Entrepreneurs

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Business Observer Staff
March 16, 2007

Dividend Delight

William Schoen led a deal to borrow $3.25 billion and give long-suffering shareholders a $2.4 billion dividend. Here's an inside look at why and how the deal came together.

Entrepreneurs

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Business Observer Staff
March 16, 2007

Hospital Survival

Hospital operators in Southwest Florida are fighting to keep their organizations profitable, but they're taking different approaches. Which strategy will pay off?

Entrepreneurs

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Business Observer Staff
March 16, 2007

'We're onto something Big'

EpicTide is at the forefront of a national push to protect patient medical records from thieves. Health care fraud cost an estimated $80 billion to $120 billion annually.

Entrepreneurs

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Business Observer Staff
March 16, 2007

'If not us, then who?'

A Gulf Coast nursing home is plowing ahead with a $23 million renovation project, despite being part of an industry that's a nasty combination of costly and unprofitable.

Entrepreneurs

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Business Observer Staff
March 16, 2007

An entrepreneur's chat with others about starting a bank turns into reality as the group hires a CEO and files an application with state regulators to form GulfShore Bank. It has raised several million dollars in the first couple weeks of its capital campaign.

Entrepreneurs

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Business Observer Staff
March 16, 2007

Chasing the Best

Secrets are for sharing, not storing. So says the founder of a Gulf Coast-based business who lets all his employees see the firm's financials.

Entrepreneurs

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Business Observer Staff
March 9, 2007

Not Your Father's Chamber

Night life. Condo towers. Hip retail shops. St. Petersburg isn't what it used to be. It's a vibrant, changing city.

Entrepreneurs

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Business Observer Staff
March 9, 2007

Save Our Homes ... again

Lee County Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson, the father of the 'Save Our Homes' amendment, says he's in favor of a proposal to eliminate property taxes for homesteaded properties. But less radical reform is the more likely outcome, he concedes.

Entrepreneurs

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Business Observer Staff
March 9, 2007

How to Wow 'Em

BankAtlantic CEO Jarett S. Levan was in the Tampa Bay area recently to meet employees and personally thank them for their service.Many of BankAtlantic's 300 employees in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties showed up at the Florida Aquarium for the annual employee appreciation event, called Red Carpet Night.Levan, who succeeded his father, Alan Levan, as CEO in January, hopes that his one-on-one interaction with employees will help foster the type of relationship the bank wants employees to have with customers."We have a culture that we call the 'wow experience,'" Levan says. "It's a culture of wowing our associates and wowing our customers."

Entrepreneurs

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Business Observer Staff
March 9, 2007

Nailing it In

The 200-year-old nail industry isn't exactly a high-tech magnet. That hasn't stopped a trio of Gulf Coast entrepreneurs determined to hammer the industry with innovation.

Entrepreneurs

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Business Observer Staff
March 9, 2007

The Fast Track

Elaine Kaup has spent her entire life defying odds, both personal and business, including a meteoric rise to the top of the AT&T corporate food chain.

Entrepreneurs

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Business Observer Staff
March 9, 2007

Preparing for the big rebound - in '08

New head of the Bonita Bay Group, Kitty Green, is not expecting much strength in real estate this year, but is planning for a bounce in 2008, and expects a return to vigorous levels in 2009.

Entrepreneurs

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Business Observer Staff
March 2, 2007

Masters of organic growth

An activist hedge fund tried to force Outback Steakhouse to divest several of its restaurant concepts last year to boost short-term performance, but Emory University Business Professor Edward D. Hess has only praise for the Tampa-based chain.Outback, which has changed its name to OSI Restaurant Partners Inc., is the only Florida company studied by Hess and included in his recently released book, "The Road to Organic Growth: How Great Companies Consistently Grow Marketshare."

Entrepreneurs

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Business Observer Staff
March 2, 2007

Like Mom, Like Sons

There'll be no extended vacations to re-charge for entrepreneur Pamela Kauten, who sold Florida CareerLINK.com last month to a New York company.Kauten, 48, who built the Tampa Bay area site to more than $1 million in revenue over the past 10 years, plans to start a new dot-com venture with sons, Nick, 26, and Adam, 23.But she's remaining mum about the project, proposed by her youngest son, until July 1, when she unveils the site.The past six months were hectic for Kauten as buyer Eric Straus of Poughkeepsie, N.Y.-based RegionalHelpWanted.com completed the due diligence process.

Entrepreneurs

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Business Observer Staff
March 2, 2007

Building the Future

Kraft Construction Co. is the largest builder on Florida's Gulf Coast with more than 500 employees and nearly $700 million in gross revenues in 2006. Based in Naples, the company has been expanding its reach from Collier and Lee counties northward into Charlotte and Sarasota counties. It is now beginning to do work in Tampa Bay.John Pinholster is the new president of Kraft, taking over for co-founder Robert Carsello. Here is an extended executive session with the man who will be guiding the company.

Entrepreneurs

« 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 »

Dividend Delight

Hospital Survival

'We're onto something Big'

'If not us, then who?'

Not Just Talk

Chasing the Best

Not Your Father's Chamber

Save Our Homes ... again

How to Wow 'Em

Nailing it In

The Fast Track

Preparing for the big rebound - in '08

Masters of organic growth

Like Mom, Like Sons

Building the Future

$27M beach restoration project in Venice underway

Report: Florida CEOs post record high optimism levels

St. Pete mayor chooses team for coveted Gas Plant project

Is Polk County the next stop for Gov. DeSantis?

$1 billion Tampa development grows tenant roster

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