing them to raise prices and making shoppers rein in the uninhibited spending seen in 2021 when they were flush with pandemic aid or gains from the stock market.
Local accounting-tech firm Decimal acquires cloud-based bookkeeping business from KPMG
Decimal, a software-as-a-service firm based in Indianapolis, has acquired the cloud-based bookkeeping business formerly owned by Big Four accounting firm KPMG.
Goodman’s, other stores to leave Nora Plaza as Kite plans changes
The changes come after Indianapolis-based Kite acquired most of the 163,500-square-foot shopping center for $29 million in January.
High Alpha portfolio company Structural acquired by Minnesota-based firm
Structural, which offers an employee-engagement software platform, was launched in 2017 by Indianapolis-based venture studio High Alpha.
Treasury moves forward with database on corporate ownership
Tens of millions of small U.S. companies will soon be required to provide the government with details on their owners and others who benefit from them
Company finds niche in co-warehousing for growing small businesses
Indianapolis-based Rise Commercial District is part of a co-warehousing movement that provides small companies with flexible space as they grow, much like office co-working space does.
Tax-credit online marketplace creates connections for more deals
Indiana’s entrepreneurial community has high hopes that the new service will help attract more out-of-state investment in Hoosier startups.
Online sneaker business is a Fishers father-daughter venture
Abby Vitale’s struggle to find sneakers she liked in a woman’s size 7 last year at a shoe resellers’ convention has led to a growing business and has established an online community for female sneakerheads.
Fountain Fletcher is new name for boosting prominent neighborhoods
The brand, unveiled in August, was created by the Greater Virginia Avenue Corridor Economic Improvement District to market businesses in Fountain Square, Fletcher Place, North Square and Holy Rosary.
Belgian tech startup Unbox to set up U.S. HQ in Indianapolis
The software company Unbox says it plans to establish its U.S. headquarters in Indianapolis as well as a software development, research and testing hub in West Lafayette. The company said it hopes to have up to 380 Indiana employees within the next few years.
U.S. sent $1.3B in small-business COVID aid abroad, raising new fraud fears
In total, the Small Business Administration made 41,638 awards to applicants that pursued that aid using computers believed to be located abroad, according to the agency’s inspector general.
As small businesses raise prices, some customers push back
Inflation isn’t only costing small businesses money. It’s costing them customers as well.