Chariots of PR Gold

Buck Ward just batted for the PR cycle.

His new Segway of Richmond shop in Shockoe Bottom garnered a full-length story in Style Weekly, one in Brick Weekly, and two stories in the Times-Dispatch. There's also a lengthy plug on the Richmond Region Visitor Center, which promotes the area as a tourist destination. (That would be like a victory lap around the bases – not really a hit, but still a chance to bask in the limelight.)

Tell me more about your vacation

On the heels of Memorial Day, business folks are probably still talking about the gnarly waves at the Outer Banks or the perfectly grilled T-bone. Apparently, telling a good vacation yarn can be good for business.MainStreet.com, a spin-off from financial news site TheStreet.com, has a neat read about how to tell a good tale.

Venture Forum starts mentoring program

The Venture Forum has launched a mentoring program, which will pair veteran CEOs of growth businesses with their less experienced counterparts for two hours of mentoring each month.

The Venture Forum promotes entrepreneurial activity around Central Virginia. The application form can be found here.

"You can give a lot of good advice to someone in just a couple of hours," said Charles McCabe, president and founder of Peoples Income Tax and a Venture Forum member who helped bring the idea to fruition. The right mentoring partner can provide motivation, honesty and critical support. (Read more about the benefits mentoring in this great Entrepreneur magazine story.)

All Access Pass

At this time last year, when BizSense was just a bunch of ideas scrawled on yellow legal pads, we were unsure if local businesses would let us interview their CEOs, presidents or owners. It was a big worry. Without access to business professionals we wouldn't be able to produce much content. Obviously no content means no business.

WWUD: What Would Umesh Do?

Umesh Dalal has a penchant for finding ways to save money – big money –that would make major corporations green with envy. Since moving to Richmond more than two years ago to take over the City Auditor’s chair, Dalal has released dozens of reports. An audit of the school system found ways to save upwards of $20 million a year. Perhaps the most notorious audit turned its sights to the fleet program, finding that employees were using the city’s gas stations as personal filling stations, often going several times a week and filling more than their gas tanks could hold. And more recently Dalal found ways to help the City save on its procurement process, finding that many departments were not putting out contracts to bid, instead categorizing the purchases as emergency. Possible savings; $6 million.

How do you say Shalom with a Richmond accent

Eight Israeli life science startups will establish their worldwide headquarters in Richmond. “This is clinical and scientific economic development,” said Donna Edmonds, the head of the nascent Virginia Biosciences Commercialization Center (VBCC), an off-shoot of the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park that helped lure the companies to town.

HR troubles

Have you heard the one about the startup that was so pathetic, it couldn't even hire an intern? Yeah, well back off. Hiring an intern is harder than it sounds. We tried everything we could think of -- spent approximately 30 hours of time – and struck out miserably. I emailed all the college newspapers within 300 miles. I called journalism professors. I emailed students I knew at VCU, UVA, UNC, William and Mary and JMU, VaTech, Randolph Macon. I posted the position several times on Craigslist.

Bush League

Josh Leventhal, a blogger for baseballamerica.com, has a nice response to the weekend’s T-D coverage of the ongoing baseball saga.

He writes, “Discounting the importance of a ballpark and fan experience is what got Richmond into this mess.

Triple-A baseball is not coming back to Richmond, certainly not anytime soon. If Richmond focuses its attention on what level of play it "deserves" rather than the more pressing problem of building a new ballpark, it might find itself without any baseball players to watch for quite awhile.”

Look for a BizSense story on how a new ball club can run a better business than the Richmond Braves, and what it might mean for other businesses in town.

T-D needs to update ads

An ad for the Chamber's event last week is still up on the T-D website. Are they trying to build brand awareness for next year?

CEO Tube

Randy Copeland, CEO of the high-end computer manufacturer Velocity Micro, doesn’t take himself too seriously. When Velocity marketing associate Josh Covington sat Copeland in a green leather chair, handed him a pipe and yelled, “Action!”, Copeland played along, deadpanning into the camera, “Hello friend, I didn’t see you there.”

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