Before the bubbly started flowing, BizSense asked a few local business owners about their resolutions were for 2009. Here are the responses:
Name: Jeffrey Moore, Managing Director
Age: 48
Company: Matrix Capital Markets Group, Inc..
Number of Employees: 27
Industry: Investment Banking / Merger & Acquisition Advisory
Business resolutions:
We are pleased that we closed two transactions in December, including the sale of a company on December 31. We wish to continue this success, as well as our overall company growth during this challenging credit environment.
Personal Resolutions:
To spend more time with my family.
Industry Resolutions:
That out of the Wall Street meltdown, investment banking firms that strayed from solid fundamentals and ethical conduct will have learned from it, and will modify their behavior and culture.
Name: Jocelyn Tice
Age: 35
Company: Green Duck Biodegradables
Number of Employees: 1
Industry: Compostable Food Packaging
Business Resolutions:
To grow the business and make Green Duck compostable packaging easily available for individual purchase for mainstream, home use.
Personal Resolutions:
I will continue to educate myself on ways to reduce waste and research new “green” technologies.
Industry Resolutions:
To make buying environmentally-friendly products easily accessible and more affordable for everyone.
Name: Chelsea Lahmers
Age: 31
Company Name: Scoot Richmond, LLC
Number of Employees: 6 now, closer to 12 in the spring/summer/fall
Industry: Motorscooter sales, repair, and parts. Riding gear for motorcycles and scooters.
Business Resolutions:
– Improved financial accountability on all fronts.
– Finding new ways to specifically target potential new customers who may not even know that they want a scooter, with emphasis on more suburban dwellers.
– Making sure that we have a fantastically awesome and well trained staff when the spring weather hits to ensure that all customers get the best customer service.
– Streamlining and improving various processes to avoid “fire drills” and make communication on all matters smoother.
– Repainting the floor before spring comes, and finding some amazing way to get all of the mammal hair out of the couch in the showroom.
– Finding more music for the store that doesn’t cause discomfort in customers (easy) and also doesn’t make me cringe (difficult). And of course, general awesomeness/world domination.
Personal resolutions:
Make sure that my mouth stops making promises that my ass can’t keep.
Learning to kayak.
Industry Resolutions:
-Better handle on product supply, including more foresight in terms of spare parts requirements and shipping vehicles to me even kind of on time.
-Big huge hopes that the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicle Dealers starts cracking down on companies that are illegally selling crap Chinese scooters, as per Pennsylvania.
-I’d like to see new regulations regarding the moped classification in Virginia, including required registration and plates for vehicles considered mopeds. The theft problem would be a LOT easier to tackle if all bikes had to have tags. And then there’s the totally far-out wish that Virginia does something like Tennessee, which allows vehicles up to 125cc be ridden without a motorcycle license (but with tags and insurance and all of that). That would encourage so many more folks to get a scooter that is actually quick enough to not get you run over if you live in the county, and in turn more folks would realize that riding a scooter is a great way to live greener.
Before the bubbly started flowing, BizSense asked a few local business owners about their resolutions were for 2009. Here are the responses:
Name: Jeffrey Moore, Managing Director
Age: 48
Company: Matrix Capital Markets Group, Inc..
Number of Employees: 27
Industry: Investment Banking / Merger & Acquisition Advisory
Business resolutions:
We are pleased that we closed two transactions in December, including the sale of a company on December 31. We wish to continue this success, as well as our overall company growth during this challenging credit environment.
Personal Resolutions:
To spend more time with my family.
Industry Resolutions:
That out of the Wall Street meltdown, investment banking firms that strayed from solid fundamentals and ethical conduct will have learned from it, and will modify their behavior and culture.
Name: Jocelyn Tice
Age: 35
Company: Green Duck Biodegradables
Number of Employees: 1
Industry: Compostable Food Packaging
Business Resolutions:
To grow the business and make Green Duck compostable packaging easily available for individual purchase for mainstream, home use.
Personal Resolutions:
I will continue to educate myself on ways to reduce waste and research new “green” technologies.
Industry Resolutions:
To make buying environmentally-friendly products easily accessible and more affordable for everyone.
Name: Chelsea Lahmers
Age: 31
Company Name: Scoot Richmond, LLC
Number of Employees: 6 now, closer to 12 in the spring/summer/fall
Industry: Motorscooter sales, repair, and parts. Riding gear for motorcycles and scooters.
Business Resolutions:
– Improved financial accountability on all fronts.
– Finding new ways to specifically target potential new customers who may not even know that they want a scooter, with emphasis on more suburban dwellers.
– Making sure that we have a fantastically awesome and well trained staff when the spring weather hits to ensure that all customers get the best customer service.
– Streamlining and improving various processes to avoid “fire drills” and make communication on all matters smoother.
– Repainting the floor before spring comes, and finding some amazing way to get all of the mammal hair out of the couch in the showroom.
– Finding more music for the store that doesn’t cause discomfort in customers (easy) and also doesn’t make me cringe (difficult). And of course, general awesomeness/world domination.
Personal resolutions:
Make sure that my mouth stops making promises that my ass can’t keep.
Learning to kayak.
Industry Resolutions:
-Better handle on product supply, including more foresight in terms of spare parts requirements and shipping vehicles to me even kind of on time.
-Big huge hopes that the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicle Dealers starts cracking down on companies that are illegally selling crap Chinese scooters, as per Pennsylvania.
-I’d like to see new regulations regarding the moped classification in Virginia, including required registration and plates for vehicles considered mopeds. The theft problem would be a LOT easier to tackle if all bikes had to have tags. And then there’s the totally far-out wish that Virginia does something like Tennessee, which allows vehicles up to 125cc be ridden without a motorcycle license (but with tags and insurance and all of that). That would encourage so many more folks to get a scooter that is actually quick enough to not get you run over if you live in the county, and in turn more folks would realize that riding a scooter is a great way to live greener.