By Hope Belli Tinney, Washington SBDC
MONTESANO, Wash. – One day Laura Raykowski, a nurse practitioner and owner of Hometown Family Health, walked out of an exam room to see her office manager talking to an indigent patient about billing.
By Hope Belli Tinney, Washington SBDC
WAUCONDA, Wash. – John and Tree Kiesecker had quit their day jobs, he as an orchardist and she as a nurse, and were scrambling to make ends meet when they heard about the free business advising services of the Washington Small Business Development Center. They made an appointment to talk with Lew Blakeney, the SBDC advisor in Okanogan County.
By Hope Belli Tinney, Washington SBDC
TUKWILA, Wash. – If your furnace is working overtime and you still have a cold, drafty house, the usual suspects are old windows and poor insulation. Or maybe a worn out furnace.
By Hope Belli Tinney, Washington SBDC
LEAVENWORTH, Wash. – For more than a decade Mike Arnold was one of the most successful insurance agents in Washington, specializing in writing high cash-value life insurance policies.
By Hope Belli Tinney, Washington SBDC
SPOKANE, Wash. – More than 500 new golf courses opened in the United States in 1999, the year agronomist/turf grass consultant Jim Connolly launched Planet Turf in Spokane, Wash.
By Hope Belli Tinney, Washington SBDC
OLYMPIA, Wash. – As a college senior in business administration, Myles Kirchmeier planned to start a business by his early 30s – the age his father was when he opened a heating and cooling company. But Mike Kirchmeier asked his son what he was waiting for: “All you have right now is time and energy,” he said. “Why not take the risk when you are young?”
By Hope Belli Tinney, Washington SBDC
BELLEVUE-REDMOND, Wash. – To help entrepreneurs and local startup businesses, Don Yates, a certified business advisor with the Washington Small Business Development Center (SBDC), has begun providing confidential, one-on-one, no-cost, expert business advising in Bellevue and Redmond.
By Hope Belli Tinney, Washington SBDC
LONGVIEW, Wash. – When Tabitha Beneke’s father died in 2012 and she inherited his locksmith business, the three long-time employees of Keys Plus faced several possible scenarios, none of them pretty.
By Hope Belli Tinney, Washington SBDC
LONGVIEW, Wash. – When people walk out of a doctor’s office or health clinic they might feel a range of emotions, from relieved to worried, but rarely do they feel wonderful. Wonderful is the emotion that Barbara Sudar and partner Kim Schlais wanted to capture when they purchased Estetica Day Spa in Longview in 2008.
By Hope Belli Tinney, Washington SBDC
DES MOINES, Wash. – Starting your own business is stressful enough, but doing so just months after your wife is diagnosed with breast cancer takes stress to a whole new level.