7C
BUSINESS^ Ctarlutte
Thursday, January 19, 2006
After Katrina, cafe searches for at risk teens that haven’t returned
Continued from p£ige 8C
beans and rice with jalapeno
com bread or white beans
and shrimp _ five days a
week. Cafe Reconcile, like all
the other restaurants in the
city is short on employees,
but what it is really short of is
at-risk teenagers who once
lived on the hard-scrabble
streets around it.
“We’re serving food OK,”
said Cristine LouviOTe. "But
we’re not doing what we real
ly want to do. We can’t find
our kids now, and we don’t
have any of them back yet.”
Many of the houses in this
poor, heavily black section of
the dty are still deserted,
families scattered across the
country in the evacuation
that followed the hurricane.
Tfeenagers that once hiing out
on street comers are gone.
More than 300 people have
gone throu^ the restaurant’s
training program since it
started. Officials estimate
that about one in four go on to
full-time jobs.
‘Tf you can make a difier-
ence with on! person, that’s a
lot of difference,” said
Louviere, who supervises
training. “We’re talking about
kids that don't expect any
thing good in life.”
Each woricer at the cafe is
also a trainer, not only doing
his job, but showing the
trainees everything fiem bus
ing tables to kitchen tech
niques.
“It was the best job I ever
had," said Don Byrd, a chef at
the restaurant for over three
years before he left for the
Fairmont. “How many times
do you get a diance to make a
difference in someone’s life.
And I got to cook.”
There’s more incentive for
trainees now Since the hurri
cane, workers in restaurants
have seen wages increase.
The program itself will pay
trainees $8, $10 and up for
the six weeks they are there.
The restaurant also is well-
known for its accolades - it
was voted one of the top 40
restaurants in New Orleans
and one of the top 10 soul food
restaurants in a local publica
tion.
“There’s no shortage of jobs
for them once they finish the
program,” said Craig Cuccda,
who helped found the pro
gram.
Since the hurricane, the
cafe has started a $ 1.5 million
fundraising campaign to keep
the program running and
complete renovations. Among
its supporters are Chef
Emeril Lagasse, who has
supported the restaurant
through his foundation.
On a recent ni^t he used a
rare evening off fmm his
restaurants to cook dinner for
the police and fire figliters
that woik in the area, as well
as local families and other
guests. He also surprised
restaurant officials with the
announcement of a $25,000
donation.
‘T just thought, ‘Why wait?"
Lagasse said. “Everybody is
waiting, some are forced to
wait, but I would like to see
things move ahead here."
GTech, Scientific Games to bid for both contracts
Continued from page 8C
The first scratch-off tickets
could be sold by early April
and the numbers games,
starting with the multistate
Powerball game, could begin
in mid-June.
GTECH and Oberthur
teamed up with instant ticket
production and distribution
in Virginia in 2004, and
Wiczek said the North
Carolina bid was a similar
arrangement. GTECH also
announced eeirlier its week its
sale to an Italian-based lot
tery firm that has ticket
printing capabilities.
Scientific Games, whose lot
tery division is based in
Georgia, bid for both contracts
even though it is being inves
tigated for possibly breaking
state lobbying laws while the
Legislature debated creation
of the lottery this year.
Lottery leaders said Scientific
Games should be allowed to
bid because it has not been
convicted of any wrongdoing.
Copies of the contract bids
won’t be available until the
lottery commission blacks out
information that is consid
ered proprietary
Most of the work in deter
mining the winning bids wiE
be performed behind closed
doors by two separate evalua
tion teams, who were named
publicly Friday
A senior vice president of
the Kentucky Lottery is on
the scratch-off ticket panel,
while the operations director
for the Minnesota Lottery is
on the online committee.
Other members include three
North Carolina lottery
employees, two attorneys
fix>m an outside law firm and
a controller fiom the state
treasurer’s office.
The lottery commission this
week opened bidding for the
advertising and marketing
contract. Reteiilers have until
Feb. 3 to apply to sell tickets
if they want to be able to par
ticipate on the lottery’s open
ing day
On the Net:
North Carolina Education
Ijottery:
wwwdotteryju'^ov
GTECH Holdings:
www.GTECH x'om
Oberthur Gaming
Technologies:
wwwoherthurgteom
Scientific Games:
wwwscientificgameseom
Court upholds ruling against predatory loans
Continued from page dC
three days of obtaining the
loans, falsified documents to
reflect more than actual
assets and disregarded the
borrowers’ ability to repay
“These types of loans do not
serve the borrower’s wants or
needs,” Simpson wrote.
Low-income consumers targeted
The actual-damages
awards, which were based on
a 5 percent interest rate,
must be recalculated to take
into account whether the bor
rowers would have qualified
for that rate, the court said.
McGlawn lawyer Jeffiy
Homel welcomed the order to
recalculate the damages, but
said the commission acted
outside the scope of its
authority
“So anything beyond that is
disappointing,” he said
A number of lending prac
tices can be defined as
“predatory,” but the McGlawn
case centered on allegations
of “reverse redlining,” in
which credit is extended on
unfair terms in geographic
areas based on income, race
or ethnicity
The commission said the
company arranged loans with
hig^ interest rates, prepay
ment penalties and balloon
payments; charged high fees,
some undisclosed; used hi^-
pressure sales tactics; and
didn’t fully disclose details of
the loans.
On the Net:
Opinion:
wwwjcourts state paiis/OpPosti
nglCWealthlout/2763CD04_l-
13-06
pdf
Virtual offices give new businesses a veneer of permanence
By Elaine Aradillas
ORLANDO SENTINEL
CELEBRATION, Fla. -
-When Kirby Ryan meets
with clients interested in his
medical services, they sit
around a polished wooden
desk inside a wdl-appointed
executive office in downtown
Celebration
But Ryan must make an
appointment to use the office
at 215 Celebration Place
because he’s allotted only 16
hours a month there. Most of
his time is spent at his home
office 10 blocks away where a
spare room is lined with lap
tops and file cabinets.
About 150 small businesses
share Suite 500 on the fifth
floor in a corporate park sur
rounded by lakes and mani
cured lawns. Users pay $250
per month for a package that
includes an elite mailing
address, an answering ser
vice and occasional office
space.
It’s called a “virtual office,”
and for small-business own
ers - who choose not to or can
not pay for expensive and
scarce office space - it’s a way
to look big-time at a small
time price.
“It gives the appearance of
a professional office setting
when you need that setting,”
said Ryan, whose Clinical
Mobility business sets up flu-
shot clinics and diagnostic
services at retailers and
employers across the country
Adding to that professional
appearance, he said, is the
receptionist’s computer that
t^ls her which busings a
dient is calling for, allowing
her to answer the phone with
a greeting that includes the
business’s name.
For some people, it’s better
to say they have a business
space, ‘Versus working out of
a home office or garage apart
ment,” Ryan said
\Trtual offices have become
the modern-day post office
box, but with a physical
address. Budding entrepre
neurs no longer have to con
duct business at their local
Starbucks coffee shop, where
they compete for table space,
electrical outlets and a quiet
moment between uses of the
espresso machine to make a
phone call.
People are attracted to
doing business with compa
nies that have established
reputations, said A1 Polfer,
director of the Small
Business Development
Center at the University of
Central Florida.
“Celebration denotes suc
cess,” Polfer said, referring to
the upscale Osceola commu
nity near Walt Disney World.
“It’s a high-rent area. It
would give a perception of
success.”
In Kissimmee, while busi
ness people are placed oti a
waiting list to rent “hard"
office space to call their own,
they can purchase a full-ser
vice virtual package for $227
per month at Park Hill Place
Executive Center.
Owner Pam Eaton, who
runs the virtual office at John
Young Parkway and Oak
Street, said office space in
Osceola County is tight -
occupancy is above 90 per
cent - and some people don’t
need a lot of it.
“They don’t need an office
because they’re on the road,”
she said. “They come in,
touch down for a little while
and take off again.”
There’s plenty of anecdotal
evidence to suggest that vir
tual offices are popular. But
with only ein occupational
license to prove they exist,
the thin paper trail makes it
difficult to report how many
people are using them.
Carol Ann Djites is the
chief operating officer for
UCFs Tfechnology Incubator,
where startup high-tech com
panies receive guidance in
business development. She
said her operation provides
real office space but also
assists two or three virtual-
office clients.
‘Tt’s not too surprising it
(growth in virtual offices) is
occurring because of the
growing level of entrepre
neurs and the growing num
ber of home-based business
es,” she said
Experts agree that virtual
offices are a result of evolving
technology It’s not much dif
ferent fium post office boxes
used by people who conduct
business at home.
\Trtual offices are well-
known among business peo
ple, said Polfer, whose center
offers seminars and counsel
ing to small-business owners.
But if customers fe^ they are
being misled by the setup,
then it’s up to them to do the
research
“It’s not a deception,” Polfer
said “That is your technical
business address.”
He added that seme busi
ness owners claim to have
locations in Rome, Vienna or
London, but sometimes those
locations are nothing more
than a virtual office.
“People likp to do business
with people they know or
trust. TVust can come fium a
misplaced belief that you’re
weU-established. Tf that claim
is important, you need to
check on it,” he said
Nidc Mowery is the region
al director for EBC Office
Centers, which provides the
virtual offices with a
Celebration address. He calls
himself the “cruise director,”
and many clients said he fos
ters a networking relation
ship among the business peo
ple who work fix)m there.
Plans dropped for dairy farm
near historic black settlement
Continued from page 8C
Holland founder of a citi2ens group formed
to fight the farm. “I know that it takes per
sistence.”
‘Tt’s a terrific victory for folks trying to pre
serve their rural environment and pres«*ve
a really important piece of Ohio’s history”
added Ellis Jacobs, of the Longtown
Preservation Committee.
State Sen. Tbm Roberts, D-Dayton, sponsor
of a bOl that would put a moratorium on the
construction of large farms, said the decision
paves the way for the site to be restored
“Vreba-Hoff has recognized the historic
value of that area,” Roberts said
Palestine is about 35 miles northwest of
Dayton.
On the Net:
Vreba-Hoff:
Point
your mouse
onto the
latest news.
www.thecharlottepost.com
-Say Yes To Success!
“Dr. Arrington shows home-based business owners bow to
add 20-30 people per week, week in and week out without fail, to
their businesses.
Dr. Carl Arrington, Director of Market Expantion
It’s Not the End
When we first start along the road to
success, it can begin as a very exciting
time. You can feel excited and a bit
anxious all at the same time. As you
think about your dreams that you have
for yourself, everything can look .so
promising and positive. As the saying
goes, it seems like the sky is the limit.
Our imaginations can take us to places
where perhaps we never dreamed of
going. There is nothing that seems
impossible. We believe that we will be
able to accomplish everything that we
have ever dreamed about doing.
However, for most of us, somewhere
along the road to success, we eventually
run into obstacles to our dreams. It may
be that something that we may have
tried does not turn out exactly as we had
imagined. We do not get the results that
we thought we would have. Something
that we tried did not work out as we
thought is should have.
When this happens, we may feel like
failures. Sometimes the thought even
comes to us to give up on our dreams
and simply settle for what we can get
out of life rather than going after what
we really want. We think that our
dreams are over because we have failed.
The truth of the matter is that no
matter what we may go through or how
negative something may seem, it does
not have to stop us from realizing our
dreams. Failure will only stop us if we
allow it to stop us from achieving our
heart’s desire.
When disappointing things come our
way, it is up to us to decide if we will
let them stop us or if we will go on in
the pursuit of our dreams anyway.
When negative things happen to us, it
does not have to be the end of our
dreams.
It is all up to us. We mu.st decide if
we will stop or if we will go forward
and make our dreams come true
regardless of what may come our way.
In your journey along the road to
success, remember the words of Phyllis
Bottome who once said, "There is
nothing final about a mistake, except its
being taken as final."
WANT TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE?
Contact Dr. Arrington for details 704-591-1988 • cUtpj inaxiniuinsucce99.com
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