Small businesses get help

$2 million to be available this quarter

JANUARY 21, 2010 10:28 a.m. (0)

Entering the third year of being battered by the recession, The South Financial Group took steps to build a neglected business segment.

The company has created a 19-person department to become a bigger player in Small Business Administration loan programs in the Carolinas and Florida.  Continue reading...

 

Going with the grain

Residents say naming the western end of Spartanburg's downtown the "grain district" will spur further development

JANUARY 23, 2010 10:36 a.m. (0)

Tony Forest didn’t have to worry much about where his customers were going to park when he opened Carriage House Wines on West Main Street a little more than four years ago.

Except for Sonny’s Brick Oven Pizza, there weren’t any other businesses.  Continue reading...

 

Business licenses rebound on '09

City records more than 500 new permits for the first time since '06

FEBRUARY 4, 2010 10:01 a.m. (0)

More than 500 entrepreneurs – 503 to be exact – rolled the dice in 2009 and went into business for themselves inside city limits.

That was the highest new business total in the city since 2006.  Continue reading...

 

Profit, no loss

Upstate duo team up to make businesses grow

FEBRUARY 18, 2010 11:22 a.m. (0)

With the economy in bad shape, Ed Young and Terry Dailey last year independently signed up for a course at Greenville Technical College for certification as Six Sigma Black Belts.

Not the high karate rank, mind you, the management processing one that borrows the hierarchical ranking.  Continue reading...

 

More good news than bad

Carolina First Center sees events decline, attendance rise

APRIL 2, 2010 8:21 a.m. (0)

Fewer events are being held at the Carolina First Center, but attendance is rising.

And the convention center which has been named a Facilities and Destinations Magazine 2010 Prime Site Award winner is on track to lose less money this year than it did last year.  Continue reading...

 

Helping businesses make cents of green practices

Furman course targets business leaders, sustainability

MAY 10, 2010 11:48 a.m. (0)

Furman University is offering a unique post graduate course to get beyond the polarizing rhetoric of a green economy and get to the bottom line for business: it makes money.

Starting this fall, the five-session course, involving 70 contract hours, is tailored for business executives and will lead to a post graduate diploma in corporate sustainability and seven hours of continuing education credits.

The first session starts Sept. 16; it ends Dec. 10.  The cost per person is $3,950. Enrollment is limited to 20, and admission is contingent on a review of interest in corporate sustainability.  Continue reading...

 

Brick and mortarboards

MAY 21, 2010 12:35 p.m. (0)

The best minds in business don’t need to be hidden in an ivory tower miles from Spartanburg’s commercial district, University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides said.

They need to be brought to Main Street – or at least in this case, St. John Street.  Continue reading...

 

The fine print

By Dick Hughes

AUGUST 30, 2010 9:01 a.m. (0)

ScanSource Sets Revenue Record

ScanSource, the Greenville-based international distributor and reseller of technology products, had a good year with higher sales and income, but it could have been even better if it were not for product shortages, the company reported.  Continue reading...

 

Space Case

Some say vacancies downtown are just another sign of the times. Now a group of business leaders has a plan to turn the trend around.

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010 10:01 a.m. (0)

The signs in the windows of Greenville’s downtown office buildings say it all.

“For Lease.”  Continue reading...

 

The best place to work?

SEPTEMBER 10, 2010 12:30 p.m. (0)

Senior executives of Elliott Davis spent a long night recently at Clemson University to share with faculty the company’s priorities for new employees and to hear what was happening in Clemson’s programs.

Although the fatigued Elliott Davis officers were at their desks bright and early the next day, it was time well spent and an example of management’s commitment to recruiting young talent to the Greenville accounting and consultancy firm, said Bob Wilson, chief human relations officer.

Wilson was asked to cite key practices and policies that have identified Elliott Davis as one of the “best places to work in South Carolina” in a quantitative analysis of company practices and policies combined with surveys of employee attitudes about the workplace.  Continue reading...

 

To be announced

 

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010 12:18 p.m. (0)

The SimHub immersive technology center at the University Center of Greenville opened this week. It’s a place of virtual worlds and augmented reality - emerging technologies to help students learn….

Anyone with a desire to be a fashion model should take note, Fashion Greenville is holding casting calls next Thursday and Friday at 241 N. Main St., Greenville…

Span Packaging Services’ new 30,000-square-foot warehouse created three jobs…  Continue reading...

 

Growing Green

Eco-Mow forges ahead in tough market

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010 9:18 p.m. (0)

It’s not easy being green, and, as Chad Lane knows painfully well, it’s even harder if the green you need are dollars to bring an environmentally friendly riding mower to a market wedded to fossil fuels.

It’s been a tough 18 months for Lane’s Eco-Mow, the fledging Spartanburg company he and his wife Janice formed to build battery operated-riding mowers designed, engineered and built by Lane.  Continue reading...

 

Start-up delayed

Electric car company pushes launch to December

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010 2:20 p.m. (0)

The delay in startup of electric cars in Duncan will not affect the company’s state and local incentives package, but it will push back hiring at the facility, a company spokesman said this week.

If there are no more delays, the plant could be up and running in three to six months.

Curt Westlake, spokesman for CT&T in the company’s Atlanta office, said the delay was caused by the need to complete the distribution network.  Continue reading...

 

AFL buys Verrillon, Inc.

Specialty fibers company acquired for undisclosed price

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010 11:09 a.m. (0)

Spartanburg-based AFL has purchased Verrillon, Inc. of Massachusetts for an undisclosed price, AFL officials announced last week.

“It won’t mean any new jobs locally,” said Corie Culp, public relations manager for AFL. “But the folks up in Massachusetts will keep their jobs.”  Continue reading...

 

Sold

TSFG now owned by Canada’s Toronto Dominion Bank

OCTOBER 6, 2010 11:14 a.m. (0)

With shareholder approval of the sale to TD Bank, Greenville’s homegrown but troubled Carolina First Bank sees new life as regional headquarters for TD in a merger that even revives possible use of Carolina First’s mostly unused $90-million campus off Interstate 85.

At a sparsely attended and brief shareholder meeting at Poinsett Plaza headquarters, The South Financial Group, the parent company, announced shareholder approval of the sale with 66 percent of the vote, all by proxy in advance.  Continue reading...

 

Clothed for business

South Carolina company weaves conservation into new clothing line

OCTOBER 14, 2010 11:12 a.m. (0)

Zachery Painter and Sara Raynor grew up as distant in geography and lifestyle as the Upstate and the Lowcountry, but share the dedication to preserving the respective identifies of the soft textile industry in the Upstate and the Loggerhead Sea Turtle in the Lowcountry.

In their 20s and engaged to be married, they are taking their principles into business, establishing the Loggerhead Apparel Co. to make quality clothing in South Carolina and help textiles and the loggerhead from “going extinct here.”

Their inaugural product is a South Carolina-made pima cotton polo shirt with a loggerhead logo.  Their first run of 2,500 “is just to give us some experience before Christmas and then we can look at some additional colors and follow up with a run to get ready for spring.”  Continue reading...

 

The taxing situation

South Carolina considers an overhaul

NOVEMBER 2, 2010 12:00 a.m. (0)

South Carolina’s business community hopes an opening created by a sales and income tax reform study will reopen what it sees as a job-killing shift of the burden of property taxes onto businesses.

When the legislature convenes in January with sentiment growing for overhaul of tax policy, along with required consideration of the study on sales and income taxes, business lobbyists again will push to repeal the law that raised sales taxes to give property tax breaks to homeowners.

Critics argue that 2006 law effectively placed the lion’s share of paying for K-12 education on business and industry, created a shortage in funding for schools, contributed to the state debt and produced a patchwork of sales tax exemptions, the biggest one being the tax on groceries.  Continue reading...

 

The greater good x retail =

A different way of doing business

NOVEMBER 5, 2010 11:41 a.m. (0)

With successful careers in hand, June Wilcox, John Hampson and Tim Mesaric sat around wondering what to do next.  There were two conditions: it had to do good, and it had to make money. In that order.

Out of the soul-searching came TimesTwo, a retail business that turns orthodox retailing on its head. Charity is the first goal and making enough money for costs and a profit follows, though with intent the purposes work in harmony.

The concept is simple. For every product TimesTwo sells, the company will give away an identical or similar item to a local charity.  Continue reading...

 

The George

It's already paying off

NOVEMBER 19, 2010 12:45 p.m. (0)

George Dean Johnson Jr. College of Business and Economics at USC Upstate is winding up its first fall semester and the impact of the school on the City of Spartanburg is already evident.

“I can’t provide numbers this early on,” says Patty Bock, the economic development director of the City of Spartanburg, “but the USC Upstate Business School has definitely made a positive economic impact on the city, and it goes beyond our downtown.”

She says between faculty, staff and students, the school known as “The George” brings in nearly 1,000 people into downtown every day.  Continue reading...

 

This working man can

ETV’s Michael Switzer has had plenty of careers, but it’s radio that keeps him in tune

DECEMBER 3, 2010 2:54 p.m. (0)

Michael Switzer is stockbroker, financial adviser, ice cream vender, entrepreneur, inventor, manufacturer, writer, marketer, retirement counselor.

At 53, he’s done all of those things, sometimes at different times, sometimes all at once.

What runs through it all is the career he never made any money at but is in his blood – radio.  Continue reading...

 

Legacy on Main Street

Sedran Furs celebrates more than five decades

DECEMBER 9, 2010 12:22 p.m. (1)

Stan and May Sedran set up shop selling furs on North Main in Greenville going on 58 years ago.   They still are there, and they are not going anywhere, not just yet anyway.

Along with the Ayers family’s leather store, Sedran Furs is the last surviving retail store of what once was the city’s lively shopping district anchored by the 200 block. Not a bad record of longevity for a couple of New Yorkers who were the first of their families to leave Manhattan for an unknown place and uncertain prospects.

“Fortunately for us, we came at the right time because the city grew and we grew with it,” says Stan. “We’ve always run a very honest business, and everybody knows that.  We are now selling to the fourth generation.”  Continue reading...

 

Top 10 scams

Better Business Bureau releases list of what to watch out for

JANUARY 6, 2011 12:30 p.m. (0)

Scam artists are making the most of tough economic times, targeting victims struggling to make ends meet in a down economy, the Better Business Bureau reports.

In a listing of the top 10 scams and rip-offs of 2010, the bureau reported that job seekers and cash strapped families have become popular targets.

“With the economy still on the mend, scammers had a field day targeting struggling families who were looking for work and trying to make ends meet,” said Kathy Barrett, president Better Business Bureau. “While some of the most popular scams are perennial problems that have always plagued consumers, some new additions to the list are signs of our tough economic times.”  Continue reading...

 

Faith and the workplace

Upstate chaplains offer help to companies here

FEBRUARY 22, 2011 3:46 p.m. (0)

When Thomas Ray was going through a tough time in his personal life, he turned for support to Lee Moseley, a pastor who worked with his company as a chaplain.

“I had been through a terrible divorce, and it put a lot of stress and pressure on me that, through that, strengthened my relationship with God significantly,” Ray said about the time he asked Moseley for support.  Continue reading...

 

There's a fix for that

New company caters to repairs, big and small

MARCH 9, 2011 3:02 p.m. (0)

Need a contractor to add a bedroom, a craftsman for bookcases, a plumber for a stopped drain, an electrician to rewire the house, a carpenter to build a deck, a mason to lay a patio or just a handyman to whittle away at that honey-do list?

A new company, Crescent Home Referrals, aims to help homeowners, Realtors and property managers find well-vetted, licensed and insured contractors, tradesman and handymen at no cost to the user.

The owners believe it is the first service of its kind in the Upstate and unique from similar companies around the country in that the service is free to users.  Continue reading...

 

Great expectations

As Southwest begins its air operations here, what's in store for the economy, businesses and travelers?

MARCH 10, 2011 1:12 p.m. (0)

Not much is expected of Southwest Airlines.  Not much, just this:

It will force lower fares of all airlines. No longer will GSP be one of the nation’s most expensive airports to use. Charlotte and Atlanta beware.

It will improve service of all airlines.  Those little commuter planes.  The inexplicable cancellation of flights.  Fees on baggage.  Nothing to snack on.  All that, history.  Continue reading...

 

Downtown, meet baseball

New event aims to bring Main Street to the diamond

MARCH 29, 2011 10:47 a.m. (0)

Boosters of downtown and baseball in Greenville want to emulate, minus a 26-mile-foot race, a Boston event that has brought together the Boston Marathon, the Red Sox and Fenway Park in a celebration of the city since 1903.

That’s the nub of the idea for Drive Business Downtown, a promotion uniting downtown, Fluor Field and the Greenville Drive, a Red Sox affiliate, for baseball and business centered around a specially scheduled day game on Tuesday, May 3.

Wanting to give thanks for the “high level of excitement and enthusiasm about downtown business,” Rick Davis, managing shareholder of Elliott Davis, and Craig D. Brown, co-owner and president of the Drive, came together to plan the event.  Continue reading...

 

Aid apparent

Perceptis picks Upstate

APRIL 24, 2011 11:48 a.m. (0)

It was a lovely fall Saturday in downtown Greenville Oct. 22.  Shoppers moseyed through the farmers market.  Models strode the runway for Fashion Greenville.

It was a good day to bring a new company to the city.  And, voila, less than six months later, Perceptis’ call center for higher education is here.

It’s up and running as its own corporate headquarters and to “take the friction out of getting services on college campuses”  – fixing a coed’s online password, walking a parent through financial aid and, well, doing whatever one needs, even directions to the football stadium.  Continue reading...

 

The other Michelin man

He’s the great grandson of the company’s founder, and he calls the Upstate home

MAY 9, 2011 10:36 a.m. (0)

Damien Michelin learned a poignant lesson growing up as a child of privilege in France. It guides him today.

“When I was 9 years old, I was on vacation with my parents, and at the house where we were staying sometimes we would have homeless people come and ask for food,” he said.

“One day around lunchtime, there was knocking at the door, and one came asking for food.  I made fun of him.  My mom told me to go to the kitchen, fix him a sandwich and give him the sandwich.”  Continue reading...

 

Milliken, crafting a future

Company elevates commitment to product innovation

MAY 12, 2011 10:18 a.m. (0)

For 150 years, the face of Milliken, the company, was Milliken, the family.  Over the last six decades, it was Roger Milliken.

He transformed the company from a cloth, cut and sew maker to a diversified powerhouse with 2,200 patents, 19,000 products, 7,000 employees and 39 manufacturing plants around the world.

He then put in motion leadership changes to thrive in a global marketplace without him.  Continue reading...

 

A most seasonal business

Fireworks retailers head into the biggest weekend of the year

JUNE 30, 2011 11:34 a.m. (0)

Are these legal?

A father strolling with his two young children through Joey McCrary’s cavernous warehouse of fireworks on Wade Hampton Boulevard wanted to know.

“Under state law in South Carolina, it is legal,” McCrary replied, adding a caveat.  “You can’t do it after midnight.  They won’t get you for shooting off fireworks, but they can get you on a noise ordinance.”  Continue reading...

 

Who's No. 1?

Turns out some lists don’t matter at all

JULY 30, 2011 10:30 a.m. (0)

In Forbes Magazine’s latest rankings of the 200 best places to do business and have careers, Charleston ranks 40th in the nation, Greenville 60th, Columbia 73rd and Spartanburg 145th.

How can one explain such a wide disparity from city to city in the same state?

A Journal analysis of the metrics used by Forbes indicates the differences are not as great as the rankings suggest, and omissions and distortions in the components used to calculate positioning make such “best” listings misleading at best, meaningless at worst.  Continue reading...

 

Daughter joins father in S.C. Business Hall of Fame

Minor Mickel Shaw takes different path to Junior Achievement honor

APRIL 12, 2012 1:27 p.m. (0)

When Minor Mickel Shaw was chosen this year for the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame, she became part of the first father and daughter team to receive the honor.

But the paths they took to get there have been very different.  Continue reading...