Business Feeds

EVANSVILLE — Evansville Councilman John Friend on Tuesday urged the Evansville Redevelopment Commission to adopt a process that would better check bids for the Downtown hotel.

Although city officials had said their current vetting process is what led to the termination of their contract with Woodruff Hospitality, Friend said more should be done.

“I think there are a lot of moving parts there,” Friend, D-5th Ward, said. “I think going forward is great, but there’s a lot of money here.”

Friend spoke to the Redevelopment Commission just after it announced having received proposals from the Kunkel Hotel Group and Prime Lodging were identified to build a Hyatt Place hotel. The two gro Read more…

Google seems to have its hands in everything lately, and in what could come as interesting news for small business, the company is now getting into the credit card business.

World Financial Capital Bank is issuing a no-annual-fee card with an 8.99 percent interest rate. Google will co-brand the card with MasterCard and it will be available for small businesses to help them buy search-based advertising.

American Bankers website said that this “narrow-use” credit card may not be the best approach to appeal to small businesses looking for new advertising. The website quotes Brian Riley, a senior research director with TowerGroup, who said the card adds extra steps for Google and potential advertisers.

“A small business that wants to buy search advertising now has to apply for a card, then wait to get card-qualified, and go through those approval steps.

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Google announced on Monday it has bought the g.co domain, a URL shortcut that will link to official Google products and services. This way, Google will make its URLs easier to share and simpler to remember for users. The search company said the only downside to short URLs is that users can’t always tell what web page they are going to be redirected to.

“We’ll only use g.co to send you to web pages that are owned by Google, and only we can create g.co shortcuts,” Gary Briggs, Google’s VP of consumer marketing, said in a blog post. “That means you can visit a g.co shortcut confident you will always end up at a page for a Google product or service.”

Google launched goo.gl its public URL shortener in 2009 and the service will remain active for general URL shortening. “There’s no need

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In 2009, Jay Goltz was decreasing his inventory. Now, the owner of five Chicago businesses, and writer of The New York Times small business blog Youre the Boss, said he is re-investing in his businesses.

This may come as surprising news for small businesses, many of which have been saving money and holding their own. But Goltz said businesses who remain stable should try to push forward.

“[If] you can afford to take some calculated risks, this might be the time to get out of the bunker and try to get ahead of the pack,” Goltz said, adding that he is revamping the business for one of his shops and purchasing a bigger warehouse so he can buy in larger quantities to save money.

Goltz said many businesses need to focus on moving forward, taking some chances and building their company up instead of standing still.

If more business owners take the initiative to invest in their company, there could be a slight improvement in the economy by virtue of more jobs for small businesses.

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Yelp has reached an important milestone announcing that the social reviews and local search service now has more than 20 million reviews. To mark the big accomplishment, the company has created an infographic presenting various interesting stats.

The heatmap of reviews or as Yelp calls it “The United States of Yelp” outlined the most reviewed businesses, zip codes with most check-ins and other interesting facts, and proclaimed Chicago, IL as the “Third Yelpiest City in the World.”

The infographic also shows the growth path of the company since its inception in 2004. Yelp had hit its first million reviews in 2007 and climbed to 10 million in three years time. In little over a year, Yelp doubled that number. The com

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A council leader has pledged to listen to the views of the business community. Brighton and Hove City Council leader Bill Randall said the new Green administration needs a new, coherent and robust economic strategy to take the city forward.

He said: “To achieve this we will need to sit down with the local business community and listen to their views.

“The city council must do everything it can to help new ventures, retain and develop existing businesses and create more jobs and prosperity, and it must work in partnership with the local business community and other stakeholders.”

But the Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce said the economic strategy for Brighton and Hove is creaking with old age. Chamb Read more…

On Thursday Google held the second quarter 2011 earnings conference call revealing that the company has surpassed Wall Street forecasts and reached a new record for quarterly revenue. The search giant earned $9.3 billion for the second quarter, up by 32% from the same period last year.

Operating income was 32% of the revenues or $2.88 billion. Google’s net income for the quarter was $2.51 billion up from $1.84 billion in 2010 Q2. 69% of the search company’s revenue came from Google-owned sites that generated $6.23 billion in revenues, a 39% increase over a year period.

AdSense generated $2.48 billion, accounting for 28% of Google’s revenue. International revenues totaled $4.87 billion, representing 54% of total revenues. Non-G

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Did you know that many small businesses receive a major portion of their start-up costs from small business grants?

I’m sure you may hear grants being referred to as “free money” but it’s not. Grants

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In what some may consider interesting franchising news, Subway announced this week that a Toledo, Ohio, location inside of a Chrysler and Jeep assembly plant is the companys 8,000th non-traditional location.

“Non-traditional Subway restaurants come in all shapes and sizes and can be found just about anywhere,” said Don Fertman, chief development officer for Subway chains. He said because of the companys flexible floor plan and minimum need for space, they are suited to being in special sites.

Other notable non-traditional Subway locations include the True Bethel Baptist Church in Buffalo, New York, a new car showroom in California, a high school in Detroit and other locations.

An article publsihed on the Haynes and Boon website by Joyce G.

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