Business Currents

  • Spotlight on … Lori LaBarge of LaBarge Homes, ABWA’s Woman Entrepreneur of the Year

    For the second year, the American Business Women’s Association of Cape Cod has collaborated with Cape Business to honor the Woman Entrepreneur of the Year. This year’s award was bestowed on Lori LaBarge of LaBarge Homes.
    During the past year, selected nominees were profiled in Cape Business, and the ABWA board of directors selected LaBarge as the winner. The criteria used by the board in determining the winner include a woman who:
    • Promotes the professional endeavors of people through education and community participation;
    • Supports the advancement of people in their workplace and community, encouraging flexibility, creativity and freedom;
    • Supports professional development and growth through networking;
    • Demonstrates true leadership, building team spirit, enthusiasm and community visibility and participation; and
    • Demonstrates the ability and willingness to help others, and who gives and shows compassion so that others can live in harmony with work and family.
    In conferring the award, ABWA President Denise Dever said, “Lori seemed to embody the spirit of what a woman entrepreneur should be – recognizing service synergies of two growing businesses and coming up with a plan to broaden their service scope to meet their clients’ needs.”

  • Spotlight on … Karen Rowley of Infusion Network

  • Health Insurance: The clock is ticking for Cape businesses

    As the deadline of July 1 draws nearer, employers are becoming more concerned about the ultimate effect the new Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act will have on their businesses. With all the uncertainty about effective dates, formulas, numbers of employees to be counted and positions excluded, it is not surprising that employers are still asking the most basic questions: What do I need to be doing? How am I supposed to do it? When do I have to do it? How much is it going to cost me?

  • Spotlight on … Teri Whelan of Aflac

  • Trends and trials facing the restaurant industry

    Cape Business spoke with Peter Christie, CEO and president of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, about the state of the dining industry on the Cape and his projections for the future.

  • A year of women in business

    In addition to fostering entrepreneurship and providing networking opportunities for women, the American Business Women’s Association of Cape Cod holds education as one of its guiding principles. In that vein, each year ABWA raises money for local scholarships for Cape and Islands women.

  • Summer ’06 goes down as ‘challenging’

    SEPT. 1, 2006 -- The summer of 2006 proved to be a continuing chapter in the uneven and volatile world of tourism on Cape Cod. One official described the season as “lumpy” – not uniformly good or bad, but one where some businesses did better and others not quite as well as last year.

  • Issue Alert: August 12 & 13, 2006 will be a

    AUGUST 11, 2006 -- A recently enacted statute provides for a Massachusetts “sales tax holiday weekend,” i.e., two consecutive days during which most purchases made by individuals for personal use will not be subject to Massachusetts sales or use taxes. The act provides that the sales tax holiday will occur on August 12 and 13, 2006 and on those days, non-business sales at retail of single items of tangible personal property costing $2,500 or less are exempt from sales and use taxes, subject to certain exclusions.

  • ABWA names Leslie Fishlock Woman Entrepreneur of the Year

    As part of its mission to recognize the special contributions women bring to the business table, the American Business Women’s Association of Cape Cod has collaborated with Cape Business to honor the Woman Entrepreneur of the Year. This is the inaugural year for the award, which was bestowed on Leslie Fishlock of Genevate Corporation at a special ABWA ceremony held August 8 at the Radisson Inn.

  • Leslie Fishlock: Woman Entrepreneur of the Year

    Leslie Fishlock of Genevate Corporation was named the American Business Women’s Association’s Woman Entrepreneur of the Year on August 8, 2006. She spoke to Cape Business at length about her approach to business and her keys to success.

  • CDs offer competitive rates for savings

    With interest rates rising, that can spell bad news for homebuyers and other borrowers. But investors are seeing a benefit, in the form of higher rates of return on Certificates of Deposit and other savings and investments.

  • New supplier choices in the market may lower energy costs

    It’s not news that energy prices have been rising incessantly and, in turn, affecting the cost of doing business. Business owners, as well as homeowners, have been struggling with the cost increases for at least the past year. With no end in sight, concerns have been growing as budgets have been adjusted. What many business owners and residents don’t know is that a regulation enacted last year allows Massachusetts residents and businesses to shop around for energy providers.

  • Where will your employees live?

    Cape business owners have worked for years to manage the problems of a seasonal economy. Now that the average Cape Cod home costs $350,000 and the average rental goes for $1,000 a month, employers are faced with the dire problem of a workforce being driven away. To buy a house at the median rate, you would have to have a salary of $121,608. For the apartment, a $42,000 salary is necessary.

  • MBL Receives $1.5 Million from the W.M. Keck Foundation To Support Major Study of Microscopic Populations in the World’s Oceans

    JULY 24, 2006 -- The W. M. Keck Foundation has awarded the MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory) a two-year, $1.5 million grant to support an unprecedented census of microscopic life forms in the world’s oceans—creatures scientists say make up the ocean’s real diversity.

  • Massachusetts Health Care Reform: A Backgrounder on the Landmark Health Insurance Law

    Sponsored by the Associated Industries of Massachusetts Foundation, this paper provides an overview of the health care reform law and A.I.M.’s understanding, as a primary negotiator in the process, of provisions where the statutory language is ambiguous or the details are still undetermined. To view or download the report, click here.

  • Building a better mousetrap

    Congratulations to the 15 annual Mousetrap Award winners, honored by Cape Cod SCORE, after being nominated by their respective chambers of commerce. One thing each business has in common: they have survived for at least five years, not an easy accomplishment among startups. Now they appear poised for long-term success. They also contribute significantly to their communities.

  • Summer forecast

    Squeezed by energy costs, interest rates and sluggish home values, consumers and visitors are still managing to spend.

  • Dr. Clyde Barrow: Rough spots ahead for Cape economy

    Dr. Clyde W. Barrow, director of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth Center for Policy Analysis and a specialist on the Cape Cod economy, gave Cape Business an update on the near term Cape economic outlook.

  • Keep current with Cape Business

    For business updates, milestones, Beacon Hill news, and facts and figures about the Cape's economy, look to Cape Business. Now you can have this information delivered right to your screen each week in the Cape Business Trends newsletter. Please fill out the form to the right to register.

  • State hopeful, though no towns approved yet for smart growth plan

    May 8, 2006 -- State officials are frustrated with the stark unpopularity of a highly touted program designed to increase housing stock within "smart growth" guidelines, but anticipate a domino effect once it begins to take hold, they said Monday.

  • Local labor market shows growth

    The Barnstable-Yarmouth labor market is among 11 across the state that has posted over-the-year-job growth. To see the numbers, please click here.

  • Four Cape weeklies and Pennysavers sold to Illinois publisher

    May 8, 2006 -- Four Cape Cod weeklies and the Pennysaver shoppers have been sold by Herald Media Inc., parent company of the Boston Herald, to Liberty Group Publishing for a reported $225 million, with the deal financed by Fortress Investment Group, a global investment and asset management firm founded in 1998 with approximately $20 billion in equity capital currently under management.

  • Sweeping health care law will impact Cape businesses

    Despite veto, expect employer fee for companies that don’t provide insurance.

  • Massachusetts mandates health insurance for all

    What does it mean for businesses and employees?

  • Q&A on … Lodging Outlook 2006

    With:
    Wendy Northcross, CEO, Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce
    Elizabeth White, Director of Marketing Communications, Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism
    Elizabeth Noyes Deschenes, Interactive Communications Manager, Tourism Massachusetts
    Rachel Roginsky, Principal, Pinnacle Advisory Group

  • Businesses will be hit with new health charge after override of Romney veto

    May 5, 2006 -- Massachusetts will become the first state to assess employers for not providing health insurance, a move that will hit businesses with $48 million in new costs.

  • The Cape economy - Where we are, where we're going

    Cape Business’ economic adviser, Dr. Clyde Barrow, director of the Center for Policy Analysis at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, recently spoke at our first Newsmakers breakfast at Bobby Byrne’s Restaurant in Mashpee Commons. Here is a summary of his observations about the current economy and where it is headed during 2006.

  • AIM's Business Confidence Index edges off in April

    May 2, 2006, Boston -- The Associated Industries of Massachusetts Business Confidence Index declined fractionally in April to 57.4, a loss of six-tenths of a point for the month and seven-tenths since last April. "The Index has fluctuated within a five-point range, at modestly positive levels, for more than a year, failing to establish any clear-cut direction," said Raymond G. Torto, Co-Chairman of AIM's Board of Economic Advisors and Principal, CBRE Torto Wheaton. "April's survey results indicate that employers were more positive about the situation of their own operations, and about business conditions within the commonwealth, but less confident about national conditions," he noted, with rising energy prices a concern for many companies.

  • Duke unit plans pipeline expansion in Upper Cape

    APRIL 26, 2006 -- Duke Energy Gas Transmission plans to expand its Algonquin Gas Transmission system by constructing a 3.5-mile, 18-inch diameter natural gas pipeline in Sandwich and Bourne.

  • Chatham Bars Inn to be sold

    April 20, 2006 -- American Financial Group Inc. announced Thursday that it has reached an agreement to sell Chatham Bars Inn, its resort-hotel property located on Cape Cod, for $166 million.

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