Business Plan

Small businesses take center stage this month, with three seminars scheduled. Topics on starting them, obtaining financing for them, and related topics. Tomorrow, the U.S. House of Representatives' Small Business Committee will hold a seminar at Beaver College to examine the progress made in increasing opportunities for small businesses owned by women. The program will begin at 9:30 a.m. at the college's Grey Towers Castle, Church Road and Limekiln Pike, Glenside. For more information, call Connie Williams at U.S. Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky's office, 610-667-3666.

During an unofficial competition last year, Upper Darby High School's robot took a hit, then another. Then the battery flew out. Garrett Sapsis, 16, working in the pit crew, had about five minutes to come up with a temporary solution, "a heavy big metal piece of junk" to hold the battery in place. "It was a like a cage, but it worked," said Sapsis, a junior at Upper Darby and member of the school's Robotics club. But the cage weighed around three pounds, too much for an official competition in which every ounce counts and the robot can't pass 120 pounds.

Some of the region's most successful entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and lawyers will gather Nov. 14 and 15 at the Sheraton Society Hill Hotel for a workshop to tell others how to start and finance a new business. The event, called the Greater Philadelphia Entrepreneurs Exchange, will bring together Willard Rouse, president of Rouse & Associates, a real estate development firm; Thomas A. Penn, president of Genesis Seed Fund, a Malvern- based venture capital fund, and Peter Sears, president of SR One Ltd., a venture capital firm that is a subsidiary of SmithKline Beckman.

LAST WEEK, a new parent from North Philadelphia dropped off her daughter at my day-care. I could see that the child wasn't feeling well and when I asked her mom about it, I could see the sadness and the fear emerge. "I will lose my job if I stay home with her," she told me as tears welled up in her eyes. Thanks to 11 Council members who voted for earned sick time, fewer moms and dads will be forced into this heart-wrenching position. Keeping our kids healthy and making sure that their hard-working parents have money in their pockets to cover the basics are priorities that our elected leaders should be standing up for. I speak not only as a Philadelphian concerned about our families, but also as a business owner concerned about keeping the doors open.

Individuals who have lost their jobs, and who live in Philadelphia and the four Pennsylvania suburban counties, are eligible for a free business- applications computer-training program sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition. "What we're finding is that people can be motivated, but if they don't have computer skills, they don't have an asset," said Ronald Spangler, director of training at the Berkeley Education and Training Center. Individually tailored skills training will be offered in areas including computer literacy and specific programs.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, Evy and Ted Inoue advertising their new business by customizing their $25,000 Ford van to resemble their beloved dog. Kudos was a basset hound-cocker spaniel mix, whose personality was so bright he inspired a business plan: a start-up that would let people share online thanks to everyone from good Samaritans to great contractors. The New Hope couple named their business after the pooch, OurKudos.com. "That was supposed to be our promotional vehicle," Evy says in her kitchen, looking out the window at her creation - brown and white, with soft eyes, arched eyebrows, furry black ears that droop over the rear doors, a red tongue that sticks out of the grill and a white, adjustable tail.

Joseph A. LaSala of Media has been elected chairman of the Delaware County Economic Development Oversight Board, which was established by the County Council to implement and supervise economic development activities and initiatives. LaSala, vice president for marketing and government affairs at Day & Zimmermann Inc. of Philadelphia, was chosen to head the five-member board at a reorganization meeting on Feb. 22. LaSala is a member of the Delaware County Industrial Development Authority and has been deputy regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The already uncertain future of the Winnipeg Jets grew more clouded yesterday when a group went to court in an attempt to block construction of a new arena. Thin Ice filed a motion with Court of Queen's Bench that aims to force public consultation before $110 million of public money goes into a new hockey facility. The motion claims the city broke its own zoning bylaws when it approved the arena site. "This speaks to the fact that the process all the way along has taken place behind closed doors, in secret, without any public consultation," said spokesman Jim Silver, a university professor.

The Board of Education gave a reprieve yesterday to the Center for Economics and Law Charter School yesterday, despite lingering questions about the school's own economics. The board, by a 6-2 vote, gave the school permission to finish this year, seven weeks after the school was on the verge of being the first charter school in the state to lose its charter. The board also agreed to extend the school's charter through August 2002, provided it submits a business plan by June 30. The School District had threatened in November to revoke the school's charter after three of the school's certified teachers quit the staff of 11 educators, and the city shut down the school because of unsafe conditions.

A Tredyffrin Township mail-processing center that employs 733 will be closed and its operations consolidated in Philadelphia, but a second center in Horsham was spared in this nationwide round of cutbacks announced by the U.S. Postal Service, which faces billions of dollars in losses. One hundred forty postal facilities are slated for closure, according to a list released Thursday night by the Postal Service. An additional 89 are expected to be announced in the future. The 229 closings will eliminate 28,000 jobs and are expected to save the Postal Service $2.1 billion a year.