-
Small Business Minute: Deciding when to sell
By Brian Leaf The economy is getting better and it may be time to cash out of the business you spent years building. But don’t be impulsive if it’s time to sell it. News reports quote business brokers saying buyers have stepped into the market, with service and distribution businesses in de... <more>
-
WisBiz In-Depth: Newspaper chain ownership explodes in state
By Gregg Hoffmann Representatives of newspapers from around the state will convene in Appleton this week for the annual Wisconsin Newspaper Association convention. The number of representatives will be about the same as it is very year. But the number of companies they represen... <more>
-
Small Business Minute: Dealing with stress
By Brian Leaf If you’re stressed out about business, your employees are probably stressed out, too. Job stress is costly. Health care costs nearly 50% more for stressed out employees, according to the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. And the workplace has never been more s... <more>
-
WisBiz In-Depth: La Crosse Center could be home to sports again
By Gregg Hoffmann The La Crosse Center, which once housed CBA basketball and indoor football teams, could be on the verge of becoming a sports venue once again.Representatives of the All-American Professional Basketball League and the United States Hockey League have expressed interest in putting fr... <more>
-
WisBiz People: New owner rejuvenates Wausau ski area
This is a new edition of WisBiz People, a column from WisBusiness Editor Brian Clark. If you know someone with a good business story to tell, write to clark@wisbusiness.com with your idea. WAUSAU – Charles Skinner has skiing in his blood. And ... <more>
-
Small Business Minute: Tips for handling W-2 forms
By Brian Leaf It's tax time and companies are getting ready to distribute W-2 forms to employees. But what should you do if you can't find a former employee? It happens every year. Someone from your staff quit and moved. The contact information you have is bad. And the W-2 you se... <more>
-
WisBiz In-Depth: Brewers' sale official; Attanasio group to spend money to win
By Gregg Hoffmann MILWAUKEE – A group headed by Los Angeles investor Mark Attanasio was officially approved as the new Milwaukee Brewers owner Thursday by Major League Baseball. But, Attanasio already has been calling the shots on the Brewers' operations for a few months and has d... <more>
-
WisBiz People: RoleFlow Swimming Against Cautious Midwestern Current
This is the first edition of WisBiz People, a new column from WisBusiness Editor Brian Clark. If you know someone with a good business story to tell, write to clark@wisbusiness.com with your idea. MADISON - Mark Blumenfeld never wanted his software co... <more>
-
Horstman: Drug-buying coalition looks to spread low prices
By Brian E. Clark WisBusiness.com A little more than a year ago, backers launched the drug purchasing coalition WisconsinRX with considerable fanfare. The effor... <more>
-
Wisconsinmade.com: Selling everything but cheeseheads
There's nothing some new economy types would like to do more than change the image of Wisconsin as home of cheddar-eating, beer-drinking cheeseheads. If Wisconsinmade.com, a clearinghouse for products produced in the Badger State, is any gauge, those brandi... <more>
-
Small Business Minute: Marketing to women
By Brian Leaf Every marketer knows that women have a huge influence on buying decisions. So why haven’t more companies figured out what motivates women to buy? Women pull the purse strings. They have their hand in 80 percent of all buying decisions. Yet author Martha Barletta says that b... <more>
-
Klappa: Power plant delays could cost consumers
By Brian E. Clark MILWAUKEE – Dane County Circuit Judge David Flanagan sent shock waves throughout Wisconsin late last month when he overturned the state's approval of Wisconsin Energy's $2.15 billion coal plant project at Oak Creek. Flanagan's ruling – which was a href="http://... <more>
-
WisBusiness: Kapanke to be Senate's 'Mr. Baseball'
By Gregg Hoffmann LA CROSSE – Dan Kapanke and Herb Kohl don't share political party affiliations, but they do have a couple specific things in common. Both are senators – though Kapanke is just a state senator-elect at the moment while Kohl is a U.S. senator. Both also ow... <more>
-
WisBiz In-Depth: Wisconsin ranks 5th in Christmas tree production
By Gregg Hoffmann If you still put up a "real" Christmas tree, you can rest assured as you trim it that it very likely came from right here in Wisconsin. And, you're not alone. Many people all over the Midwest and country can say the same thing. The state ranks fifth in the country in Chris... <more>
-
Small Business Minute: Hiring your first employee
By Brian Leaf So your home business is booming and you’re overwhelmed. Maybe it’s time to hire. For many entrepreneurs, who wanted to run a small business from a back bedroom, becoming an employer was never in the picture. But when phone calls and orders bog you down, you can’t focus o... <more>
-
Gulbrandsen: UW's stem cell program primed for growth
Six years after UW-Madison researcher James Thomson isolated them, stem cells are still a hot national issue -- economically, politically and strategically. Last month Gov. Jim Doyle announced a $375 million initiative to build the Institute of Discovery on the UW-Madison campus to bolster ... <more>
-
Seay: Madison patent attorney leads the way in biotech field
By Brian E. Clark WisBusiness.com MADISON – When Nick Seay went into the patent attorney business nearly three decades ago, the field of biotechnology did not exist. But after a quarter century in Madison working with companies like Agracetus -- which pioneered transgenic cotton -- and... <more>
-
Small Business Minute: Making a marketing plan
By Brian Leaf You’ve got ideas, money and a cool product. So success is a foregone conclusion. Right? Yeah, right! There’s a missing ingredient to this recipe – customers. If nobody buys what you’re selling, you’re losing money and aren’t going to be in business for long... <more>
-
WisBusiness: State boosts biotech to compete with California
Gov. Jim Doyle on Wednesday laid out plans to invest $375 million of state and private money in a new Wisconsin Institute for Discovery on the UW-Madison campus. The building proposal was part of a broader announcement on moves to bolster the state's standing in the fields of biotechnology, heal... <more>
-
WisBiz In-Depth: Winter wind-down creates concerns at Fort McCoy
By Gregg Hoffmann Fort McCoy didn’t shut its gates Monday, but a planned wind-down and redirection of troops to other facilities did technically start on that day. About 1,800 troops that would have been mobilized for duty at the 60,000 acre Monroe County facility are being r... <more>