LAST WORD

'Retired' businessman tunes in to Portsmouth Community Radio
By Michael McCord
Posted:  January 2008

Like a majority of nonprofit organizations which are small and struggling and survive on the love and guile of dedicated volunteers, there is always a dream of having a talented someone knock on the door and ask if they can help out.

Going clean green is no easy path
By Michael McCord
Posted:  December 2007

So you think going business green is easy?
For more than a few years, business owner Jim Varney, of Varney's Cleaners, had thought about the necessity of going green.

Corporate governance avoidance on the campaign trail
By Michael McCord
Posted:  November 2007

I caught up with Myron Kandel the other day and he was a little frustrated. Kandel, one of the nation's preeminent financial and business journalists, talked to me about his latest adventures amid the circus we affectionately know as the New Hampshire presidential primary.

Sacking a tradition of indifference
By Michael McCord
Posted:  October 2007

Intentionally or not, Garin Veris knows how to draw a crowd. After all, he told me he's a "people person" and his personable nature is backed up by an impressive resume: a Stanford University graduate; a former professional football player with the New England Patriots and San Francisco 49ers who played in the Patriots first Super Bowl appearance in 1986; a law school graduate, and recreation director for the city of Boston.

It's the LOCAL economy
By Michael McCord
Posted:  September 2007

How about think globally and buy locally? This variation is being taken seriously by Seacoast Buy Local, a growing, grass roots organization of local, independent business people who are determined to produce a dynamic economic impact.

On the move
By Michael McCord
Posted:  August 2007

My first week as business editor of the Portsmouth Herald in late September 2004 was also Dick Ingram's first week as president of the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce. He was also the first of about 100 interviews with Seacoast-region business movers, shakers and interesting personalities I did for the Herald. When I reminded Ingram of that shortly after it was announced that he would leave his chamber post to lead The Housing Partnership, he said with his customary dry wit, "I hope I set a good precedent."

Lights! Camera! Action!
By Michael McCord
Posted:  July 2007

Simply put, Nicole Gregg has a unique job. It requires a certain dedication, a love for an unforgiving and seductive industry, and a lot of time to prepare for a one-shot, four-day explosion of activity.

Bridging the gap
By Michael McCord
Posted:  June 2007

So you think it's easy to go out on your own and start your own business and be your own boss?
Just ask Dale Allaire and Mike Emerton, former Cabletron alums (is there anyone in the Seacoast region who isn't?) and veteran public relations and marketing mavens who founded Portsmouth-based BridgeView Marketing LLC late last year. Ask them about the joys of starting a business from scratch with their own money — "we cashed in a few 401ks," Allaire told me — and then having to work even more hours than before.

Can you say carbon offset?
By Michael McCord
Posted:  May 2007

What a difference a year can make. Bob Sheppard, the deputy director of the Portsmouth-based environmental consulting firm Clean Air-Cool Planet, is making far fewer cold calls to businesses and corporations to offer CA-CP's services. The trend has changed dramatically and now the business executives at all levels are calling Sheppard and his CA-CP colleagues.

Franchise central at UNH
By Michael McCord
Posted:  April 2007

What do you know about franchising? If you're like me, you know a lot and nothing much at all.

A driving passion
By Michael McCord
Posted:  March 2007

In 1966, Gary Blake was 21, with a wife, a baby, and the proud owner of a three-bay Shell service station in Exeter on Portsmouth Avenue.

Are you 'Hardwired for Success?'
By Michael McCord
Posted:  February 2007

Forget your "12 Angry Men," "Ocean's 12," "Cheaper by the Dozen" or your numerous 12-step self-help programs. It's time to pay homage to the 12 "executive skills" when it comes to being a smarter, effective, stronger and more communicative business leader.

Splitting the moral hairs
By Michael McCord
Posted:  January 2007

Retired Army officer Gary Terhune spent too much time in the closet, so to speak, in his second career as a financial consultant. Terhune, who owns Portsmouth-based Seacoast Financial Navigation, had jumped into the financial advising business because he felt he had done a good job "of investing my own money so why not do it for others?" This was the dilemma he felt: As a devout Christian, he felt the financial advising industry "was so secular" and he needed something more, an ability to, well, Christianize his work.

Economic forecasters look to the future
By Michael McCord
Posted:  December 2006

In the information age, there is no shortage of data, detailed reports and forecasts coming from government bodies, think tanks large and small, and private corporations.

Putting it all into perspective
By Michael McCord
Posted:  November 2006

Paul McEachern laughed when he told me he hopes I wasn’t writing his “epilogue.”
Not even close. After more than decades as an attorney-at-law and one of Portsmouth’s favorite sons, McEachern isn’t ready to retire anytime soon.

The Last Frontier
By Michael McCord
Posted:  October 2006

I recently had a eye-opening experience: I had a close encounter with exceptional customer service. On the face of it, that may not seem too remarkable. But, really folks, despite the fact that we live in a service sector economic universe that impacts everything from our medical decisions to buying milk, customer service, we are told, is the big difference maker. But as we all know, the level of customer service from store to store and company to company is inconsistent at best.

Human resources is business essential
By Michael McCord
Posted:  September 2006

Carl Pufahl, the vice president of finance for Greenland-based Living Innovations, told me he was in a major time bind, one in which every small business executive or owner can find himself or herself. Call it the "too many hats on one head" syndrome. Living Innovations specializes in home-care companion services for the elderly and disabled, and was growing fast on multiple fronts. The company was adding offices (eight sites in New Hampshire and Maine), and employees (around 260 currently), and revenues had jumped from $2.3 million to $13 million.

For the love of it
By Michael McCord
Posted:  August 2006

Class is now in session. Can you tell me what a histocytosalpingeogram is? Brett LeClair knows because it’s his job to know. It’s also his passion to teach college- level students, among many things, about histocytosalpingeograms and other terminological mysteries of the human body. He must be passionate because spare time is at a premium in his life. On most weekdays, LeClair is Dr. Brett LeClair, a chiropractor with a full-time practice in North Hampton. On many late afternoons and weeknights during the school year he can be found teaching students anatomy, physiology and, yes, medical terminology at the Pease campus of the New Hampshire Community Technical College.

Andy Beaupre has been there, done that, and can’t stop doing it
By Michael McCord
Posted:  July 2006

If he hasn’t personally seen it all, then Andy Beaupre, has certainly heard it all when it comes to the truly obtuse field of public relations. After all, he’s been around in the industry long enough to have met Edward L. Bernays, the early 20th Century inventor (if such a distinction can be made) of public relations. Along with his wife, Karen, Beaupre started the high-tech firm Beaupre & Company way back in the late 20th Century — 1983 to be precise — when Portsmouth was considered a PR backwater, mostly serving the local business community.

The right stuff in the real estate world
By Michael McCord
Posted:  June 2006

What does it take to become a well-compensated, successful, superstar real estate savant? I ask the question about having the right stuff because I don't have it. When it comes to selling, I am, to put it politely, hopeless. Years ago, in a fit of career absent mindedness, I took a personality test to find out if I was fit to be a car salesman. I wasn't.

Gourmet treatment
By Michael McCord
Posted:  May 2006

It was a tough story to tell and so I reluctantly assigned myself the challenge. Of course, being totally pampered with food (a sevencourse meal) and drink (seven or eight wines; I lost count) for three hours was necessary on-the-ground research about the hospitality management program at the University of New Hampshire.

Are you man enough?
By Michael McCord
Posted:  April 2006

Keith Wieland thinks of himself as "pretty much a guy's guy," which if you met the 31-year-old, goateed native of Rhode Island at his work station, it would be easy to see why. What makes Wieland, who works at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, unusual is that he's in a profession with few guys, much less guy's guys.