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Results for:

  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Grier Ferguson |
  • May 19, 2017
Best dressed

The fickle fashion industry can be tough on startups. Yet Camilyn Beth Leavitt has persevered — and prospered. 'Sales are your oxygen,' she says.

  • Entrepreneurs
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Traci McMillan Beach |
  • January 31, 2014
Loans with a click

Online lender OnDeck is touring the country to pitch to small businesses that can't get loans from a bank. As the company approaches servicing $1 billion in loans, CEO Noah Breslow says building trust remains a challenge.

  • Entrepreneurs
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Mark Gordon |
  • May 16, 2014
'Beneath the Beast'

Greg Murtagh, with a visionary approach to online advertising, has built a business on the verge of $300 million in sales in a decade. One secret: He targets the biggest of big clients.

  • Entrepreneurs
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Mark Gordon |
  • November 8, 2013
Stimulate success

Josh Evans, president of J.R. Evans Engineering, and Elizabeth Fountain, vice president, help property owners appeal for exclusion from high-risk flood zones.

  • Strategies
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Beth Luberecki |
  • May 20, 2016
Freeze frame

Christie Frankenstein came up with an idea for a genuine new product. Now she has to manage the growth.

  • Strategies
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Jean Gruss |
  • October 17, 2014
Economic forecast

Charlotte-Lee-Collier

  • Industries
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Beth Luberecki |
  • November 13, 2015
Here comes the sun

Florida isn't among the top 10 states for solar installations. One company, though, sees a brilliant future in the industry.

  • Strategies
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Lesley Dwyer |
  • February 19, 2025
$18.5M supersized adventure park to open in Lakewood Ranch

The 60,000-square-foot indoor Urban Air Adventure Park is being built on Professional Parkway.

  • Manatee-Sarasota
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Elizabeth King |
  • July 4, 2025
Venice manufacturer, boosted by surge in AI-hungry customers, grows rapidly

With a client list that includes corporate behemoths — hello, Amazon and Meta — DMSI has grown in terms of staff and space. But the CEO says this is a temporary "bandage" amid the skyrocketing need for its products.

  • Manatee-Sarasota
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Beth Luberecki |
  • November 27, 2025
Sarasota County resort blends old with new in $1.5M double-storm recovery

To recover from the 2024 storm season, Manasota Beach Club is blending the tried-and-true with the modern-day.

  • Manatee-Sarasota
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Mark Gordon |
  • August 27, 2025
Once-powerful Sarasota developer Henry Rodriguez reshapes, refocuses life

A go-star in development and politics, Henry Rodriguez now laments the direction his life took. "I was young, influential and making a ton of money," he says, "but I was miserable."

  • Leadership
  • By Elizabeth King |
  • February 7, 2026
Development exec behind 7 multimillion-dollar projects 'bullish' on region

While keeping costs down remains a core challenge, Kolter Urban says the market for its offerings on the west coast of Florida is in good shape. At stake: hundreds of units for millions of dollars.

  • Florida
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • May 30, 2012
Kaplan alleges how he was scammed

Sarasota real estate investor Marvin Kaplan has lost about $22 million in what his attorney alleges to be a Ponzi scheme involving Sarasota entrepreneur Larry Starr.

  • Law
  • By Elizabeth King |
  • January 30, 2026
Sarasota jeweler goes viral with videos — including baby squirrel

Jeweler Todd Alan's patient path to success in a competitive market is led by a core principle: building trust with clients.

  • Manatee-Sarasota
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Brian Hartz |
  • March 16, 2023
Activist investor explains decision to go public with performance concerns

Legion Partners Asset Management has challenged Tampa-based Primo Water Corp. for what it views as a subpar return on invested capital and customer growth.

  • Strategies
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Louis Llovio |
  • January 25, 2023
Battles between neighborhoods, developers are growing bigger — and louder

Development plans often lead to long skirmishes between neighbors looking to preserve the status quo and developers looking to build.

  • Commercial Real Estate
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • June 25, 2007
Coffee Talk

Ray Jay in play? Nay, they say: Shares of regional retail brokers shot up earlier this month in response to Wachovia Corp.'s announced deal to buy A.G. Edwards for $6.8 billion, creating the nation's No. 2 regional broker.Gulf Coast bank deal nearly complete: The sale of one Sarasota's most successful community banks is one step closer to being complete, as federal regulators have approved the $77 million deal between People's Community Bank and Birmingham, Ala.-based Superior Bancorp.Allen to the rescue, and make it quick: In its biggest acquisition to date, Naples-based software company Allen Systems Group completed the purchase of Mobius Management Systems for $211 million.Hip restaurant chain still might hit Sarasota: Coffee Talk hears that P.F. Chang's, the trendy Chinese bistro chain, will be coming to the Sarasota market after all - only not to Pineapple SquareMotley Fool takes aim at Jabil Circuit: The financial performance at Jabil Circuit, the St. Petersburg-based electronic products solutions company, drew the attention of one of the writers for the Motley Fool personal finance website recently.NCH Healthcare sells lab company: Naples-based NCH Healthcare, responding to competitive pressures on hospital services, sold off DSI Laboratories to LabCorp, the laboratory testing giant.Go ahead, befriend your colleagues: It turns out executives are comfortable with employees becoming friends with co-workers while on the job

  • News
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • April 6, 2007
Lending Lessons

Loan loss reserve portfolios are increasing up and down the Gulf Coast, and for good reason: Banks don't want to be left without a seat when the real estate music stops.

  • Entrepreneurs
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • October 12, 2007
Prescription for Success

Get doctors and nurses involved in the medical-supply buying process and an amazing thing happens: hospitals save millions of dollars. Here's how a cooperative effort by two Southwest Florida hospital groups does it.

  • Entrepreneurs
  • For Subscribers Only
  • By Business Observer Staff |
  • February 8, 2008
Follow Follit

Evelyn Follit has spent most of her working life defying stereotypes. The latest: Proving career coaches can be a great asset for any executive.

  • Entrepreneurs
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