Business Cards

THE DAY they opened The Laundry Cafe in Olney, owners Tyrone Akins and Brian Holland were approached by an older woman with an unexpected request. She had inspected the Laundromat's 150 high-end washers and dryers, granite-topped tables and coin-operated massage chairs. She had marveled at the low-fee computer stations, Starbucks coffee kiosk, digital jukebox, video games, free Wi-fi and flat-screen TVs. She made note of The Laundry Cafe's complimentary curbside assistance, first-load-free dryer service and bright community room where classes would be offered, free, on topics like how to start your own business.

Glossy magazine advertisements, slick pamphlets and roadside billboards traditionally have been the place for vivid, colorful pictures promoting your business. Some companies, though, are now taking a downsized approach to such marketing - downsized to about two-by-three inches. Business cards with pictures on them have moved into corporate America, and the companies selling them say that the cards are "certainly the wave of the future. " "Everything's going visual," said Levander Taliaferro, who recently launched his company - New Concept Business Imaging, at Lansdowne Avenue and Frazier Street in West Philadelphia - to sell the cards.

They do not fit easily into your pocket or purse, and you certainly would not want to carry more than a couple with you, but John Novarina is convinced that his "electronic business card" will be a successful marketing tool. About four months ago, Novarina, 34, of Royersford, Montgomery County, began his one-man operation, eCard-etc., creating floppy disks as a replacement for business cards. The label on the disk conveys the usual information - name, address, e-mail, fax number - found on a business card.

You walk through the glass and wooden doors, and the sight hits you: four glass shelves filled with an array of business cards. But they aren't the typical 3 1/2-by-2-inch cards with name, rank and phone number. There's a neon-green alien printed on a plastic card that feels like the top of a mousepad. There's one card that looks like a check - and was designed to be ripped from a miniature checkbook. There's a folded one for a writer that reveals a tiny typewriter when opened; the paper inside the machine slowly churns out the question "Am I the type writer you're looking for?"

When Aretha Franklin's chart-topper "A Rose Is Still a Rose" shipped to radio stations, instead of a run-of-the-mill round compact disc, DJs found a striking red CD that had been cut into the shape of a blossom. When Miller Brewing Co. wanted to hype its responsible-drinking campaign, it sent distributors something that looked like a credit card with a hole in the middle. It was a pocket-size CD-ROM crammed with multimedia features, including full-color animation, narration, and hyperlinks to Miller's Web site.

If Mayor Nutter's personal aide has one rule to live by, it's this: "Don't mess with the playlist. " "There's some room for requests, but he drives the music choice," said Luke Butler, 28, who recently finished a two-year gig as Nutter's special assistant — a job that meant he spent more time with the mayor than anyone else in city government, traveling with him to meetings and events and listening to Nutter relive his former DJ days in...

John Spagnola, the Philadelphia Eagles tight end, may have been the only man there without a tie - and without a business card. At 6-foot-4, he towered above the crowd, in an open-collared shirt and wool jacket, filling his coat pockets with business cards, but offering none in return. "Just send it to me at the stadium," he told people. "Care of the Eagles. " "I have no idea why I was invited," Spagnola said. "I'm getting business-carded to death. But why not? That's what it's all about.

Tom Knox is bored. How else to explain the millionaire businessman's statement last week that he would not run for governor in 2014 after all and was aiming instead to inject himself into the 2015 race for mayor of Philadelphia? Back in 2007, Knox gained some credibility the way a tornado does - with brute power. He spent nearly $11 million of his own money to build an instant media brand and finish second in the five-candidate Democratic primary for mayor. The neophyte pol was leading in the polls until his opponents ganged up on him to suggest his lack of governing experience was a liability instead of an asset, and to attack some of his past business practices, notably offering high-interest payday loans when he owned a bank.

Ellen Dressler puts people's business cards to work for them. For a fee, she places the cards on bulletin boards that she has installed in restaurants, where people often wait for tables with nothing to do. The boards offer captive audiences a way to pass the time and, at the same time, provide neighborhood firms with a low-cost form of advertising. Dressler's goal is to expand the distribution of business cards for her clients - and her company, American Home Services, was formed last year to do just that.

Herb Cohen is the kind of guy who, in high school, volunteered his services as a disc jockey at dances just for the privilege of handing out his business cards. That's right, business cards. What's a high school kid doing with business cards? "I was 12 years old when I had my first set of business cards printed," said Cohen, clearly a precocious networker. "I was told I was always the kind of kid who marched to a different drummer. " These days, Cohen, 33, is marching to the beat of a different, well, synthesizer.

Tom Knox is bored. How else to explain the millionaire businessman's statement last week that he would not run for governor in 2014 after all and was aiming instead to inject himself into the 2015 race for mayor of Philadelphia? Back in 2007, Knox gained some credibility the way a tornado does - with brute power. He spent nearly $11 million of his own money to build an instant media brand and finish second in the five-candidate Democratic primary for mayor. The neophyte pol was leading in the polls until his opponents ganged up on him to suggest his lack of governing experience was a liability instead of an asset, and to attack some of his past business practices, notably offering high-interest payday loans when he owned a bank.

When former Gov. Brendan Byrne first rode the "schmooze cruise" - an annual trip from Newark, N.J., to Washington on a train packed with politicians and business leaders - the atmosphere was rowdier. "There were fewer women," Byrne said Thursday as he sat on the chartered Amtrak train for his 50th trip. His wife, Ruthi, offered a few more details. "The guys would get drunk in Newark. They would spend the whole trip trying to line up a woman for a hookup when they got to the hotel," she said.

CLOUT HAS NO IDEA if U.S. Rep. Bob Brady can accomplish his goal of a city-owned casino. But we like the odds of Brady's idea causing political consternation among elected officials. Consider the fix Mayor Nutter and City Council President Darrell Clarke are in. They are not eager for the city to compete for the casino license. But they also don't want to upset Brady, the city's Democratic Party chairman, who wants the city to make a bid for Philadelphia's second casino to be at the city-owned site of the former Food Distribution Center at Packer Avenue and 3rd Street.

THE DAY they opened The Laundry Cafe in Olney, owners Tyrone Akins and Brian Holland were approached by an older woman with an unexpected request. She had inspected the Laundromat's 150 high-end washers and dryers, granite-topped tables and coin-operated massage chairs. She had marveled at the low-fee computer stations, Starbucks coffee kiosk, digital jukebox, video games, free Wi-fi and flat-screen TVs. She made note of The Laundry Cafe's complimentary curbside assistance, first-load-free dryer service and bright community room where classes would be offered, free, on topics like how to start your own business.

Henry Odong searched through his wallet in hopes of retrieving his Jimmy Rollins baseball card. Odong said he has held onto the card for nearly a decade after he received it from an American baseball coach traveling in Nigeria. As Odong's fingers passed through the array of business cards, receipts, and photo IDs, the Phillies shortstop himself moved closer. Odong, the 34-year-old head coach of the Uganda Little League team, was in Plymouth Meeting on Tuesday afternoon as his group of 11- and 12-year-olds played an exhibition against the Plymouth Little League at East Plymouth Valley Park.

The first thing a visitor might notice at the Abo house, set on a quiet, dignified street in Cherry Hill, is its second outdoor mailbox. Shaped like an airplane, it sits suspended on a pole above the other box and says simply "Air Mail. " Nearby, a small "Beer Garden" sign points to bottles planted upside-down in a cluster of shrubs. And then, there's the notice that reads: "In 1897, absolutely nothing happened at this location. " Very soon it becomes very clear that Jane and Marty Abo's home is not your run-of-the-mill suburban retreat.

Hello there One spring night in 2010, a friend of Clare's invited her out with friends. At Nodding Head, "a handsome young man sat next to me. " "She was a pretty girl," said Tim, "and she had a plate of wings. " He couldn't resist. Clare, who grew up outside Baltimore and was then working for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and Tim, who grew up in the Art Museum neighborhood and is a city probation and parole officer, drank and traded stories. "He flipped his wallet open to show me his badge, and I saw the address on his license.

WHEN ERICA HAWTHORNE, a/k/a RhapsodE, was making her album "Spoken Inward," she was put in a tough position. With limited funds — meaning limited time in a studio — she had to choose. She could perfect a song or not go into massive debt paying studio bills. Hawthorne knows firsthand how far a couple hundred bucks can take an artist. It's why she thought up her innovative microgrant program, Small But Mighty Arts Grant, which gives Philly artists — from painters to DJs to spoken-word phenoms — a chance to receive from $200 to $1,000 to help with a project that will significantly affect their careers.

If Mayor Nutter's personal aide has one rule to live by, it's this: "Don't mess with the playlist. " "There's some room for requests, but he drives the music choice," said Luke Butler, 28, who recently finished a two-year gig as Nutter's special assistant — a job that meant he spent more time with the mayor than anyone else in city government, traveling with him to meetings and events and listening to Nutter relive his former DJ days in...

4-week bills , Mar. 6; 3-month and 6-month bills , Mar. 5; 1-year bills , Mar. 6; 2-year notes , Mar. 27; 3-year notes , Mar. 12; 5-year notes , Mar. 28; 7-year notes , Mar. 29; 10-year notes , Mar. 13; 30-year bonds , Mar. 14; 5-year TIPS , April 19; 10-year TIPS , Mar. 22; 30-year TIPS , Jun. 21. Business Referral Luncheon presented by BNI, King of Prussia chapter. Peppers Italian Restaurant, 236 Town Center Rd., King of Prussia; 610-792-2105.