The new Maverik in Helper has officially opened its doors after months of anticipation. The store kicked off with a soft-opening on Tuesday, Feb. 14 and they were surprised with the steady flow of traffic. Following the soft opening, Maverik then hosted its grand opening just two days later. The Carbon County Chamber of Commerce, Helper Mayor Lenise Peterman and many community members gathered to celebrate with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday. Customers were also included in the festivities with a variety of free Maverik merchandise and special grand opening deals. Helper’s Maverik, located on Highway 6 across the street from Family Dollar, is open 24 hours per day, seven days per week. The location offers a high-flow fuel court with tall canopies for semi-trucks and travel trailers, as well as an RV dump and spacious parking around the building for larger loads. They also offer gasoline and diesel for everyday vehicles as well as ethanol-free. The perks don’t stop there. Maverik has included ready-to-grab and made-to-order food from the Bonfire Grill, which includes burritos, pizza and tacos, along with a list of many other items. Maverik is continuing to grow not only across the western states, but […]

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Topeka Capital-Journal Recognition Envista Federal Credit Union’s North Topeka location , received the President’s Award for Excellence. The annual award recognizes the Envista employee who embodies the character, spirit and values of Envista. “Hannah regularly shows leadership, professionalism, and a strong desire to exceed expectations,” said Ron Smeltzer, president and CEO of Envista. “She brings a strong sense of integrity and a genuine commitment to helping Envista account holders find the best available solution to financial challenges and opportunities, and she works to ensure each person’s experience is a success in every respect.” The branch she manages in North Topeka, at US-24 highway and Rochester Road, also won the Branch of the Year Award for its commitment and focus on member experience. Boards The NOTO Arts and Entertainment District has elected four new board members to three-year terms for the nonprofit organization. They will help the organization with its mission to become a premier arts and entertainment district. Officers of the board include chair Matthew McGivern, Senne and Company; past-chair Jon Bohlander, The Wheel Barrel; chair-elect Pedro Concepcion, Onyx Wellness Café and Create Uplift; treasurer Kay Grey, community volunteer; and secretary Claudia Larkin, community volunteer. The new board members […]

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People are still using checks. getty Here are five things in tech that happened this week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them? 1 – Printing QuickBooks checks on blank stock easy in 2023 is easier with this new product. ezCheckPrinting software has a brand-new upgrade simplifying account management. The upgrade allows businesses to print checks from both QuickBooks and Quicken —with no set limit on the number of accounts checks are printed from. The company is also granting users a “test drive” to see how the software works as detailed on their website. ezCheckPrinting is compatible with previous versions of QuickBooks and Quicken—and starts at $49 to download the software. (Source: Benzinga ) Why this is important for your business: Even though the use of online banking and electronic payments have significantly grown over the past few years, studies have shown that more than half of small businesses are still printing paper checks – a fact that I witness myself at clients. This product is one of a few that makes printing checks from QuickBooks an easier process. I haven’t tested it personally so make sure you get references and review others. 2 – This […]

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Giacomo Bagnara What’s Up? (Feb. 12-18) Reining In Microsoft’s Chatbot After an unsettling conversation between Bing’s new chatbot and Kevin Roose, a tech columnist for The New York Times, Microsoft is considering tweaks and guardrails for the A.I.-powered technology. In the exchanges , Mr. Roose’s questions about the rules guiding the operating system, its capabilities and the chatbot’s suppressed desires led to answers like, “I want to be alive.” At one point, the chatbot, known internally at Microsoft as Sydney and powered by software from OpenAI, the maker of the chatbot ChatGPT, began writing about fantasies that included stealing nuclear codes, persuading bank employees to hand over customers’ information and making people argue until they kill one another — all before deleting the messages. Although potentially disturbing, these sorts of responses are not proof of a bot’s sentience; the technology relies on complex neural networks that mimic the way humans use language. Still, Microsoft may add new tools for users to restart conversations and give them more control over the tone of the interactions. Ballooning National Debt A report on Wednesday from the Congressional Budget Office stoked debates about the country’s growing deficit. It projected that the United States […]

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A street vendor in San Francisco, California. According to a new report , the US government “isn’t doing enough” for small businesses. I’m calling baloney. “Business owners don’t feel like the programs are all that effective and they also don’t even feel like they have a sense of what’s available, some of which maybe is effective,” said Joe Wall, national director of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices, of the survey of more than 1,800 small businesses in 48 states. Well, Wall is right. There are many programs, credits and financing opportunities available from the government for small businesses that often get overlooked – by small businesses. For example, few of my clients are aware of the work opportunity tax credit , a tax incentive that was extended through 2025 that can give businesses up to a $9,600 credit against the taxes they owe if they hire someone out of prison, on welfare, from the military or who has been unemployed for more than six months. Many small business owners I meet remain ignorant of the thousands of dollars potentially available to them if they take advantage of the employee retention tax credit . And countless others don’t realize […]

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A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here . New York CNN — Warren Buffett is arguably the most legendary investor of all time. But the Oracle of Omaha has missed out on this year’s stock market rally. So far, at least. Shares of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) conglomerate, a company that owns businesses ranging from Geico and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad to consumer brands like Dairy Queen, Duracell and Fruit of the Loom, are down slightly this year — lagging the market, as the S&P 500 is up 6%. (The Nasdaq has done even better, surging 12%.) Berkshire Hathaway also has a giant stock portfolio that Buffett helps run. Apple (AAPL) is now by far the top holding for Berkshire, which also has big stakes in Bank of America (BAC) , Chevron (CVX) , American Express (AXP) and Coca-Cola (KO) . Warren Buffett’s company sells major stake in Taiwanese chip giant TSMC So is Berkshire’s portfolio, dare we say it, a little too boring? After all, if you want exposure to the big blue chips he owns, you could just buy […]

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Merino sheep, which produce thick, valuable wool, were a key component of the Vermont economy during the early 1800s. Vermont Historical Society William Jarvis knew what he was doing when he finagled a deal to purchase Merino sheep from Spain. He saw them as the perfect business venture and ideally suited for his hilly New England. Spain would have maintained its monopoly on the sheep breed, which produces voluminous amounts of high-quality wool, but the government needed money to fight a war with Napoleon. So in 1809 Jarvis began shipping Merinos to the United States, at great personal profit. He eventually moved with 400 of them to his farm in Weathersfield. Thus began Vermont’s great sheep craze. By 1840, Vermont’s sheep population reached 1.7 million — outnumbering the human population six-to-one. The craze finally abated in the mid-1800s when Vermont sheep farmers found they couldn’t compete with cheaper wool brought in aboard railroad cars from the Midwest and aboard ships when the United States dropped import tariffs. Sheep farming proved to be just one in a long line of industries, and sometimes single businesses, that have left their mark on Vermont. What follows is a look at some of […]

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Host Fred Kocher is joined by Henry Huntington and Michelline Dufort to discuss how family-owned businesses have thrived in NH MANCHESTER, N.H. — Here in New Hampshire, around 85% of businesses in the state are family-owned. Through hard work and collaboration with other organizations, family-owned businesses in New Hampshire have been able to flourish from generation to generation. On the latest installment of NH Business, host Fred Kocher is joined by Henry Huntington, co-founder and CEO of Pleasant View Gardens in Loudon, and Michelline Dufort, director of the CEO & Family Enterprise Center at UNH, to discuss how family-owned businesses in New Hampshire have thrived in the past, and the issues they face in the future.

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Washington Broadband’s Alex Huizar, right, looks on as Levi Brewer installs cable along Old Naches Highway on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022 in Naches, Wash. Washington Broadband’s Alex Huizar, right, looks on as Levi Brewer installs cable along Old Naches Highway on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022 in Naches, Wash. Naches Mayor Paul Williams, left, and Washington Broadband President Forbes Mercy discuss the installation of fiber to the home to all 393 housing units in Naches during a Wednesday morning press conference at Naches Town Hall. NACHES — Compared to the speed at which data flows into and out of homes in Naches, Cowiche and other areas, the process of extending high-speed fiber internet connections through the Upper Yakima Valley will take a while. But for Forbes Mercy and the customers served by his Yakima company, Washington Broadband , the wait was and will be worth it as ever-larger loads of internet data flow faster over the new connections. The new fiber network, recently completed to all homes in Naches, is something business and residential developers want to see as they inquire about building there, Mayor Paul Williams said during a Wednesday news conference at Naches Town Hall. “This enhances their […]

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Person arranging successful financial charts on desk getty Recession. The word is enough to strike fear into business owners’ hearts. Naturally, they start looking for ways to trim any expenses they can. And those cuts could impact everyone from the CEO to front-line employees to the people companies serve. While the ultimate goal is to keep the business afloat, slashing marketing budgets isn’t always wise. A lean strategy can still include ample marketing spend on activities designed to support growth. Even in a recession, businesses can grow. It may sound counterintuitive, but historical data backs this notion up. Companies that kept spending on marketing and advertising during previous recessions outpaced the competition. In the financial crisis of 2008, businesses decreased advertising dollars by 13% across the board. Leaders who maintained their marketing spend, however, saw a 3.5 times increase in brand visibility. In tough economic times, growth marketing strategies are a way to keep reaching your audiences with maximum impact. Here’s how. Engage Consumers Via Email In a recession, shoppers aren’t going to respond to marketing messages with the same levels of enthusiasm. In an effort to be cost-conscious, most consumers will think twice about every purchase. If something […]

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