Archive for June, 2011

The Chris O-pinion: After seeing the latest data ranking Maryland’s reputation for business, I went over the handy search tool on the Arundel Business News blog and saw the insightful coverage of the previous ranking. Last fall CNBC reported our state as 27^th overall as being business friendly, and that outlet’s updated numbers bumped us back to 29th.

While numbers are only as honest as those who created them, the perception of Maryland as a difficult state to start and/or grow a business is real and persists.  Some things like the higher cost of living (Md. ranks 44^th) are hard to change, but the cost of doing business, in which we rank 39^th, can use some polish.  We do well in technological innovation (10^th) and education (11^th), so we have the foundation.  Let’s hope the InvestMaryland initiative is a seed.

OCEAN CITY – This being the season when thoughts drift to vacation spots, it’s worth noting that Ocean City landmark Seacrets is looking to sell franchises of its Jamaican-themed restaurant, bar, hotel and night club concept.  The company, which celebrated its 23rd anniversary, seeks to have three franchises operating within five years.

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MARYLAND – The 70 coastal beaches in the state were clean enough to garner 16th place nationwide, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.  The report looks at bacteria-related closings, advisories and other factors.  Local beaches awarded Superstar Beach status for their perfect testing results?  Rehoboth and Dewey, in Delaware.

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BALTIMORE - The size and financial assets of the nonprofit sector in Prince George’s County still lag behind nonprofits in other parts of Maryland, but the gap is narrowing, says a study by Maryland Nonprofits.  Prince George’s has 4,877 nonprofits with a combined revenue of more than $3.2 billion per year; they employ more than 15,000.

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GLEN BURNIE – Chesapeake Bay Candle has opened a local factory, a big step from its former business model of manufacturing overseas.  Parent company Pacific Trade International began in Annapolis with its of candles, home fragrance and home décor products.

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ANNAPOLIS – Towne Park has snatched up Quality  Parking Service, an Los Angeles-based parking management company that will boost its presence to more than 110 accounts and 1,300 associates.

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LA PLATA – Managed service provider OUTSOURCE IT has joined the Gridstore Partner Program.  Under the arrangement OUTSOURCE IT will offer Gridstore’s network-attached storage product that covers shadow imaging of clients’ servers and desktops, backup over the cloud, medical image archiving and SMB hosting services.

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GLEN BURNIE – NovaSom has closed $35 million in equity financing that it will use to fund growth in its sleep management technology including additional innovations within the company’s diagnostic medical device and cloud-based MediTrack Patient Management Portals.

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BALTIMORE – Business advisory firm Ernst & Young awarded its Maryland Entrepreneur of the Year honors to two local executives: Bill Karpovich of Zenoss for the emerging category, and Alan Snyder of Boxtone for the technology category.

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LAUREL – Tower Federal Credit Union (a Chris O. Communications client) won third place in the Baltimore Business Journal’s Healthiest Employer award for its structured wellness program including on-site health fairs and vending machines with healthy snacks.

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