MORE STORIES

• 

  FOCUS ON SMALL BUSINESS

  Helping your small business grow

  There are many ways for a small business to expand. We explore four: Reaching out to the global marketplace, making the leap from a home office to more professional digs, franchising your business and becoming a franchisee.

• Editor's Note

  When it comes to small business -- the mainstay of our local economy -- we'd like to see the garden grow. But we know it requires a little nurturing, and that's why we've continued to expand our small business coverage.

• WORKPLACE

  Five reasons to graduate from a home office

  At some point, as a home business grows, so does the need for more employees and desks. When you outgrow your space, it's time to move out.

• Focus on Small Business

• HURRICANE PREP

  Write your way to storm relief

  Small businesses in Miami-Dade and Broward counties have until June 23 to try to persuade Office Depot to give their establishments a hurricane makeover.

• ENTREPRENEURSHIP

  Miami-Dade students honored in business plan contest

  Eric Mund, a sophomore at John A. Ferguson Senior High, won first place in thefirst annual South Florida Youth Business Plan Competition held last week.

• PROCUREMENT

  200 small businesses attend summit

  Almost 200 small businesses rubbed elbows with 18 government agencies and private procurement officers last week at the second-annual Small Business Summit, sponsored by the Small Business Administration and the Veterans Administration.

• Nurturing Nicaragua

  A new, socially responsible form of microinvesting is being tested in Nicaragua.

• The Game Guy

  Eric Poses's company, All Things Equal, recently launched a board game called The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest. While the likes of PlayStation 3 and Tickle Me Elmo X-treme hog headlines and spark riots, Poses is hoping his brand of low-key, creative fun (no batteries required) will help his company claim a bigger chunk of the $22 billion toy market.

• Must I go to work?

  Each hurricane season workers have to juggle their jobs with preparing for a storm. But many have three big questions about work: Do I have to go? Will I be paid? What do I do with my kids? The Miami Herald spoke to a few local labor lawyers to get their input.

• Surveying the situation

  Businesses are finally starting to think more highly of Miami-Dade's K-12 educational system, saying local schools are no longer such a negative factor when recruiting new workers or companies to the area. The bad news: Rising insurance costs and worries about hurricanes are seen as not only increasingly important but also as factors that make doing business here much more difficult, according to an annual survey of local companies by the Beacon Council, Miami-Dade County's public/private economic development agency.

Previous