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Vermont Business Magazine In 2005 a professional gardener was having trouble coming up with a name for the small business she was starting. Nothing seemed to excite her or capture her imagination. But one day while in a movie theater, her then eight-year-old daughter Louissa noticed the film’s production company was Red Wagon Entertainment. She asked her mother, “Why don’t we name it that?”

Vermont Business Magazine One truck, a chainsaw and a few hand tools is all Jim Myers and his former business partner had when they started their tree service business. “Our first customer said he wouldn’t hire us unless we were insured. We told him ‘of course, we’re insured, but we need a deposit before we get started.’ We took the deposit and bought insurance,” said Myers smiling as he retold the story.

Vermont Business Magazine Running a small granola manufacturing business in Vermont can be hard work. On a daily basis, granola needs to be produced, packed and shipped to clients across the US. However, when a small business is producing, packing and shipping to clients who speak a different language and are located on the other side of the world, it can bring a completely new set of challenges.

Vermont Business Magazine In the 1987 comedy Baby Boom, Diane Keaton’s character is a corporate executive in New York who winds up moving to Vermont, starting a small baby food company and taking it nationally all while raising a baby. Nurbu Sherpa’s story is a similar tale but without the comedy.

Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont will launch the 2019 season of its popular historic tours on Saturday, July 6. The free, weekly tours take place Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon through Oct. 12. There will be no tour on Sept. 28. The tour begins at the statue of Ira Allen, just to the south of the fountain on the UVM green.

Vermont Business Magazine National Ice Cream Month kicked off on July 1, so Ben & Jerry's decided to dig a little deeper into one of America's favorite flavors: cookie dough.

Vermont Business Magazine Online bookkeeping for entrepreneurs. It’s a very simple sentence needing no explanation. Those four words are the first a visitor reads when visiting the home page for Reconciled, an online bookkeeping company headquartered in Burlington

Vermont Business Magazine To her it’s a treasure hunt. Roaming the countryside and walking through the woods turning over rocks and pulling back tree limbs, all to find the perfect gem. Many times, she doesn’t know what she's after. She will know it when she sees it. Erin Ostreicher, a 33-year-old florist, is looking for wild plants, flowers and whatever else is blossoming to decorate an upcoming wedding. She has about six nurseries and a few flower shops she frequents, she grows her own as well, but foraging is her favorite method for arranging flowers.

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine The Energy Action Network (EAN) released a major new report in May summarizing what Vermont can learn from the “Cap and Invest” approach that has been successfully used by Quebec, California, and nine northeastern states to reduce climate pollution while helping to grow local economies. A “Cap and Invest” system has been in use since 2009 in Vermont, along with eight other northeastern states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), to reduce pollution from the electric sector and make investments in more efficient, clean, and affordable energy use. Unlike some other states and provinces, however, Vermont has not yet applied the “Cap and Invest” framework to fossil fuel pollution outside of the electric sector.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agricultural Hall of Fame is pleased to announce the 2019 inductees: Joanna Samuelson Lidback; Marie Audet; Bill Rowell; Jack and Anne Lazor. Now in its 17th year, the Hall has inducted 80 Vermonters to date. 

Vermont Business Magazine US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will present 19 citizenship candidates to the US District Court for the District of Vermont during a special naturalization ceremony at the Calvin Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth on Thursday. US District Judge J Garvan Murtha will administer the Oath of Allegiance. The 19 citizenship candidates originate from the following 13 countries: Bhutan, Brazil, Burma, China, Congo, Dominican Republic, Ghana, India, Iraq, Jamaica, Poland, Singapore and Sudan.

Vermont Business Magazine Goodwill Northern New England exceeded its $350,000 fundraising goal for its new Roosevelt Fund For Employee Stability. Revenue from the fund will offer relief and support for the nonprofit’s employees for years to come. The Roosevelt Fund will offer various resources to employees who need some help sorting out life’s challenges. This supplements in-person supports for employees. This type of funding is already available to participants in some of Goodwill’s Job Connection programs, but hadn’t been available to employees until now.