Category: Small business
By Michael Schwartz
michael.schwartz@insidebiz.com
A few months after sending down guidance to banks on how best to handle troubled commercial real estate loans, federal regulators last week advised financial institutions about meeting the credit needs of credit-worthy small businesses in light of reports that small businesses are having trouble obtaining the loans they need to operate.
By Michael Schwartz
michael.schwartz@insidebiz.com
Opening a gym at 115 W. Tazewell St. in downtown Norfolk has had its share of drama.
But finally, after two years, a couple of false starts and three tenants, downtown Norfolk property owner and restaurateur Sture Sigfred thinks he has the tenant he needs for the long boarded-up, 101-year-old building to get in shape and stay that way.
By Michael Schwartz
michael.schwartz@insidebiz.com
The tail end of what is now being called the Great Recession isn't exactly the ideal time to launch a franchise company.
But after getting through the nearly two-year process to become a franchise company, locally owned Pollard's Chicken, famous in the region for its fried chicken, fried gizzards and those puffs, is so far succeeding. It sold its first franchise in Virginia Beach with another on the way and discussions for more taking place.
By Vincent Schilling
Correspondent
Twenty-five years ago, Henry Martin started Rocket Direct Communications Inc. in Virginia Beach.
Eighteen years earlier, in 1967, Martin began his 42-year career in direct mail as a service technician for the Philipsburg division of Bell and Howell, a manufacturer of postal and mailing equipment.
In 1984, Martin began an independent business-mail operation in the garage from his own home with four pieces of equipment - a letter folder, an envelope inserter, an envelope labeler and one mail meter.
By Lakeshia Artis
lakeshia.artis@insidebiz.com
Sixty-five years ago, a group of Catholic nuns calling themselves the Daughters of Wisdom was so disturbed by the number of abandoned and orphaned children during World War II that they established St. Mary's Infant Home. Years later the name would be changed to St. Mary's Home for Disabled Children.
By Vincent Schilling
Correspondent
In April 1939, C.B. "Buddy" Gifford borrowed $1,500 from his brother-in-law to start the Green Gifford car dealership with his partner Bill Green.
They set up shop in South Norfolk on Liberty Street with just three employees - two salespeople and one service person.
In 1951, the company moved to Wards Corner, referred to at that time as the "Times Square of the South."
By Michael Schwartz
michael.schwartz@insidebiz.com
What began with seven workers at Norfolk Naval Air Station and a cigar box to collect deposits has grown 50 years later into a $1.2 billion federal credit union with nearly 500 employees and 50 branches in nine states.
The story of Chartway FCU began on Sept. 4, 1959, when those seven civilian workers each invested $5 to found NorVA NAS FCU, running it out of a small building on the base.
By Mary Flachsenhaar
mary.flachsenhaar@insidebiz.com
Marie Yack was the first nurse to work at Bon Secours Home Care when the agency opened in 1979 at Maryview Hospital in Portsmouth. A manager and one home health aide were also on staff to help care for a patient caseload of five.
By Michael Schwartz
michael.schwartz@insidebiz.com
Considering the thousands of banks that have failed in U.S. history as victims of the Great Depression, the savings and loan crisis and the present recession, 90-year old Farmers Bank in Windsor is a rarity.
Founded in 1919 to serve the rural town of Windsor, it survived each of those crises.
If you thought Windsor was a small town now, imagine what it was like back then.
The railroad ran through the town in those days and Route 460 was a dirt road.
By Michael Schwartz
michael.schwartz@insidebiz.com
To understand the evolution of Atlantic Orthopaedic Specialists, you need to understand the state of orthopedic medicine in the early 1900s.
There were no MRIs. There were no CAT scans. Crude forms of X-rays had been discovered a few decades prior and it's doubtful there were many of those lead vests handy.
If you tore one of your cruciate ligaments playing whatever sports existed in those days, there wasn't much anyone could do for you, let alone arthroscopic surgery.
