SmallBusinessExecutiveInforming, Inspiring and Connecting Businesses
Financial constraints spurred buy-out of local tech company
Facing a software overhaul that would cost him nearly $1 million, Chicago-based Geckotech founder Josh Robbins looked to a longtime competitor and strategic partner for help. Robbins sold the business he started seven years ago to M5 Networks, a larger player in New York last year, seeing the buyout as an opportunity to leverage his [...]
News Digest: China visit, conventions, health care and more
Staying on top of the news can be a time-consuming task. SmallBusinessChicago has scoured various news outlets to bring you current summaries of business stories with local relevance: Chinese state visit includes Chicago trade forum. Chinese President Hu Jintao touched down in Washington, D.C. Tuesday afternoon on an official state visit that includes a stop in Chicago later this [...]
News Digest: Illinois’ health plan, Groupon’s apology, more export loans
Illinois expands health plan for pre-existing conditions. While the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to vote on a repeal of Health Care Reform as early as Wednesday, Illinois announced an expansion of insurance options for people with pre-existing medical conditions, the Chicago Tribune reported Monday. The Illinois Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, called IPXP, which launched in August and [...]
News digest: Guitars, audits and family biz
Staying on top of the news can be a time-consuming task. SmallBusinessChicago has scoured various news outlets to bring you current summaries of business stories with local relevance: Things you can’t trade on Wall Street. Chicago entrepreneur David Kalt, 43, wants to expand the vintage guitar market by setting up an exchange allowing the instruments to be bought and [...]
Sponsored Content: Small Biz Expo
What does it take for a successful startup? Serial entrepreneur Mike Rhodes shares six strategies
Speaking before the Business Network Chicago’s Entrepreneur Group Tuesday evening, SYNC Technology Center founder Mike Rhodes shared six strategies for success: passion, professionalism, willingness to connect, acceptance of change, persistence and having business goals that help others. Perhaps most importantly, businesses need to be flexible enough to change. “There’s nothing wrong with regrouping and revamping [...]
Restaurateurs plan for higher prices, more marketing in 2011
By Hallie Busta – Fresh off his restaurant’s first year in business, Daniel Sarkiss, owner of Zaytune Mediterranean Grill in Bridgeport, is already planning to hike menu prices this year due to higher commodity costs. Raising menu prices generally is a last resort, yet 60 percent of 130 restaurant owners surveyed last month by Nation’s [...]
Small businesses brace for higher income tax rates
The 67 percent income tax hike that Illinois lawmakers approved last night to address the state’s financial crisis will cause small businesses pain but probably won’t spur them to leave the state or do business differently, observers said. By increasing the personal income tax rate to 5 percent from 3 percent and the corporate income tax [...]
Entrepreneur enters the beverage market with a “sick” new tea
By Hallie Busta – Tim Megenbier intended for his new Sick Tea beverage to be a warm-and-serve version of the homemade remedy he grew up with: a combination of black tea, honey and lemon made to ease colds and the flu. It wasn’t until his teenage children pointed out that the ill-looking man on the [...]
“Buy American” provision aims to level the playing field
A military authorization law that President Obama signed on Friday included a “Buy American” provision aimed at boosting manufacturing in the United States instead of sending orders to China. The provision, which bars the Defense Department from buying solar panels made in China, could help the United States gain market share from the Chinese, which [...]
