Mighty Spouse
Behind every great man is a great woman. Just ask Henry Ross Perot. Read story
Mike Hofman
All the President's Mail
Peter Valcarce is a direct marketer with a mission: to get Republicans elected. Read story
Birdseye's View
How Clarence Birdseye borrowed the concept of refrigeration from the Eskimos and sold it to the rest of us. Read story
A Twist of Fate
Movie producer John Davis was such a fan of Wetzel's Pretzels that he decided to see if he could buy a piece of the company. Read story
Sight for Sore Eyes
Recuperating from corrective eye surgery, Steve Marcum got the idea for SportEYZ, his patented sunglasses. Read story
In the Line of Pliers
After living with risk daily, what does a longtime Secret Service agent do for an encore? Become an entrepreneur. Read story
Uncle Sam Wants Chew
How Philip Wrigley pitched in for the war effort in 1945. Read story
Eyes on the Rides
MetsSignal Inc. can help you capture those precious vacation moments, without having to lug your camera everywhere. Read story
Enter the Dragon
How do you reconcile a love for Hollywood glitz with an admiration for cost-conscious Asian filmmaking? Ask Robert Cain. Read story
Oprah Gets Psyched
How Oprah gets psyched for boardroom showdowns -- and other pearls overheard at the nation's top daylong conference of female execs. Read story
Gender Benders, Rejoice
The origins of Avon. Read story
Q
Despite runaway growth, ZF Micro Devices is hiring additional staff only sparingly. That's because CEO David Feldman is haunted by a mistake he made a decade... Read story
It Takes All Kinds
Herb Stokes knows how to make diversity work for his $6-million company. Now he's on a mission to make it work for the rest of corporate America as well. Read story
Who Wants To Be A Milliner?
New England's apparel industry has been in decline for decades. But that hasn't stopped Ken Schwartz from making a fortune in the hat business. The story of ... Read story
Hot Tip: Payroll Taxes
The new way the IRS collects payroll taxes could affect millions of small businesses. Read story
Hot Tip: Board Meetings
Get the maximum value from your board of directors. Read story
Frank Lautenberg: My Biggest Mistake
Frank Lautenberg, cofounder of Automatic Data Processing Inc. and former U.S. senator from New Jersey, discusses an unwise acquisition. Read story
The Shadow of Domestic Violence
"It shouldn't be the business of business to get involved in employees' lives." But domestic violence is different. Read story
Hot Tip: Improving Office Decor for Free
One company in Cleveland is using its space to showcase local artists, benefiting the artists and the company. Read story
Mark Gearan: My Biggest Mistake
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is not trusting your instincts. Read story
An American Start-Up
In 1999, a pair of Wharton grads started a company to build and sell a specialized computer mouse. They chronicled their experiences -- the trials and triump... Read story
Online Dry Cleaner Tries to Go National
Most of the buzz in dry cleaning today centers on big fish from other industries' ponds. But dry cleaning veterans like Siamak Ghazvini also want to trans... Read story
Upstarts: Dry Cleaning
An all-starch cast hopes to bring new-economy practices to the grubby business of cleaning people's clothes. Read story
Office Politicking
In last year's election Bush took Ohio and Gore claimed Oregon. Could a pair of Inc. 500 CEOs have been responsible for that? Read story
Carlos Alvarez: My Biggest Mistake
The chairman and CEO of the Gambrinus Co. -- an importer of beer -- reveals his biggest business mistake: overconfidence in his brand's ability to sell witho... Read story
Online Dry Cleaner Tries to Go National
Most of the buzz in dry cleaning today centers on big fish from other industries' ponds. But dry cleaning veterans like Siamak Ghazvini also want to trans... Read story
Dick Sabot: My Biggest Mistake
Dick Sabot is the cofounder and chairman of the board of eZiba.com and Tripod, and a director of Lycos Inc. He recounts the tale of his biggest an... Read story
A Network EKG
David Clark's company was losing big money because of its Web site's frequent crashes. New software designed to monitor the network has addressed his woes. Read story
Belated Business Success of a Reformed Politician
Company: Network Hardware Resale Inc. Year founded: 1986 Quiet period: Six years
Hot Tip: Don't Believe the (Analysts') Hype
If a big, newly public competitor of yours is getting good press, don't be alarmed about some new threat. First, do a little background check befo... Read story
Obits: Cold Feet Squash Minority-Supplier Site
Despite high-profile supporters and millions in seed capital, an online exchange for minority suppliers to the auto industry couldn't figure out how to make ... Read story
A Network EKG
David Clark's company was losing big money because of its Web site's frequent crashes. New software designed to monitor the network has addressed his woes. Read story
Snapshots: Late Bloomers
These entrepreneurs are hitting their stride later in life. Read story
Snapshots: Hall of Fame Second Acts
After Mark Hamister's company made the Inc. 500 list five times in the 1980s, he sold nearly all of it and semiretired. But he's caught the entrepre... Read story
Inc. 500 All-Stars: Then and Now
What happens to entrepreneurs after their companies make the Inc . 500 list? Interviews with 12 past and present Inc. 500 CEOs show that mos... Read story
Let's Get Physical
Four years ago E*Trade Group ( Inc. 500 list, 1996) was considered a threat to traditional retailing. Now the online stock brokerage is throwing itse... Read story
Norm the Obscure
One of America's most successful company builders -- Norman Waitt Jr. of Gateway -- remains relatively unknown. Read story
Movers and Shakers
The 2000 Inc. 500 list can count an impressive sampling of famous acquaintances. Think of it as a professional "six degrees of separation" game. Read story
Stifled Growth
The myth of the 25th employee Frayda Levin hates federal regulations, from controls on age discrimination to rules on how to treat... Read story
Hot Tip: Increase Foot Traffic
Independent retailer Brett Begley of ABC Hardware and Rental, a $5 million chain in the Buffalo area, bulks up the rental end of his business to i... Read story