Don Barton’s family has been farming walnuts in the San Joaquin Valley for four generations. In 1912, his great grandfather, P.F. Barton, rode a boxcar west from Illinois and settled in Oakdale, California to grow prunes and walnuts on what became the Barton Ranch. Almost 100 years later, the walnuts are still growing in Oakdale, [...]
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Sarah Lanphier was a sophomore at Elizabethtown College competing on the triathlon team. When the squad needed to raise money to attend a national meet, she thought outside the (cookie) box. “Instead of selling cookies or something like that, I had this recipe for granola. So I packaged it and sold it. And it was [...]
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There’s more than enough bad news in the world. That’s basically how Paul Gerstenberger used to feel. Murders, fires, wars… Gerstenberger started feeling like the purpose of the daily news was just to make him feel bad on a regular basis. “I decided then to start trying to change that, and at least give people [...]
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It sounds like a movie about the American dream. A native of Kenya moves to Massachusetts. He dreams of opening his own business, and begins writing his business plan on his commute to work at his first job in the U.S. But then the economy falters and our hero gets laid off. Instead of feeling [...]
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Patty Shutt, of McHenry, Illinois, had worked in chiropractic offices for over 17 years when her boss decided he wanted to start a traveling clinic. So they set up a home office for Patty, creating a virtual connection between the chiropractor, his assistant, and his patients. When business slowed down due to the economy, Patty [...]
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J. Peter Hendrikx is a native of The Netherlands who immigrated to New Zealand seeking a more laid-back lifestyle. After years working for large, international corporations, he went to work for the Business Migration Branch of the New Zealand Immigration Service. It wasn’t long before he decided to launch his own company, combining his knowledge [...]
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Most new businesses start out narrowly focused on the bottom line. With so much financial uncertainty in the market today, building philanthropy into a business plan can be a scary proposition. But that didn’t deter Christine Crowley Peters, President and CEO of Peters Path. Her philosophy is, “Don’t let fear hold you back.” Writing a [...]
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In order to be successful in business, entrepreneurs need to be flexible. Sometimes flexibility means rethinking your ideas, other times it just means letting circumstances guide you. Todd Pearson learned this early in his path to business ownership. After 11 years at the same company, Pearson decided to open his own distribution/import company. In 2002, [...]
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It happens to a lot of businesses that start out self-funded: since nobody is requiring a business plan from them, they don’t think they need one. It’s not long before they realize what they’re missing. That’s what happened to Monique Riviere, of Springdale, Maryland, when she bought her V2K Window Décor & More franchise two [...]
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