News money 2008-07-28 Andanh.com

Wheelin' dealers Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:53:00 EST
With gasoline around $4 a gallon and diesel even higher, it might not seem like the best time to put your business on wheels. It takes a lot of fuel to lug an oil-change center or a pet-grooming service across the Louisville metro area. So why make house calls when you can make your customers come to you?

Business owners need to take time off Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:54:00 EST
With summer nearly half over, some business owners are finding it hard to let go for a vacation, even for a few days. But many do feel confident about taking time off because technology helps them stay in touch, and talented employees are able to keep the office running smoothly.

re: Shonelle Grant, nail technician/teacher Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:54:00 EST
"To do all things fabulous for fingers and toes. I specialize in manicures, pedicures, custom-blended acrylic and Brisa Gel nails. … (To) educate, inspire and excite nail professionals to uphold the highest standard. … I educate in schools, salons, distributor classes and trade shows in Kentucky and throughout the Midwest.

Bender scores big off court Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:54:00 EST
Jonathan Bender remembers the turn of the century, when he was a millionaire teenager playing in the National Basketball Association and all the young guns wanted to become the next Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson.

Ex-clerks still know when to fold 'em Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:55:00 EST
On those rare occasions that her husband folds the laundry, Joanne Ross-MacLeod can't keep herself from refolding it.

Business People Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:26:00 EST
Professional service announcements are in today's Business People. Submit new items at courier-journal.com/businesspeople Sign up for the daily Business People newsletter at courier-journal.com/newsletters.

Venture Club will hear 'help desk' expert Fry Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:56:00 EST
Malcolm Fry, an executive adviser and expert on information-technology "help desk" and issues, will speak at the Venture Club of Louisville's luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 6 at the Galt House.

Reality check: New book questions business school Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:57:00 EST
Philip Delves Broughton, an English newspaperman who graduated from Harvard Business School in 2006, chronicled the storied b-school in his book, "Ahead of the Curve: Two Years at Harvard Business School."

TIFs: What you need to know Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:29 EDT

In five years, if you come downtown on a Saturday morning you might be able to park in an underground parking structure in Phoenix Park, then pass public art as you walk to the permanent facility for the Farmers Market.

These and other public improvements might come to pass if Lexington succeeds in getting tax increment financing in a partnership with developers of the $250 million downtown CentrePointe hotel complex.

How much money the city will get isn't known at this point, but it announced a wish list last week of six projects with a total price tag of $32 million. Any money available depends on the sale of the TIF bonds. With the city's prospects hinging on the tax increment financing plan, here are a few main points of just how TIF works:

Question: What's a TIF?

Expo speaker believes relationships are key Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:29 EDT

The sixth annual Lexington-Bluegrass Area Minority Business Expo will bring together hundreds of women and minority business leaders in Lexington on Tuesday and Wednesday

Among the offerings of the event is a keynote address from George C. Fraser.

Fraser is chairman and CEO of FraserNet Inc., a company dedicated to improving networking. He has worked for companies including Procter . Gamble and Ford Motor Co., and has written several books.

He took time last week to tell the Herald-Leader about his speech and his views on how business owners can thrive.

Personnel file Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:29 EDT

Education

Campbellsville University: Kristin Rucker has been named an admissions counselor serving and recruiting from the Western Kentucky region.

Law

Observe the taxidermist in his natural habitat Mon, 28 Jul 2008 07:38 EDT

On safari in Nicholasville: Drive your Land Rover or Honda Civic toward Nicholasville and turn right at the clearing for the .Nissan dealership. Travel about half a mile over smooth terrain, then turn again at the sign marked .Dewey.. Park beside a modest structure on the left marked .Gunners Taxidermy,. and proceed cautiously. You're about to enter a showroom filled with alligators, turkeys, deer, foxes, bears, leopards, warthogs and baboons, to name but a few. Gunners Taxidermy is not so much a business as its own world, one where big-game hunters from Seattle, St. Louis and yes, even Lexington, as well as fishermen toting prize crappie, are treated equally.

He's the big shot: Harry Whitehead is the man in charge. Shhh. We have to wait quietly while he finishes a phone call, making arrangements for his next safari. He's headed to South Africa with a group in August. As he talks, there's time to photograph three baboons mounted to illustrate the .see, speak and hear no evil. image. Beyond the showroom are two other men working. One appears to be wrestling with a styrofoam bear, while the other is seated at a table, scraping methodically at something with a small tool. Maybe we'll meet them later.

Stalking the native Kentuckian: Whitehead is indigenous to the Harlan region. He has much in common with his species, in that he played basketball as a youth, even earning a college scholarship that took him out of state. But Whitehead is unusual in that he caught the taxidermy bug early, and at age 11 sent away for a set of instructional booklets . the equivalent of a matchbook education.

A bird in the hand: The .textbook. suggested attempting a pigeon first, so he dutifully went out and shot one, but the bird, he says, .didn't make it.. He gradually learned by trial and error, and in 1971 received his first official taxidermy license from the state, at age 15. In college Whitehead majored in comparative anatomy, zoology and math . .go figure,. and now, 30 years later, he's got a trophy wall lined with awards and was selected 2007 taxidermist of the year by the National Taxidermists Association.

Lexington company scores coup with PGA Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:29 EDT

A Lexington company specializing in connecting minority-owned businesses with industries scored big last week when it was retained by The PGA of America.

National Diversity Solutions began as a local consortium with clients like Lexington-based Thomas . King but scored the golf organization as a national coup, said CEO D. McGinnis Mitchell.

Under the agreement, National Diversity Solutions will work to establish and assess a network of minority-owned companies that can supply goods and services to all manner of companies in the golf industry.

Mitchell said the company showed the PGA that a network of minority-owned suppliers can boost interest by minorities in the sport. Such a move could lead to $17 billion in added revenue for the industry by 2012, Mitchell said.

Kentucky Money Market Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:13 EDT

Kentucky by the numbers: 399 Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:52 EDT

399

Foreign-owned companies operate 399 facilities, defined as those with 10 or more employees, and employ nearly 77,000 people in Kentucky, according to reports issued this month by the state Cabinet for Economic Development.

Of those, Japanese firms account for 155 facilities and 39,632 employees. Companies based in Western Europe own 182 facilities that employ 27,204 Kentuckians. Mexican companies operate 11 facilities with 622 employees, and South American companies operate four facilities that employ 666.

Kentucky datebook Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:29 EDT

Classes

Eastern Kentucky University's Leadership Excellence for Middle Managers will be Friday through Nov. 20. Topics include leadership, principles of human behavior, selecting and developing talent, among others. Cost: $2,770. Information: cheryl.juhasz@eku.edu or (859) 622-1164.

Meetings

Conventions Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:29 EDT

Events scheduled for Lexington, including headquarters and expected attendance:

National Rural Letter Carriers Association: Tuesday through Aug. 10, Hyatt Regency Lexington, 3,000.

U.S. Equestrian Federation, 2008 USA Pony Finals: Aug. 8-18, Marriott Griffin Gate Resort, 1,200.

Kentucky Society of Professional Engineers, 2008 Partnering Conference: Aug. 18-20, Marriott Griffin Gate Resort, 225.

Banks give fewer loans to American businesses Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:29 EDT

Banks struggling to recover from multibillion-dollar losses on real estate are curtailing loans to American businesses, depriving even healthy companies of money for expansion and hiring.

Two vital forms of credit used by companies . commercial and industrial loans from banks, and short-term .commercial paper. not backed by collateral . collectively dropped almost 3 percent over the last year, to $3.27 trillion from $3.36 trillion, according to Federal Reserve data.

That is the largest annual decline since the credit tightening that began with the last recession in 2001.

The scarcity of credit has intensified the strains on the economy by withholding capital from many companies, just as joblessness grows and consumers pull back from spending in the face of high gas prices, plummeting home values and mounting debt.

Bush administration projects record 2009 deficit Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:20 EDT
The next president will inherit a record budget deficit of $482 billion, according to a new Bush administration estimate released Monday. The administration said the deficit was being driven to an all-time high by the sagging economy and the stimulus payments being made to 130 million households in an effort to keep the country from falling into a deep recession.

But the numbers could go even higher if the economy performs worse than the White House predicts.

The budget office predicts the economy will grow at a rate of 1.6 percent this year and will rebound to a 2.2 percent growth rate next year. That's a half percentage point more than predicted by the widely cited "blue chip" consensus of leading economists. The administration also sees inflation averaging 3.8 percent this year, but easing to 2.3 percent next year - better than the 3.0 percent seen by the blue chip panel.

"The nation's economy has continued to expand and remains fundamentally resilient," said the budget office report.

A $482 billion deficit, however, would easily surpass the record deficit of $413 billion set in 2004.

Kraft Foods 2nd-quarter profit rises 4 percent Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:40 EDT
Kraft Foods Inc. reported growth in the second quarter Monday, as consumers, undeterred by price increases, abandon restaurants for less costly meals at home and the company benefits from its restructuring plan.

The nation's largest food and beverage maker is also benefiting from price increases, saying it has raised its prices, on average, 7 percent in the most recent quarter.

While sales of Kraft's cheese line are down, sales of other products, like Maxwell House coffee and Kool-Aid are rising. So the company is boosting its profit outlook for the rest of the year.

With more consumers eating more at home to save money, Kraft is increasing its marketing and playing up that products like Oscar Mayer deli meats and DiGiorno Pizza offer convenience and value, Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld told The Associated Press in an interview.

"There's no question that people are eating at home more and we really find that as people eat at home more, they're turning to Kraft," she said.

Fuel price hikes squeeze farmers at local markets Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:55 EDT
Franca Tantillo puts rising fuel prices in the same category as the springtime hail storm that wiped out part of her strawberry crop. Both cut into the profit she can make at the farmers markets she sells at in New York City, about 135 miles south of her farm.

Like Tantillo, market farmers nationwide face exponentially rising costs for fuel, fertilizer and animal feed that could force them to hike prices that are already often higher than grocery stores.

It couldn't come at a worse time for farmers; their customers are also feeling squeezed by inflation.

Tantillo estimates about half the money she takes in on a given day at the market now goes to cover costs related to transportation. She drives a van that carries less but is more fuel efficient than her old panel truck. She even skipped an entire month of selling in the city, because she didn't think the returns would be worth the expense.

"I'm a small grower," she said recently, as she stood at her table laden with $4 quarts of strawberries and other produce from her "Berried Treasures" farm in Cooks Falls, N.Y. "And I'm trying not to raise prices."

KKR to go public on NYSE via fund takeover Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:25 EDT
Private equity powerhouse Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. said Monday a plan to go public through a takeover of its Amsterdam-listed investment fund gives it access to new markets to make acquisitions and provides the European shareholders better value.

The transaction is a departure from plans announced a year ago by Henry R. Kravis and George R. Roberts to tap equity markets for up to $1.25 billion through an initial public offering. Those plans were hurt by the collapse of credit markets that significantly slowed mergers and acquisitions over the past year.

The new structure of the deal won't give KKR a boost of cash like a regular IPO, but will provide it with access to new markets to raise capital. A public listing would allow KKR to either issue new shares in a takeover bid of another company or to sell shares and raise cash.

The transaction lets KKR avoid having to find investors and raise cash in a difficult credit environment for traditional public offerings, said Roy C. Smith, a professor of finance at New York University's Stern School of Business and a former partner at Goldman Sachs.

KKR is also using the transaction as part of a broader reorganizing of the company as it looks to expand and diversify its operations, Smith said.

Stocks slide as financials again pull back Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:25 EDT
Wall Street again surrendered to investors' anxiety about the financial sector Monday, sending the Dow Jones industrials down 240 points and back into bear market territory. The flight from equities sent investors into safe-haven bets like Treasury bonds.

Financials, which had rallied in recent weeks after logging huge declines, suffered from the same worries about souring debt that caused an abrupt end to their run-up late last week. Wall Street is concerned that a further withering of the housing and credit markets will damage bank balance sheets.

An International Monetary Fund report added to some of the stress in the market. The IMF predicted continuing problems in the credit and housing market that will continue to hurt the financial industry. It said, "at the moment a bottom for the housing market is not visible."

Frederic Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co., said investors are still trying to get a longer-term view on the stability of the banking industry, particularly the regional banks.

"Corporate depositors and individual depositors are looking at balances at individual financial institutions. I think that's unsettling some of the banks."

Loose change Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:17 EDT

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