The Niche Beat
National Association of Black Writers
The State of the Writing & Publishing Industry for People of Color The National Association of Black Writers held a conference in New York last weekend. C-SPAN’s Book TV broadcast the program. Segments such as Black Writer’s in the Marketplace, and, The Role of Social Media: Black Writers Take Literature to the web contains a helpful overview […]
Starting a Successful Restaurant
Insights from Danny Meyer The CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group dishes with Charlie Rose about his success as a creative restaurateur. The creator of the Shake Shack and other successful food concepts, Meyer discusses how he changed from a political science major to the food industry, and eventually realized that being a chef was […]
Restaurant Impossible
Soups On? Owning a restaurant is at the top of the list for many budding entrepreneurs. But it is an industry with a high failure rate. A new program debuted in January to help failing restaurant owners, and after watching certain episodes, some people might be tempted never to eat out again. But overall, this is […]
Elouise Cobell
Accounting Activist Elouise Cobell grew up hearing stories about how the Interior Department’s Bureau of Indian affairs shortchanged property owners. Native Americans were not being paid for the use of their land as had been agreed upon under a trust agreement with the federal government. Meanwhile, non-Indians were leasing the land and profiting from oil, […]
Music Publishing
Sweet & Sour Notes The debut in 1999 of Napster, the file sharing website, proved disastrous for many in the music publishing business, says Peer Music executive, Kathy Spanberger, “I call it the crash.” Widespread use of file sharing websites caused record sales to drop and companies began firing workers and instituting hiring freezes. Ten […]
Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr
This memorable post content inspires and has countless underlying themes for class discussions. Updated content 7/16/2024 appears below in italics. Originally published May 3, 2012. I am still posting archival material from the old blog to WordPress one at a time, (so much for technology). However, I still can’t find Murphy’s post or the attached visitor […]
Delightful Four-Legged Niche
Sampson & The Human Whisperer Training and exhibiting a mini equine visitor with sloppy kisses in nursing homes, instead of using a dog, was an idea that developed after watching a segment on the Discovery Networks Animal Planet. Lesson: Using media tools, such as television, can often provide inspiration for a successful service or product, as it did in […]
Unique Gel Candles
Missed Opportunity Lynn Thomas was awestruck by the unusual artistic candles that she discovered at an outdoor market. She was curious about the production method, but the vendor refused to answer questions about how the product was made, explaining that her brother created the products. Thomas bought a candle, and through lengthy trial and error […]
Making Money in Hollywood
Spotting a Unique Niche In the 1970s, Rick Washburn wanted to be an actor and landed minor roles as a hitman and an FBI agent in several movies, according to business editor Paul Barrett. But Wasburn discovered that he could make a lot more money in Hollywood by using specialized knowledge from his childhood. While […]