Identifying Local Opportunities

1.       Bitter Dill: Health fi s file Chapter 11; "They are exploring all their options," says attorney 
     Orlando Business Journal

http://go.galegroup.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/ps/retrieve.do?sort=DA-SORT&docType=Brief+article&tabID=T003&prodId=GPS&searchId=R7&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&contentSegment=&currentPosition=3&searchResultsType=SingleTab&inPS=true&userGroupName=gain40375&docId=GALE|A81793410&contentSet=GALE|A81793410

This story is about a company that provides nutritional products to doctors who then sell to patients.  A lack of revenue caused the company to significantly decrease the amount of product they sell.  They went from 13 products down to 2.  From that point they were no longer able to keep enough funds to stay afloat.  An agreement was made with investors but the stipulation was that the company had to make $8 million in a time frame or the investors could call off the deals.  The company did not make required amount and 2 deals fell through causing the company to file a chapter 11.

The problem was the company trying to get a continuous revenue is it can begin to rebuild itself but market and investors kept falling through as the company failed to become stable.

Access Health and its four subsidiaries are having the problem.

2.       

       Why community banks are an endangered species and how than can hurt Central Florida's small businesses: why fewer community banks is problematic for Orlando's small businesses 
    Orlando Business Journal

http://go.galegroup.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/ps/retrieve.do?sort=DA-SORT&docType=Article&tabID=T003&prodId=GPS&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&contentSegment=&currentPosition=1&searchResultsType=SingleTab&inPS=true&userGroupName=gain40375&docId=GALE|A440527901&contentSet=GALE|A440527901

This story is about the closing of local community banks decreasing the opportunity of small businesses to get loans.  These community banks are being replaced by national banks which makes it harder for the small businesses to survive, because their ability to get funds to get them started has been cut.

The problem is larger national banks taking the place of the local banks that help the small businesses in the area which helps the area grow.

The people having the problem in this situation is the small local businesses, because they can no longer get the funding they require to become successful.

3.     

          Hot and cold sales perplex local retailers
   Orlando Business Journal

http://go.galegroup.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/ps/retrieve.do?sort=DA-SORT&docType=Brief+article&tabID=T003&prodId=GPS&searchId=R14&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&contentSegment=&currentPosition=6&searchResultsType=SingleTab&inPS=true&userGroupName=gain40375&docId=GALE|A68875628&contentSet=GALE|A68875628

This article speaks about the local retailers in the area and how they were affected by the indecisiveness of shoppers over the holiday.  Overall retail sales went up 3% from last year, however some businesses, such as Partridge Tree Gift Shop, dropped 20%.  This problem is quickly becoming considered the norm in today’s holiday shopping season.  Shoppers seem to be more caution and sales and deals are starting earlier every year and running into the week after the 25^th as well.  What this says to me is that if you miss time your sales and marketing you and your business will suffer.

This problem is interesting because it is not isolated down to one business and does not have a long enough history to track and forecast potential issues.  The people that hit the hardest seem to be smaller local retailors that do not have the ability to market as well as the major chains in the area.

4.        

          Sticky business
       Orlando Business Journal

http://go.galegroup.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/ps/retrieve.do?sort=DA-SORT&docType=Brief+article&tabID=T003&prodId=GPS&searchId=R17&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&contentSegment=&currentPosition=9&searchResultsType=MultiTab&inPS=true&userGroupName=gain40375&docId=GALE|A67549808&contentSet=GALE|A67549808

This is a short, but interesting article.  One of the reasons I picked this was because of how effective his solution was.  This was an online labeling company which started running into issues because of the explosion of similar web based business.  The owner went ahead and decided to not match but beat anyone’s price by 5%.  He also found that this tactic also kept him up to date with the current market values.

David Carmany and his online business had the problem in this article.

5.       

        Out of ink
     Orlando Business Journal

http://go.galegroup.com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/ps/retrieve.do?sort=DA-SORT&docType=Brief+article&tabID=T003&prodId=GPS&searchId=R18&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&contentSegment=&currentPosition=6&searchResultsType=MultiTab&inPS=true&userGroupName=gain40375&docId=GALE|A78577108&contentSet=GALE|A78577108

In this article the company ends up taking themselves out of business before they went bankrupt.  This was a start-up magazine which was to almost piggy back off of a previous magazine.  Unfortunately the magazine never gained any traction and decided to pull the plug before they had nothing left.

The effected magazine was “Metro Orlando Parent”.  This magazine is no longer in existence and blamed bad timing for their failures.