Offline Niches
Gyms For Kids
Linda Hom takes her kids to the gym when she works out -- and they get a workout of their own.
Ms. Hom, a free-lance fashion designer from South Orange, N.J., signed up Matthew, 7 years old, and Sydnie, 9, for Tae Kwon Do classes at Motion Fitness Club, the health club where she has been a member since 2004.
The kids take a 45-minute class three times a week. And, says Sydnie, "the adults don't really bother us because we're doing our own thing and they're doing theirs."
Cheese To The Rescue
WESTPORT, Mass. (FORTUNE Small Business) -- As owner of the real estate appraisal company Golf & Land Economics, Barbara Hanley is usually immersed in deals that will turn open space and woods into putting greens and fairways. But today she is in Westport, Mass., a town 30 miles east of Providence, scrutinizing the roof on a decaying barn that sits in a quiet pasture.
This is cow country, and if Hanley has her way, it will continue to be for generations to come.
A Bad Trade
A BAD TRADE
by Bill Bonner
The present period in financial history favors ducks and undertakers. On the banks of the Thames and the Hudson, every day they fish a couple more cadavers out of the water. And then the medical examiner opens them up so we get to see what caused them to go under. What a sight! It is amazing that any sane investor ever had anything to do with them in the first place.
Starting a business wasn't in the cards for Jason Osborn -- until he lost his job at an ad agency.
Even though he grew up baking brownies with his mother, French toast with his father and pizza with his grandfather, the last thing Jason Osborn expected to do was launch a food company. After September 11, when Mr. Osborn lost his job at an advertising agency, he found work as a model. It was during that time that he started baking healthy granola snacks for himself at night. He and his roommate started handing out samples. Soon, he had a partner, a business plan and a growing -- and increasingly competitive -- natural food company. Amy Palanjian spoke with Mr.
Why Cracks Are Good For Business
The Crack Team is a home-service franchise, specializing in concrete crack repairs. Started in 1985 by Mike ‘The Ray Kroc of Crack’ Koder, The Crack Team was developed to address repetitive concerns of homeowners who were faced with the inevitable leaking cracks often found in basements. Koder, a homebuilder for over 30 years, began working with technology that was both a permanent and cost-effective solution to these leaky concerns.
Small Businesses Offer Alternatives to Gang Life
In Los Angeles, a corporation that runs several small businesses is demonstrating that the training and discipline of working in a small company can make a big contribution to changing the lives of former gang members.
A Bank With No Tellers Or ATMs
http://www.servisfirstbank.com/
BIRMINGHAM, ALA. (FORTUNE Small Business) -- As an entrepreneur, Tom Broughton finds most banks pretty annoying.
BoxMyDorm - How Three Students Started A Successful Business While In School
Who: Joe Leary, 21; Peter Handy, 21; and Dan Abrahamsen, 22
What: Moving and storage company aimed at fellow college students
Year Started: 2005
Startup Costs: $30,000 self-funded
As the mortgage-lending crisis spreads, business is booming firms specializing in "property preservation."
Three weeks ago, 50-year-old Mimi Norris strapped on black steel-toe boots, packed a face mask and a digital camera in her bag, and headed to work. Her assignment: inspecting a foreclosed home in a blue-collar neighborhood of Akron, Ohio.
Sandra Boynton - The Woman Who Sold Half A Billion Cards
SANDRA BOYNTON’S studio, in a converted barn next to her Connecticut home, bears the milestones of her singular career: a long rack of greeting cards featuring quirkily drawn animals; a room full of small, sturdy children’s books, with names like “Snuggle Puppy!” and “Barnyard Dance!”; and, upstairs, where she does much of her work, old-time radios and jukeboxes representing her more recent foray into music CDs for children.
