American consumers spent $51 billion on their pets last year, and 62 percent of US households have pets, according to a Time magazine report. Pets have become part of the family, with consumers spending more on pet toys and healthcare and opting for pet motels instead of kennels. Kamron and Vicky Fultz couldn’t agree more with this trend. While pursuing theater and music majors in college, they were cast opposite…
“When your stars line up, you have to take advantage of it,” said Bert Wolf, who until mid-November was the owner of Acetylene Oxygen Company (AOC) headquartered in Harlingen. A year ago, Praxair Inc., the largest industrial gases company in the Americas, first approached Wolf about selling his third-generation business to them. Wolf rebuffed the multi-billion dollar global corporation. “But they were assertive, so I sat down and talked to…
Asking new business owner Clarissa Garcia if she misses her former life as a teacher is like asking Winter Texans if they miss the ice and snow. In September, Garcia opened Sweet Escapes Cupcakery with her sister Sandra and brother-in-law Joe Trevino in Weslaco. Garcia combined her lifelong love of baking with administrative skills learned while teaching and the business aptitudes she picked up from a business her parents had…
A provision in ObamaCare provides an average $2,700 tax credit to businesses with less than 25 employees and average salaries below $50,000. As many as four million companies are eligible for this reward for providing health insurance to their workforce. According to CPA Chris Wright, only 170,300 businesses have applied for the tax credit, possibly due to the complex, onerous documentation required. “It’s not intuitive. You could easily end up…
Salsa music entered the mainstream in the late 1980s and by the 1990s, thousands of fans outside of Latin communities caused a salsa explosion throughout the United States. Salsa dance fever ensnared Israel and Rosie Coronado, the owners of Sabor Vallero Latin Dance Company, who recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of teaching and promoting salsa throughout the Rio Grande Valley. “Salsa can really get in your blood,” said Israel Coronado,…
Some of the youngest, next-generation business owners got their start the old-fashioned way: their parents were business owners. These young hotshots decided to form their own companies, too. A few as youngsters became intrigued with the idea of running their own business, while others as young adults wanted greater control of their income. From retail to real estate, computer apps to computers systems, an energetic cohort of under-40 individuals have…
“I’m a dreamer. I’m a visionary,” said Bob Harris, owner of Bobz World, where dramatic sights and sounds have sparked visitors’ imaginations for the past six years. “We have entertainment; we have fun; we have food; we have gifts,” Harris said. “I don’t know how else to describe it.” Perhaps the Valley’s most unique adventure experience, Bobz World, is the three-acre complex located along Hwy 100 just east of Los…
During your holiday season free time, you will hear the question, “What are we doing today?” I’ve got some great answers – some of these are off the beaten path and show sides of the Valley you may never have seen. Other ones, I’ll bet, you haven’t revisited in years. Mostly outside and totally fun, these staycations are each worth taking time to explore. Hidalgo Festival of Lights: About a…
March 2013 brings a monumental change to patent law when the Leahey-Smith Act goes into effect. The U.S. will switch from a First to Invent system to a First Inventor to File basis. The Technology Ventures Conference on Protecting and Commercializing Your Intellectual Assets, sponsored by the UTPA Small Business Development Center and the UTPA Office of Innovation & Intellectual Property, examined that change, the biggest patent shakeup in 60…
Picture a tropical golf course, its well-maintained fairways and greens lined with old growth mesquite, oaks and palms; privately–operated and open to the public with very affordable fees, top-notch security and a new club house, all set on historically significant property along the Rio Grande. Then place it on the south side of the border wall in no- man’s land, and you have the Fort Brown Memorial Golf Course. In…