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Soft-Hearted Bikers Keep ‘Mom’ In Business
January 7, 2009 by Herb Stalk · Leave a Comment
When her husband of 43 years died, Sue Paver needed someone to help fill the void in her life now that the love of her life was suddenly gone.
And she didn’t have to look far. It was her customers - her dozens of sometimes rough around the edges, but softhearted bikers who came to her rescue.“After my husband Jim died in December 2007, they became my extended family,” said Paver. “They keep me going.”
Paver owns Buckle & Belts, a motorcycle parts and accessories store in Calimesa that she and Jim started in 1991. When Jim died, she thought briefly of calling it quits. But her family of bikers soon wiggled their way into her heart, and now she wouldn’t think of selling and leaving them.
They roar in on their Harleys to visit “mom,” as they call her.
For Paver’s daughter, Michelle Rice, who works in the store, the bikers are far more than customers. She vividly remembers how they showed their caring nature when her dad died.
“The night of my dad’s wake the parking lot of the funeral home was filled with motorcycles, there were only about five or six cars,” said Rice. “They hugged my mom and told her how sorry they were. Mom told me once that (motorcycle riders) have a heart of gold. They are very loyal friends.”
Photo by Custom Motorcycles
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Making Their Own Success
January 7, 2009 by Herb Stalk · Leave a Comment
Sisters are doing it for themselves these days. Lured by a more flexible workplace than the kinds of jobs their college degrees could secure them in the corporate world, single women and mothers from Atlanta and beyond are stepping into the world of food entrepreneurship.
But the road to the kind of profit margins most yearn for is paved with lots of caveats; there’s more to making a killing —- or even a living —- at entrepreneurship than having a great cookie recipe.Leni Altoe and Leide Barros met through a friend at lunch, but it wasn’t until Barros tried Altoe’s pao de quejo (cheese bread) at a baby shower that the two Brazilian moms got the idea to market their delectably chewy cheese rolls.
They rented a kitchen in Lawrenceville three years ago to test the product; now they sell their rolls to Fire of Brazil, an area Brazilian churrascarria restaurant chain, and Whole Foods.
Driven and tenacious, they have literally gone door to door to sell their product, and they spend lots of time behind booths at Whole Foods to introduce the public to a delicacy that in Brazil is as popular as coffee.
A favorite Brazilian breakfast and snack item, the rolls are made with manioc flour, which means they are gluten-free. Plus, they are all-natural and use no leavening agents. These ladies learned early on to push these marketable traits to the public, and it worked. Made with a blend of Parmesan, Pecorino and Romano, the rolls are sold frozen, popped in the oven and 20 minutes later come out gooey hot and deliciously tangy and soft.
Sweet Oven does not yet have its own storefront, and since the rolls are sold frozen, Altoe and Barros don’t ship (yet). “But we’re thinking about it,” Altoe said.
Logo from Sweet Oven.
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When Rules Trump Ingenuity
January 6, 2009 by Herb Stalk · Leave a Comment
More than any government bailout, it’s people like Wendy Powell who will lift us out of our economic doldrums.
Except it looks like her own government is going to stop her.
Last fall when Wall Street was in meltdown and the credit system was in a freeze, Powell, a Seattle mom and former software marketer, did the opposite of what the gloom-and-doom forecasts advised. She didn’t hunker down. She plunged into her first business.It’s called Childish Things, in North Seattle on Holman Road west of Highway 99. It’s a children’s resale boutique, crammed with tiny jeans, mittens, books, smocks, mobiles and about anything else you need if you have a kid.
She buys almost all of it used, then resells it. Business, she says, has been great.
“People like the prices, and they love buying used things because it’s a form of recycling,” Powell said. “This is a green business.”
Not in the federal government’s view it isn’t. On Feb. 10, barring some dramatic change in a new law, Powell’s entire 5,000-item inventory will be considered a “banned hazardous substance” and may have to be chucked.
That’s because the stuff in her store has never been tested for lead. A law passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in August, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, requires all products for kids under age 12 to be tested for lead or pulled from the shelves. Even if it was made before the law passed.
Photo by riccotorres
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Maternity-Leave Alternative: Bring The Baby To Work
January 6, 2009 by Herb Stalk · Leave a Comment
SEVERAL years ago, Joyce DeLucca became pregnant at the same time she was building her new company, Kingsland Capital Management, an investment boutique in Manhattan. Her employees wondered: Was she going to take a maternity leave during this crucial period?
She did not. Instead, Ms. DeLucca decided to bring her newborn to the office with her. She set up an enclosed playroom adjacent to her office, where Layla, now 3 1/2, could play, along with a baby sitter.Layla is still coming to the office. “If I have a break I can stand up and walk into her room,” said Ms. DeLucca, who is 42 and works 12-hour days. “She knows her way around the office, and sometimes she’ll visit me on the trading desk. But it’s not like she comes with me to meetings. If I put my finger to my lips, she knows to be quiet.” Layla’s sister Ariana, who is 7 months old, now comes to the office, too.
More companies are allowing women — and some men, too — to bring their babies to work. The advantages are clear: The women don’t lose money by taking maternity leave. They can breastfeed conveniently. And they can bond with the baby rather than worry that he or she will develop a closer connection with a nanny or a day-care provider.
Photo by mahalie
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Flower Shop Home To Three Decades Of Sweet Smells And Even Better Stories
January 3, 2009 by Herb Stalk · Leave a Comment
Maybe you can’t change a person’s life with flowers, but in nearly 27 years in the florist business, Nancy Yeoman says flowers can sure make people smile.
Brightening people’s lives is the best part of her business, said Yeoman, who owns Yucaipa Florist located in the Tower Center on County Line Road.Over the years, she’s brightened up a lot of lives with flowers. She’s also collected a treasure trove of stories about the people who order them.
The most poignant story started with a very long distance phone call in 2004.
“I got this call from a soldier in Iraq from a satellite phone,” Yeoman said. “He said, `Bear with me, I’m in Iraq and we’re under fire.”‘
The soldier told Yeoman that he was under his truck and his unit was under attack, but that he needed to place a quick order.
“He said he needed to order flowers for his mom for Mother’s Day,” Yeoman said. “It was a couple days before Mother’s Day. It brought tears to my eyes talking with him. I told him that his mom should be so proud of him.”
The soldier hung up the phone and went back to fighting the war, and Yeoman filled the order.
She’s filled a lot of orders over the years in the family business started by her mother, Marianne Yeoman, in the early 1980s. Back then, the business was much simpler and time-honored traditions kept florists flourishing.
Photo by cybaea.
