Central Va. entrepreneur envisions owning 100 hotels (Times-Dispatch)
Until P.C. Amin came to Richmond, he’d never stayed in a hotel. Now the Indian-born entrepreneur and his family own 37 of them — making Amin the largest hotelier in central Virginia and one of the largest independent owners in Virginia. In the past year alone, Amin has invested $178 million to open 10 hotels in metro Richmond.
In-state students’ admission obstacle: their home address (Washington Post)
This was a particularly tough year for Virginians seeking entry to William and Mary and several other prestigious public universities because of machinations in the admissions cycle that favored applicants from outside the state.
TCC plans for its undeveloped waterfront property (Virginian-Pilot)
For all of the sparkle and shine of its new Portsmouth campus, Tidewater Community College is sitting on a gem of another kind – one of the last undeveloped waterfront properties in Hampton Roads. The site – all 389 acres of it – is between the Peninsula and the Southside. It is the first land that drivers from the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel reach when they cross into North Suffolk.
At Bloomberg, Modest Strategy to Rule the World (NY Times)
After years of being an underdog pushing its troops to be better and faster, Bloomberg now has an upper hand. Publishing giants like Condé Nast, Time Inc. and The New York Times, with their veteran scribes and rich histories, have laid off people and scaled back. Bloomberg may lack the pedigree and gloss of some of its rivals, but it has one thing they don’t right now: money to throw around.
Retailers hope free shipping turns you into a regular (USA Today)
This holiday season – with cash-strapped consumers searching harder for deals – more online and catalog shoppers now consider free shipping not a bonus but the price of entry for their business.
Three Best Ways to Make Sure Customers Pay (WSJ)
You can certainly hire collection agencies or attorneys to pursue and settle accounts for you. But there are also tools that can help you get a firmer grasp on your situation, before it gets out of control.
Barter boom: Swapping sex toys for plumbing (Fortune)
At a barter network’s annual holiday show and trade expo, business owners gather to grow their sales by swapping.
