Paddleboard makers get feet wet in Reno, Sparks
by Rob Sabo, 3/8/2010
Seeking to capitalize on the growing popularity of stand-up paddleboarding — think of an oversized surfboard powered with a long-handled paddle — Reno-Sparks entrepreneurs have launched two paddleboard companies in the area in recent years.
The companies, though small, are providing a boost to efforts to create a diversified manufacturing base for the region’s economy.
Three years ago Nate Brouwer was on a business trip in Laguna Beach, Calif. when he saw guys standing on surfboards and using paddles to catch waves. He thought paddleboards would catch on around the Lake Tahoe area, and he began adapting designs for lake use.
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Global sales get renewed focus in area
by John Seelmeyer, 3/8/2010
As the U.S. economy slowed, Coral LLC of Incline Village increasingly looked to international markets for new revenues.
“We noticed a huge increase in sales in our international markets,” says Alberto Galdamez, who heads export sales for the marketer of nutritional products based on above-sea coral.
Coral LLC isn’t alone as northern Nevada companies increasingly look for export opportunities.
At the same time, the state is looking to increase the amount of direct investment by foreign companies in Nevada industries such as renewable energy and mining.
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CrazyBidNow.com completes sprint, gets into operation
by John Seelmeyer, 3/8/2010
When the dozen employees of CrazyBidNow.com flipped on the switches in the company’s south Reno broadcast studio, they barely had time to take a deep breath after a six-week sprint to get the company into operation.
In barely more than a month, the operation’s parent — CBN Inc. — had raised capital, hired on-air, production and administrative staffs, and built the studio with its four stages.
The site works something like a combination of Home Shopping Network and eBay, with elements of the newly popular “penny auctions” added in.
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The jobs outlook
by Barbara Marquand, 3/8/2010
As much as northern Nevadans would like to see an end to high unemployment, relief won’t come this year.
The Nevada Department of Employment Training and Rehabilitation projects an almost 6 percent decline in jobs this year over 2009 and a 2 percent year-over-year dip next year.
Not surprisingly, a sampling of large employers in northern Nevada aren’t expecting to grow their workforces significantly this year, although certainly the news is not as grim as last year at this time.
International Game Technology in Reno, which laid off 700 workers in late 2008 and early 2009, is hiring for about 75 new positions, 30 of those in Reno. The local positions are mostly in engineering, particularly software engineering, IGT Marketing Director Julie Brown says.
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