Julia Jamieson's blog

Weaving webz for small business

In today’s digital age, it’s nearly unheard of to not have some sort of online presence, especially for businesses that frequently utilize the Internet to market to their customer base and sell their product.  And yet, a vast 52% of small businesses do not have a website.

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Two engineers join forces to “nspire” their community

What started as a chance encounter between two community-minded engineers at a conference blossomed into a lasting partnership and an innovative small business focused on public engagement and environmental planning.

Nspiregreen, the brainchild of business partners Veronica Davis and Chancee Lundy, is a Washington, D.C.-based environmental and urban planning consulting firm.

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KEZI sexy cool

The best pieces of art are often transformative. What starts out as one thing can take on a new shape, meaning or purpose for someone else. It’s the out-of-box creativity and perception of an artist that can take one piece and make it something wholly different and unique – an artist like Olivia Ashjian James, for example.

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All aboard the Churros Locos-motive

A vacation that turned out to be more work than play sparked a crazy idea for Isabel Sanchez and her husband, Daniel Huerta, that led to Portland’s red-hot food truck, Churros Locos.

During a trip along the Oregon coast, Sanchez and her husband met a gelato business owner who was lamenting about the lack of smell exuding from his shop to attract customers. In a flash, inspiration struck.

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The origin of the Empanada Fork

Picture this: a young woman, Hipatia Lopez, is hosting a holiday party and working furiously to get her festive spread ready in time. Her husband is in the kitchen, frantically whipping up 100 empanadas to serve, a party favorite of the Lopezes’. Lopez enlists the help of her three children to seal 100 empanadas, a task she comes to find as dauntingly time-consuming. Then, inspiration strikes.

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Another SHOP delay could hurt small firms looking for affordable insurance

There could be bad news on the horizon for small business owners looking forward to joining the new small business marketplaces next year: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is considering yet another delay in expanding the small group market and the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) to small firms with 50-99 employees. This would be disappointing news because expanding the small group market next year will increase the size of the insurance pool, which benefits the healthcare system overall.

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