The origins of a glass recycling empire

Aug 19, 2022
The sand Glass Half Full creates from processed bottles is repurposed for flood disaster relief and mitigating coastal erosion, among other things.
Glass Half Full turns the glass it collects into a sand product that can be used in anything from art to disaster relief.
Courtesy Glass Half Full

"Inflation is gut-punching my business," record store owner laments

Aug 12, 2022
Vinyl records are a big part of Phillip Rollins' business at Offbeat in Jackson, Mississippi. But rising costs make them a harder sell.
Phillip "DJ Young Venom" Rollins, of the Offbeat record store and art gallery, would like to see the prices of vinyl records go down. "The demand is up there, just the supply is kind of low."
Courtesy Rollins

Business school felt like a better bet than art, but an adviser encouraged her to take the plunge

Aug 5, 2022
"I know that art is something that I'm very interested in, but I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make money doing it," says Devin Tormey.
Devin Tormey paints wedding scenes live.
Casey Durgin Photo

One parade organizer welcomes their return this holiday season

Dec 31, 2021
Hobie Pileski, co-owner of Argonne Parades, is looking forward to in-person holiday festivities after over a year of putting events on hold.
Hobie Pileski, co-owner of Argonne Parades, said his company hasn't held a full, traditional parade since December 2019.
Courtesy of Hobie Pileski

Can you teach an old antiques business new tricks?

Dec 6, 2021
This San Francisco antiques business got its start by looking to the past. Now it's trying to prepare for an uncertain future.
Shippodo Fine Arts in the San Francisco Bay area primarily focuses on Japanese and Chinese antiques.
Photo courtesy of Ryosuke Ueda

How this engineer hopes to inspire Muslim women to pursue operational roles

Nov 25, 2021
Aminah Shafiq, senior water quality advisor for Severn Trent Water, noticed her helmet wasn't fitting properly, so she designed the first PPE-specific headscarf.
Aminah Shafiq, senior water quality advisor at Severn Trent Water, designed the first PPE-specific headscarf.
Courtesy Sarah Hawkins (BBC/Marketplace)

Food tour company struggles to regain ground as restaurants recover

Nov 19, 2021
Megan Bucholz, founder of Local Table Tours, watched her business grow for a decade. Then the pandemic closed everything down.
Megan Bucholz is the founder of Local Table Tours, which offers guided walking tours exploring the food scenes in Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins, Colorado.
Courtesy Megan Bucholz

For public good, not for profit.

How a pottery studio owner got creative to diversify her business

Nov 1, 2021
When the pandemic halted classes at Jennie Tang's ceramics studio, she turned to other ways to keep the operation thriving.
“We’ve diversified the ways in which people engage with the space,” said Jennie Tang, owner of The Workshop MPLS, a ceramics center in Minneapolis.
Courtesy Jennie Tang

Sign writer launches a booming side hustle during the pandemic

Oct 25, 2021
A New Orleans business set up an order form for Nan Parati's signs. "We got over 1,000 orders in just a couple weeks," she says.
Nan Parati makes a sign at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival circa 1990. She's been writing signs for festivals for 36 years.
Courtesy Nan Parati

How this metal foundry grew its business during the pandemic

Oct 14, 2021
Although prices for aluminum and zinc are ticking up, Adam Schaller, vice president of a Michigan metal foundry, says business is growing.
Prices for aluminum base scrap picked up 9.7% from August to September.
Lukas Schulze via Getty Images