Troy (Michigan)

Why The Secretaries Aren't Very Worried

Does the office of the future make you nervous? Maybe your secretary can reassure you. According to a survey by Kelly Services Inc., the temporary-help ...  Read more

Pagers That Say Who Called

Prices for alphanumeric pagers, which can display messages, have dropped.  Read more

Tips on Landing Fed Contracts

The National Defense Industrial Association will host a two-day conference in Michigan next month aimed at helping entrepreneurs do business with the gove...  Read more

Lender Oversight Slammed

A federal watchdog says the government isn't doing enough to monitor small-business lenders.  Read more

First Steps to Foreign Markets

Scouting out foreign markets can be intimidating. Where do you start when you've never tried it before? There are three steps a company can take to...  Read more

Seminar Looks at Email Marketing Strategies

Comerica Bank and the Walsh Business Leadership Institute are sponsoring a small business seminar next month focusing on email marketing strategies, organ...  Read more

Solar Power Gets Cheaper, But Never Cheap Enough

When the U.S. space program began using them on its satellites in the late 1950s, solar cells cost more than $1,000 per peak watt (Wp). At that price, a p...  Read more

Less is beautiful

Advising customers to buy conservatively rather than getting stuck with merchandise.  Read more

Part-time bonuses

Paying bonuses to part-time workers to improve customer service.  Read more

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 more

Company Tracks Comments of Customers and Employees

Are you tired of tracking customer complaints with inefficient paper systems? So was AFFINA Corp., a Troy, Mich., supplier of market research and database...  Read more

The Best 4 Small-Business Neighborhoods in America

Here's what entrepreneurs are looking for when selecting a community for start-ups, and what they're finding.  Read more

The Corporate Blotter;

Los Angeles may be on the cutting edge of the trend to hold corporate executives criminally responsible for workplace deaths. But presecutors and legisla...  Read more

Letters

Not So Hard To Swallow I loved John Case's review of Tom Peters's new book, Thriving on Chaos ("Hard to Swallow," Required Reading, Nove...  Read more

The Smoke-Filled Tomb

An economist reveals which political party will be best for the health of the new economy and why.  Read more

Taking The Fear Out of Factoring

With more and more reputable companies entering the factoring business, services have greatly improved. But factors' bottom line use remains the same: provid...  Read more

Are You Rich Yet?

Their wealth may look enormous on paper, but Inc 500 CEOs generally don't describe themselves as rich. You may disagree.  Read more

Sumner and His Discontent

Did the 83-year-old tycoon cross the line by firing Tom Cruise with so much fanfare? Or did he demonstrate strong leadership?  Read more

Temporary Offices with All the Frills

Inc. survey of furnished temporary office spaces.  Read more

Exporting;

The strong dollar has proved a formidable adversary for U.S. companies that are interested in developing new markets. But it shouldn't stop exporters fro...  Read more

How To Get A Fix On Free Ad Dollars

Companies are dreaming up new ways to spend co-op advertising dollars -- and reaping the rewards of greater exposure.  Read more

Where To Start

The best way to begin the planning process is to challenge basic assumptions.  Read more

#8 TEMPS & CO. WASHINGTON, D.C. Many INC. 500 companies are wife-and-husband teams, but so far as we can tell, this is the only sister-brother c...  Read more

Garage Sales

George Field is bringing marketing flair to the growing but drab ministorage industry.  Read more

Note: This table may be divided, and additional information on a particular entry may appear on more than one screen. Sales growth (1980-84)Read more

In The Public Eye

One day last spring, Rick Inatome -- the youthful and by all accounts healthy CEO of Inacomp Computer Centers Inc., a Troy, Mich.-based retailing chain --...  Read more

Boosting Software Sales

Software publishers learn more about retail customers through grass-roots market research and dealer councils.  Read more

Broken Promises

The bitter truth about partnerships between large automotive corporations and their suppliers.  Read more

Is This Any Way to Run a Family?

Hoping to inspire, to teach responsibility and instill determination, Tom Parsons decided to start a business with his 15-year-old son. It seemed like a good...  Read more

White Knight of Kitty Litter

Edward Lowe Industries Inc. helps small manufacturers with advice and capital.  Read more

The Inc. 100 Portfolio;

John Cade's briefcase was all that survived when his twin-engine Cessna crashed just after takeoff last January. The briefcase landed in the parking lot ...  Read more

The Inc. 500

Note: This table may be divided, and additional information on a particular entry may appear on more than one screen. Sales Growth 197781 Perc...  Read more

How to Read Between the Lines

Group of CEOs share their tactics for evaluating a resume.  Read more

Money Matters

Getting paid on time in a tough economy  Read more

Getting It

News flash: The Internet has changed business as we know it. Nobody knows that better than Rick Inatome, founder of the Fortune 500 company Inacom. ...  Read more

Have It Your Way

Mass customization is a popular trend in the business-to-business arena. Read how manufacturing and communications technology have allowed small companies to...  Read more

The 100-year-old Start-up

M. Jacob Sons was founded in 1882 . . . and 1921 . . . and 1963 . . . and again in 1982. Four times now, one generation has succeeded another, an...  Read more

Why Everybody's Talking About "just In Time"

A new approach to reducing costly inventories may seem like a lot of common sense, but for many U.S. companies, it is revolutionizing the way they run their ...  Read more