When it’s hot outside, it’s smart to find activities indoors. This summer you and your kids have plenty of options to keep cool while having fun, learning new skills or honing existing talents. You can exercise your minds and bodies as you build self-confidence and muscles. Besides year-round activity venues, kids’ camps and programs abound along with several open to adults. Let longer daylight hours tempt you into pursuing a…
Twelve years ago, after Jorge Cuellar was laid off from a surveying job with a construction company, he began working with a friend doing deliveries. Within three months, Cuellar realized he could start his own business making and distributing Mexican cookies and sweets in the Valley. He named the company the Debby & Abby Factory, after his two young daughters. Today, Cuellar delivers packaged shortbread cookies with coconut (hojarascas), empanadas and…
When you have good employees, you do not want to lose them. Like any personal or professional relationship, you have to work on it. You have to pay attention to their needs to keep them content and motivated. Here are five ways to sustain and strengthen those relationships. Say thank you. Yes, they are paid for their work. But complimenting someone on good work or acknowledging that they came in…
Sergio Adame, founder of API Real Estate, wanted to create a little bit of buzz in the Harlingen business community. After realizing that some prospective businesses were having trouble starting up because of financial issues, he decided to offer office space in the Bank of America building that his firm owns. “I was thinking that if a start-up doesn’t have money, you give them a space for free or at…
“I love working here,” said Tommy Villarreal, president of Nicho Produce Company in Edinburg. “It’s a thrilling environment.” The wholesale company is a hive of activity, fronted by a war room of agents negotiating orders for shipments from over 500 suppliers from around the country and backed by warehouse employees loading and unloading boxes of produce, and kitchen workers moving a variety of vegetables and fruits through the fresh-cut process.…
At the turn of the millennium, the U.S. fitness industry was on the cusp of a huge growth decade. Young adults in the 18–34-year-old range drove membership, helping to make it the fastest-growing job market by 2006. Large gyms, of more than 10,000 square feet, studded with endless rows of Nautilus equipment and treadmills, dotted the typical upscale suburban landscape. In recent years, however, the robust $20-billion-plus industry has undergone…
Are you ready for the Rio Grande Valley to become the epicenter of a space-based Silicon Valley? That’s a highly likely future, according to presenters at the first STARGATE Talk. The stars are, in fact, aligning to make the area near the SpaceX facility into a research and commercialization hub with a business incubator only two miles from the launch site. SpaceX, which designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and…
“With a couple weeks of warm weather in a row, everyone is going to have flea and tick explosions,” said Arthur Wright on a rainy March afternoon. Wright, who operates Advanced Pest Control Services with his father-in-law Gary Maley, was braced for the resurgence of fleas, ticks, ants, bees, termites and other pests that thrive in our semi-tropical heat and humidity. The company advocates integrated pest management, a holistic method…
McAllen-Miller Airport this year has finally captured the majority market share of Rio Grande Valley air passengers. Double digit growth in the last two years propelled the urban airport to the 50% mark, according to Director of Aviation Elizabeth Suarez. “The trend overall is growth on existing routes. It’s great for passengers,” she said. Several critical elements have converged to position the airport for strong growth and satisfied, repeat travelers.…
McAllen attorney Bobby Ramirez grew up in Roma in the 1960s and 70s. He attended a parochial school, ‘the convent’ in Rio Grande City, the same school his father, noted physician Dr. Mario Ramirez, had attended. “Roma was a great place to grow up, a really great place to raise kids,” Ramirez recalled. So when Ramirez and his wife Irene, a lawyer with a mediation practice, were opening The Ramirez…