First He Built a Company
An iconic company, in fact: Viking Range, the economic engine of Greenwood, Mississippi. And then, because perhaps a local boy has a responsibility to do more, Fred Carl set about rebuilding Greenwood itself--buying and rejuvenating faded structures, setting up people in new businesses, and generally renewing civic optimism. These are the voices of Fred Carl's Greenwood.

• Martha Foose, Mockingbird Bakery
• Fred Carl, President and Founder of Viking Range
• Bridgette "Queen" Matthews, Viking Employee
• Harry Smith, the Mayor of Greenwood
• Betty Gammill, Delta Feed and Seed
• Slideshow: A New Kind of Company Town

How I Did It: John Stallworth, CEO, Madison Research
An athlete scores again.

Take Two Company Founders. Add 10 Years of 80-Hour Workweeks. Fold in a Formidable Outside Ceo. Mix Carefully. Very Carefully.
How the food company Two Chefs on a Roll grew up, and really started growing.

• Portrait of an Agile Manufacturer

Relax. Let Your Guard Down
Why patents, trademarks, and other intellectual property protections are bad--that's right, bad--for business.

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
The new alternative to banks and VCs: person-to-person lending.

• The Prosper Diaries

Smart Questions for Your Insurance Agent
Are you protected if a catastrophe hits? Quite possibly not. More than half of small businesses don't have business-interruption insurance, a recent survey found. Get on the case by asking these questions:

Marketing's New Vanguard: The Cubicle
Targeting consumers in their offices and cubicles.

• Workers of the World--Buy!

Ask Inc.
Deciding whether to hire a PR agency; making prototypes.

• Ask Roger Staubach

Case Study: Raymond Rathle Survived a Hurricane but Lost His Employees, Customers, and Insurance
Can his business be saved?

• Case Study Update: Downhill From Here

Pioneering the Web's Last Frontier
A plan to get rural businesses online.

Learning to Love Networking
How a shy guy became a master glad-hander.

Data Lockdown
Keeping your computer network safe.

Leisure: A Tale of 2 Golf Utopias
A golf utopia for your long game, another one for your short game. Only one, mind you, has an erupting volcano.

• Slideshow: The 10 Commandments of Golf Etiquette

Drives: Step Away From the Vehicle. No Photos, Please
The 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder is thrilling. Just be prepared for some stares.

Things I Can't Live Without: Michael Murdoch
Michael Murdoch, founder of Internet security firm AppRiver, has grown fond of a homicidal sock monkey.

My Place: Chris Plantan's Eclectic Cape Cod
Why Chris Plantan, founder of Russell+Hazel office supplies, has a little home office in every room of her house.

Editor's Letter

Mail

• Update: A Tea Company Teeters

Q&A: The Enron Juror

• Courtroom Sketchbook

Agenda 8/06

Strike It Rich

Brave New Policy: Debt-ucation Classes

When Defense Contractors Are Too Big to Be Small...

Mash-Up Mania

Assessing Vonage's Grim IPO

Entrepreneurs to Benefit from Buffett Windfall