| Country Roads seminar
Networking is important for all business owners. Networking basically is people coming together to share ideas and information. For businesses, networking is a fast and easy way to achieve certain goals. Networking is typically considered a sales technique but it is valuable for more than just sales people. As The Business Link explains, networking provides an opportunity to share experiences and success and to learn from others. When you�re meeting with other small business owners you realize you�re not alone in dealing with certain challenges or issues. Business to business developing local expertise. Country Roads -- bringing people and places together -- is a networking group targeted at farm direct marketers and ag tourism operators in central Alberta. Members also include ag producers who are looking for ways to diversify into alternative agriculture.
Bloomberg to the Rescue
When the 17th annual Gotham Awards arrive on Tuesday, Mayor Bloomberg will be the toast of the evening, recognized by New York's Independent Feature Project (IFP), perhaps the city's most prominent organization for independent filmmakers, for his work in support of the local film industry. But in doing so, IFP will be writing a most unlikely closing chapter to one of the most tumultuous, paradoxical years ever experienced by its membership. Never has a single year found the city's independent film community so threatened, yet so validated, and the mere fact that the mayor is being honored next week rather than picketed is a testament to the collaboration that has united the city and its filmmakers. The threat harkens back to the spring, when a lawsuit brought about an unexpected need to clarify and solidify the city's rules governing film permits and shooting on public property.
A business success, naturally
Tori Stuart was destined to run her own business. At the age of 5, she often played secretary and one day told her father: "You're fired." By 12 she was selling hand-painted barrettes in boutiques near her childhood home in Westchester County in New York. And while attending Brown University, Stuart and a friend started a plant-watering business for students who went home for winter break - and then hired someone to do the job while they too left town. "We figured out how much it would cost to replace a plant that would have died and charged a little bit less than that," said Stuart. Today Stuart runs Needham-based Zoe Foods, makers of granola cereal and bars filled with ground flaxseed, soy, omega-3, fiber, and protein. The privately held company produces three types of cereal and four types of bars and does about $3 million a year in retail sales.
UK Parliament Committee Scolds Chancellor Over Tax Plans
LONDON -(Dow Jones)- The U.K. government should have consulted more widely before announcing plans to change the capital gains tax and must now set out proposals to mitigate its effects on small businesses, a U.K. parliamentary committee report said Monday. "The changes to CGT will have an immediate impact on many individuals and businesses that have sought to plan ahead," said John McFall, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, an influential group of U.K. members of parliament. "There is a window for meaningful consultation between now and the 2008 budget, and the Treasury needs to clearly establish terms for the consultation," he said. The criticism will add to mounting pressure on Chancellor Alistair Darling to shelve his controversial capital gains tax plans.
In Calif., starting over after losing everything
RAMONA, Calif. - Nicole Booth's hands were stained with ash from picking through the blackened and twisted pieces left of her life after an inferno engulfed everything she owned. She tried not to cry in front of her four children. But in the few moments she can steal away, the tears spill down her cheeks. Like so many others, Booth took the first steps toward rebuilding her life yesterday, a week after a firestorm destroyed her San Diego County home and business. "I feel ashamed," Booth said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "I've never had to ask for help. I don't know what to say to people." The wildfires, which destroyed more than 2,000 homes, continued to burn yesterday. With more than a dozen blazes fully surrounded, firefighters were trying to gain control of six others that were at least half contained.
Small firms account for an increasing share of U.S. exports
Smaller companies are grabbing a bigger share of U.S. exports, making up for some of the jobs lost as multinational firms move operations overseas. American businesses without international subsidiaries accounted for 46 percent of sales abroad in 2005, up from 38 percent in 1999, according to a Commerce Department analysis published last week. The trend is likely to continue, helping cushion the economy from the worst housing recession in 16 years, economists said. "We are at a six-month backlog now, and we have been for over a year," said Leon Trammel, chairman of Tramco Inc., a maker of conveyor belts in Wichita, Kan. "Our business is just great." After exporting his first belt to the Netherlands on an impulse 35 years ago, foreign sales will be almost half of his firm's projected $40 million in sales this year, Trammel said.
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