Business Financing: An Economic Bright Spot

Business Financing Looking Bright

The business financing picture in Nevada today is brighter than it was during the two years following the country’s great recession. Capital is available. Businesses are seeking financing, and lenders are closing loans. “Things are definitely looking up,” said Bob Francl, executive vice president and regional manager of First Independent Bank, which serves clients primarily… [More...]

Risk Management: A Necessary Consideration

The Importance of Risk Management in Business

As president and owner of Heuer Insurance Company in Sparks, Larry Heuer is well aware of the catastrophic losses businesses have the potential to experience if they don’t practice appropriate risk management. As an example of sound risk management, however, he chooses to remember a client who suffered a large loss due to a fire… [More...]

Housing Market: Honing in on Homes

Nevada Housing Market Improving

With increasing sales and home values, Nevada’s housing market shows signs of recovery and strength not seen in recent years. “We’re on a good path right now,” said Patti Kelley, president of the Nevada Association of Realtors (NAR), a group that provides services to its members and advocates for private property rights. “We’re pulling out… [More...]

Architects & Engineers: Creating Opportunities

Architects and Engineering Opportunities in Nevada

Nevada’s architects and engineers particularly were hard hit when the state’s residential and commercial real estate activities abruptly stopped and the recession began. Numerous firms downsized their staffs and operations. Economic conditions forced many of these professionals to leave Nevada for available jobs in other states or remain in the Silver State and pursue a… [More...]

Cash Flow & Collections: Making Accounts Receivable Perform for Your Business

Cash Flow & Collections: Making Accounts Receivable Perform for Your Business

Nobody likes to talk about money. Most of us were raised to feel it’s uncouth. For polite society, that’s not such a bad guideline. But for businesses trying to maintain the bottom line, talking about money is a necessity – as is asking for it from clients and making certain it gets paid. In the… [More...]

Filmmaking in Nevada: Lights, Camera, Action!

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Level Playing Field isn’t the name of a new big-budget film — but it is the dramatic ending that moviemakers are hoping for in order to bring their production companies to Nevada. And the economic payoff if the state provides that level playing field could well prove to be a blockbuster. While just about anyone… [More...]

Thinking ahead: The Ins and Outs of Business Insurance

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Business insurance exists for one reason: to protect your business from essentially two categories of threat – those arising from people in our litigious society where anyone who owns a business can be considered a deep pocket target, and where damage caused by your business’s product or advice is actionable; and to protect against Mother… [More...]

The Survivors: Builders and Developers in Nevada

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The economic downturn in 2007 left both residential and commercial developers and builders in the Silver State scrambling for work. Many were forced to downsize their staffs, and some even closed their doors. “Since 2008, the development business has been a fraction of what it was,” said Doug Kiersey, president of Dermody Properties, a Reno-based… [More...]

Gaming: Betting on a Comeback

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Nevada’s gaming industry today continues to recover, with some regions faring better than others. “Both Southern and Northern Nevada markets are struggling right now,” said John Farahi, CEO of Monarch Casino & Resort Inc., which owns Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, in Reno. State gaming revenue has been picking up slowly since it took about a… [More...]

Rural Nevada: Unique Opportunities in Unique Communities

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The answer to how to succeed in business without really trying is not as complex as you may think. Business owners should tune their ears in to what is happening in rural Nevada. They may be pleasantly surprised at all they will learn ranging from the mining boom in Elko to the interesting products that… [More...]

Government Contractors: Working with the System

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Government contractors provide a lot to the state of Nevada — and it isn’t always easy. Vying for contracts at any time, but especially in an ailing economy, can be competition at its most cutthroat, and partnering with the largest bureaucracy in the history of the human race is a complex undertaking. Fortunately for Nevada,… [More...]

The Green Light: Transportation in Nevada

Transportation in Nevada

There remains a good degree of uncertainty in Nevada’s transportation sector but also plenty of determination, innovation and well justified optimism. Money is tight and legislative action often unpredictable, of course. But work on many fronts is proceeding, with a raft of projects being completed, green-lighted or planned in an industry that by its very… [More...]

The Economics of Art: Nevada’s arts and culture

Oscar Goodman

Financial challenges experienced by Nevada residents are mirrored by Nevada arts and culture organizations. During the economic downturn Nevada is still working to bounce back from, some Nevada arts organizations have thrived, some have come into being and some have closed their doors. While going through a recession, the arts may seem like a luxury… [More...]

What is Paper? Nevada Embraces Technology and the People that Create It

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Remember when businesses relied on rotary phones, typewriters and snail mail, when sales were done face to face and clients paid by cash or check? Today’s essential work tools are a cellphone, laptop or tablet and the Internet. We have e-mail, videoconferencing, telecommuting, e-tail, PayPal, apps and so much more. “There are so many technologies… [More...]

Alternative Energy: Still Energetic?

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With the economy still languishing and no dramatic change in sight, questions need to be asked: Is the green movement retaining the fervor it had seen in the past? Does alternative energy have a shot at becoming a diversifying factor for Nevada? How will the movement ultimately affect Nevada’s diversity base? Are the jobs there… [More...]

Telecom: Now Calling the Future …

What’s ahead for Telecom in 2012? Lots of exciting new technologies and services, for one thing. And continued diversification, for another. And a still-crummy economy that will hamper a good amount of the growth that should be taking place. Reuters reported in early January that telecom firms around the world are expected to slash spending… [More...]

Keeping Our Heads Above Water: Nevada’s need to ensure quality and availability of nature’s sustaining resource

Most of us are used to having as much water as we need. We simply turn on the tap and out flows the water. However, those who work within the agencies overseeing water allocation must deal with the complex issues of what resources are available, how much is available and the price tag on ensuring… [More...]

Nevada Engineers: The Long Haul

Nevada resident David Frohnen had worked eight years as a managing principal for a global engineering firm when it laid him off in 2010 to downsize. He then started his own engineering firm, Frohnen Consultants, specializing in engineering and business and financial management consulting. To supplement that, he took a job with Silver State Analytical… [More...]

Office Space: Embrace the Positivity

In its third year of being depressed, Nevada’s office space market continues to experience high vacancy rates, lease rates comparable to ones ten years ago, several distressed properties, no new construction and few sales. However, some activity is taking place, positive signs of a stabilizing market. In Southern Nevada, office space is “bottoming out, sluggish… [More...]

Property Management: Feeling the Squeeze

Like so much of the American business landscape over the last three years, commercial property management has changed – often abruptly. With the economy straining to hang on, more brokers moving into property management, the unprecedented number of foreclosures, crowds of clients coming from out of state and relationships with banks and other lenders in… [More...]

A “Fixer Upper”: Navigating the New Residential Market

Remember when buying a home was as simple as liking the neighborhood, peeking inside closets, flushing the toilets and filling out papers? These days, Nevada’s residential real estate market is a maze to be navigated, with buyers and sellers alike having to juke and swivel around such things as turbulent national and state economies, a… [More...]

Public Works: The Survivors Arena

As the economic recession continues to take its toll on the Silver State, it’s not exactly business as usual for public works in Nevada. Although individuals who plan and execute these public ventures are gamely trying to meet demand for services, they are finding themselves in a much more competitive environment that requires increased efficiency,… [More...]