U.S. Dept. of Commerce joins Michigan system to help entrepreneurs

StageTwoStrategies: Innovative Learning Group Inc.

Small and second-stage businesses get chance to connect with buyers in government, nuclear power

• Business Accelerator Network kicks off business plan competition with $500,000 top prize
  A business plan competition with $1 million-plus in prize money kicks off today and is aimed at growing Michigan business and putting the state, especially Southeast Michigan, on the map for venture capitalists and other investors.


• StageTwoStrategies: Red Level Networks LLC
  Last year, Red Level Networks didn't offer cloud hosting — offsite hosting services — to its clients. However, clients began to demand the option.


• Groundbreaking set for Emagine Entertainment Inc.'s Royal Oak project
  After first pitching the idea of a Royal Oak movie theater and boutique bowling alley in January 2009, Paul Glantz will finally start construction on the $19 million project.


• Small Business Association of Michigan endorses Rick Snyder
  Rick Snyder has won the endorsement of the Small Business Association of Michigan in the 2010 gubernatorial general election, the Lansing-based organization said today.


• Adding layers: Growing companies face challenge of expanding management
  Fisher/Unitech President and CEO Charlie Hess was a hands-on guy. For a long time, Hess and co-founder Greg Fisher were the company's senior management. And with a relatively small staff, the system worked.


• REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: A partner may not be best fit
  When you're making a high-level hire, is it necessary to offer an ownership stake in the company to attract top talent, or will a typical compensation package be sufficient?


• RTI's recovery plan: Help startups grow
  At RTI Laboratories Inc. in Livonia, scientists and chemists toil over chemical compounds and the material properties of alloys. Working among them are entrepreneurs who also call its two facilities home.


• Economic clouds have silver lining for staffing firms
  Business uncertainty about the economy's strength is continuing to buoy demand for contract staffing — and boost the revenue of many local staffing companies.


• StageTwoStrategies: Myinsuranceexpert.com
  When President Barack Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, he unknowingly delivered a death blow to Myinsuranceexpert.com's business model.


• Health care tax credit report gets cool reception from some in small business
  A new report on health reform tax credits for Michigan small-business owners is being hailed by some politicians, like U.S. Rep. John Dingell, and questioned by the small- and second-stage business community.


• Employees' job interests may start to stray
  The Village People have been known to appear at ClarkReliance Corp. in Strongsville, Ohio. Well, at least that was the case during one of the company's annual Halloween celebrations.


• Focusing knowledge retention on millennials
  Employers may be overlooking an important side effect of turnover: losing the knowledge of millennial generation workers.


• Post-recession incentives: Kudos vs. cash
  Many employers don't plan to reinstate bonuses and merit raises quite yet. Their caution during this fragile economic recovery is certainly understandable, but they can provide intangible rewards in lieu of financial incentives that may actually prove to be more motivational than money.


• Serving the 'tween' scene
  Two years ago, Chicagoan Lisa Rolfe Burik opened Frankie's on the Park, a 3,000-square-foot shopping haven in Lincoln Park for preteens and teens, after she got tired of driving her daughter Frankie, then 13, to the suburbs to find trendy clothes.


• Tweens can be tough customers
  Flush with babysitting money, gift cards or money from allowance, tweens are at the heart of the lucrative youth market.


• Social media 101
  You’ve heard it all before: If you’re not using social-media tools to reach new customers, you should. So you’re making friends on Facebook, you’re trading Tweets on Twitter. It’s fun — but are you building new business?


• Company banks on software
  Rodney Carey likes to joke that his company has created a product with the potential to be highly successful — yet completely kill the business model on which the company was founded.


• Michigan Corps to invest in state's economic recovery
  A newly formed national philanthropy wants to help Michigan rebound from its economic troubles by drawing on the resources, talents and ideas of people around the world with ties to the state.


• StageTwoStrategies: Hercules & Hercules Inc.
  Belinda Jefferson wanted to grow her father's company when she took the reins in 2008, but Hercules' warehouse could handle only its current inventory levels.