Breakfast on OutSourcing Pitfalls
EVENT: Technology Outsourcing and Offshoring — Successes, Failures, Benefits and Pitfalls
BACKGROUND: Sponsored by Crane House, The Asia Institute, Inc.— a private nonprofit Asian cultural resource center located in Kentucky.
DETAILS: $10-15, 7:30-9 p.m., Aug. 31, The Asia Institute, Inc., 1244 South Third St., Louisville, Ky, (502) 635-2240, adm@cranehouse.org, www.cranehouse.org/programs.html
Do You Know the Way to San Jose?
EVENT: Small Business Outreach
BACKGROUND: Learn about some of the advantages of locating your business in San Jose.
INTERESTING: Talk with Small Business Development Commissioners of the City of San Jose who advise the San Jose City Council.
DETAILS: Free, Aug. 25, 6:05-8:30 p.m. Martin Luther King Library on Fourth St. in San Jose, 150 E. San Fernando St., 4th Flr., (408) 808-2000, www.sjlibrary.org or www.sjeconomy.com/businessassistance/sbdc.asp.
Japanese Cream Puffs to Open Hawai‘i Chain
HONOLULU — Japan’s popular cream-puff chain Beard Papa announced it will open at least seven locations in Hawai‘i over the next three years.
Beard Papa’s cream puffs are baked and made with a soft inner dough and crisp pie crust filled with whipped-cream custard. The standard vanilla cream puff is about $1.25.
Yoshinori Tanimoto, sales and marketing manager in New York, said Beard Papa stores in America often sell about 1,000 cream puffs per weekday and up to 2,500 per day on weekends.
The first U.S. Beard Papa opened in Manhattan in 2004. They have more than 240 outlets in Japan. Locations are also planned for California, Massachusetts, Washington, Texas, Georgia, Florida, D.C. and Canada.
South Asian Convenience Owners Go National
TAMPA, Fla. –– Over 700 people attended the first convention here of the Asian American Convenience Stores Association. President Satya Shaw hopes the event’s success will lead to a powerful voice for Indian convenience store owners.
Some of the speakers at the event were M.P. Rama, the chairman of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, Florida Attorney General Charlie Christie and Harvard University professor Subramaniam Swamy.
Shaw said that the Asian American community represents “$80 billion of purchasing power,” and that if they unite, it will lead to greater discounts and rebates for store owners.
“There is nothing to lose for these store owners and everything to gain,” Shaw told IndUs Business Journal.
The Asian American Convenience Stores Association started in June 2004, in part to fight discrimination and racial profiling. The group claims 5,000 members and 20 board members.
Shaw said 60% of the nation’s 150,000 convenience store owners are Indian.
Busy APA Women Own Businesses
Minority groups and women have increased their business ownership at a much higher rate than the national average, according to 2002 statistical research from the U.S. Census Bureau.
While the number of U.S. businesses increased by 10 percent between 1997 and 2002 to 23 million, the rate of growth for minority- and women-owned businesses was far higher, ranging from 67 percent for native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander-owned businesses to 20 percent for firms owned by women.
There were 1.1 million Asian-owned businesses in 2002, up 24 percent from 1997. Their receipts were $343.3 billion, up 13 percent from 1997.
Some 6.5 million women owned businesses in 2002, up 20 percent from 1997. Their receipts totaled $950.6 billion, up 16 percent from 1997.
About 28 percent of Asian-owned firms were in health care and other services, with another 14 percent each in professional services and retail trade.