Business Generation

PROVIDENCE — Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee signed a law July 12 moving the state presidential primary vote to April from March in hopes of bringing more campaign attention and spending to the Ocean State.

The 2012 primary will be held April 24, the same day as primaries in Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania.

Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis, who initiated the legislation, said candidates are more likely to stop in Rhode Island if they can combine the visit with stops in nearby states.

“I’ve been calling for a national system of regional primaries since I first took office,” Mollis said in a statement. “They can make small states like ours more relevant.”

Mollis added that the law could “trigger a spurt of campaign spending here on everything from advertising to catering to phone banks.”

Rep. Donald Lally, D-Narragansett, North Kingstown, South Kingstown, and Sen. Erin Lynch, D

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Increasing access to super-fast broadband is more important than building roads in Sussex, according to business leaders. The call comes as council bosses say they aim to plug gaps in the service after an interactive map revealed parts of the county were well behind the national average.

Telecommunications watchdog Ofcom’s map showed that just 3% of homes in East Sussex were able to get superfast broadband. This compares to 92% of households in Brighton and Hove and 42% in West Sussex.

East Sussex County Council said by next year the service will be rolled out to homes in Hastings and Eastbourne.

A council spokesman said: “This will help to boost the economy of those two towns and East Sussex as a whole.

“We will now continue to lobby with the aim of securing this super-fast broadband for the entire county – especially for our rural areas where access to this technology is vital.

“However, our work on this isn’t just about seeking support from BT or from regional and national Government. “The county Read more…

Even if you’re terrible at accounting (but great with customers), you still know the basics of money: We want to be in the black instead of the red. I mean, red is my favorite color everywhere except on a financial statement.

A color can show you the bottom line about your company’s financial state at that point in time.  But what if you are in the red for one quarter and the profits from another quarter have to cover that expense? Or what if your financial statement is black, but not black ?—Meaning you could stand to have more profit, more buffer, more resources (after all, that’s what money is—a resource).

In my opinion, the small business bottom line is marketing (solutions that work).  Marketing is all-important, but unfortunately, it’s also the one thing that many small businesses (in my world) address last—or not at all.  When done right, marketing can improve your financial bottom line.  When done wrong, marketing can cost you more than you can afford to pay.

It’s Not About That

Online marketing is not about the website or the social network page. Offline marketing i

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WARWICK – Biomedical Structures, manufacturer of biomedical textiles for medical devices and other clinical applications, said in a news release it had record-setting capital growth the most recent quarter.

The company, however, did not disclose its investors or its quarterly results.

“2011 has been an exciting year for BMS,” said Biomedical Structures CEO and President John Gray. “Our acquisition of Concordia Medical has enabled us to deliver at improved speed, volume and scope for our medical device customers, and this second quarter is a direct reflection of that added ability.”

BMS said it has experienced a steady increase in demand for its textile development expertise. It has al

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Chris Zane, founder and president of Zane Cycles, offers a brilliant look at customer service and business growth through the tactics at a scrappy and innovative bicycle retailer.  Reinventing the Wheel: The Science of Creating Lifetime Customers sounds a little more technically researched than it actually is.  Yet Zane provides the right clues to the puzzle of building a retail organization and selecting the perfect elements to satisfy customers.  The book caught my eye while browsing a Barnes & Noble shop, so I asked the publisher for a review copy.

Great Service Begins the Moment a Person Enters Your Store

To get into Reinventing The Wheel you have to understand the author. Chris Zane loved bikes and business at a young age. He

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BOSTON – Verizon is axing its unlimited data plan as of Thursday, The Boston Globe reported Wednesday.

The new 2 gigabyte cap will only affect new customers so there is one more day to sign up for the carrier’s $30 per month unlimited data plan.

Verizon follows AT&T Inc., which did away with its unlimited data plan last year. T-Mobile still offers an unlimited service but slows down data transfers on heavy users. Sprint Nextel Corp. is the only top wireless company that still offers unlimited data plans, the newspaper said.

Cox Communications, which offers a $30 per month unlimited data plan for smartphone users, left the door open to a possible data cap in the future when asked by Providence Business News.

“We continuously evaluate our service and pricing options to ensure we’re meeting the needs of our customers,” Amy Quinn, spokeswoman for Cox, said in an emailed statement.

Verizon will offer new plans for data-hungry users – a 5 gigabyte data plan for $50 or 10 gigabytes for $80. Beyond

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