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Kathy Ireland returns to her roots
Kathy Ireland used to be best known for her multiple appearances in the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues.
The bulk of her success, Forbes reports, now comes from attaching her name to mundane products you'd never expect a celebrity to be associated with, things like ceiling fans, flooring, mattresses, desks, end tables, ottomans and bookcases. The list goes on: area rugs, carpets and vinyl and plastic replacement windows, which purportedly insulate heat inexpensively; a product retail outfit Window World sells to the tune of $400 million (U.S.) a year.
Kathy Ireland Worldwide targets the mothers of Middle America. A supermodel's name on a dull item, the thinking goes, makes it more appealing.
Over all, the company sells $2 billion worth of good at retail. Martha Stewart, as a point of comparison, is a relative puny competitor at a mere $900 million, based on industry estimates. For Ms. Ireland, it translated into about $850 million in wholesale sales in 2011, and she received a royalty payment of roughly 6 per cent, or about $50 million in profit for her and her staff of 42.
As the story points out, Ms. Ireland was an entrepreneur long before she was a model. As a child in Santa Barbara, she painted stones and peddled them door-to-door, later selling other art projects at weekly craft fairs. At 11, she started delivering newspapers.
Ms. Ireland was earning $60 a month when she decided it was time to get her own bedroom. She arranged for a contractor to estimate what it would cost to add a room to the family home.
She didn't have the $20,000 required to do the work, but she's more than made up for the shortfall since.
Paper clarifies red-tape item
In the Small Business Briefing of Feb. 15, we ran an item about writer David Baines, who in a post for the Vancouver Sun accused the Canadian Federation of Independent Business of unfairly impugning the Canadian Revenue Agency in its 'Red Tape Digital Diaries' series. The Sun has since run a clarification (at the bottom of the linked item), and published a column by Shachi Kurl, director of provincial affairs in British Columbia and Yukon for the CFIB.
Air Force makes commitment to small business
Over the past six years, prime contracts from the U.S. Air Force to small business as a percentage of overall contracts awarded have stagnated, while total dollars spent increased for a time and then fell off. according to an item on FederalNewsRadio.com. The service has now issued a small business improvement plan focused on three goals: stop the decline in the prime contract awards to small business, take a look at game changing approaches to reverse the trend over the long term, and better understand the value of small businesses to the Air Force. The Air Force isn't alone in having problems meeting government-wide small business goals, and that lack of success caught the attention of U.S. Congress Rep. Sam Graves, chairman of the Small Business Committee.
EVENTS AND KEY DATES
Students compete in Vancouver
ACE Expositions bring together industry, educational and student leaders from across Canada. Through written reports and live presentations students are evaluated, by industry leaders serving as judges, based on the economic opportunity they created for themselves and their communities. The competitive process creates a “best-practice” sharing environment, fosters innovation, encourages results and rewards excellence in entrepreneurial and community leadership. The 2012 Regional Exposition for Western Canada takes place March 1 and 2, at the Vancouver Convention Centre.
Address challenges in life science
