Julia Jamieson's blog

Pennsylvania Pet Store Provides Salubrious Sustenance

It only took a six-minute drive home from a friend’s house for Andrea Deutsch to arrive at a business concept that would make the one-time lawyer into the proud owner of a pet store that’s equal parts Whole Foods and L.L. Bean.

In other words, Pennsylvania’s pampered pet utopia.

“Spot’s – The Place for Paws” is Deutsch’s six-minute epiphany come to life; still the cat’s meow after 11 years in business in Narberth, PA.

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Karen Mills On Investing In America’s Small Businesses

John Arensmeyer

Karen Mills, former SBA Administrator, just posted a terrific blog about the importance of greater investment in America’s infrastructure to small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Ms. Mills’ remarks, presented at the 2014 America on the Move Summit at Harvard Business School, outline how investments in infrastructure will help businesses grow in the present while keeping them competitive for the future.

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F. Garcia Wholesale & Export A Family Affair

Vitto Campuzano knows selling grains and beans isn’t a particularly sexy business. But who needs sex appeal when you operate a reputable family-owned business approaching its 40th year as a global wholesale and export leader?

F. Garcia Wholesale & Export, founded in 1974 and based out of Miami, is a bulk bean and grain supplier that sources, trades and supplies agricultural commodities from different regions throughout North America, Europe, Haiti, Mexico and Africa, to name just a few.

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Amping Up Vehicle Efficiency Standards

Last week, the president directed the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Transportation to move forward with the next round of fuel efficiency standards for medium and heavy-duty trucks by March 2016. This is great news for small business owners who, according to our polling, overwhelmingly support greater fuel efficiency standards because they will help save on fuel costs and boost entrepreneurs’ bottom lines.

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ClaireSquares offers tasty treats that are anything but square

With a kitschy-cool name, a refined artisan product and recipes handed down from an old Irish family cookbook, Claire Keane has created a standout business in the already crowded kitschy-cool/artisan San Francisco market.

ClaireSquares brings the city by the Bay handcrafted Irish sweet treats, inspired by Keane’s mother and the recipes they used to bake when she was a child back in County Cork.

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START retirement bill good for Washington

Terry Gardiner

The state House of Representatives’ recent passage of the Save Toward a Retirement Today (START) bill is a step in the right direction for Washington’s small businesses and their workers. START would help small employers by giving them the option of creating a simple, state-managed retirement account for their employees and themselves.

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Testing 1-2-3: Next Step Test Prep offers alternative exam tutoring

John Rood was always a natural test-taker. What dawned on him, though, while training to teach giant prep courses for graduate level exams is that this model of tutoring lacked the detail to help the average student.

Thus came the idea for Next Step Test Prep, an alternative test preparation small business that focuses on individual, one-on-one tutoring for each student. Rood found that his experience with the one-on-one format was “extremely effective.”

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Red Truck Bakery delivers Southern style, charm and moonshine-infused treats to a national clientele

How does a former magazine art director become the owner of one of the most heralded bakeries – The New York Times, Esquire and Southern Living are among the many singing it’s praises – in the country? The answer starts with a red, 1954 Ford F-100 purchased from Tommy Hilfiger.

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