Business

OCEAN PINES — When Elizabeth Stout opened Elisabeth’s Treasures two years ago she was completely content with occupying the bottom half of the converted split level home between Ocean Parkway and Manklin Meadows Lane, but had her eye on the upstairs. Stout wanted the second floor not so much because it would provide her additional sales, although it surely would, but more because the wide range of items she had available to her for display outnumbered her floorspace almost two to one. So last month, when she had the opportunity to expand into the second floor of the building she moved in immediately and almost exactly two years to the day after she first opened her doors. “We used to have two [warehouses],” she said. “Now we just have one.” Stout’s success has been counter-intuitive for a shop that sells pre-owned furniture, jewelry and accessories in addition to original works from artists and artisans. One of the most significant aspects o...

OCEAN PINES — Woodlands owner Rick Handelman had a devilish look in his eye as he approached the front desk. “Watch this, they hate this,” he said waiving his hand in front of the three-foot-tall Santa standing guard next to the desk.  “They” were the staff and residents at the Woodlands and the result of his frantic waving gives the best picture of what it is like to live at the Woodlands. The Santa didn’t move. Handelman looked up at the small number of people lounging in the lobby with pretend accusation and hurt.  “They sabotaged it,” he said. “Again.” By the time he got it working it was pretty clear why the Santa has been repeatedly sabotaged. The Christmas message was long and loud and more than a little grating. The whole scene gave the impression that Handelman had purchased the decoration with the express intention of giving the residents and staff an opportunity to engage in this fun little war with h...

WEST OCEAN CITY — Somewhere there is an old photograph of a very young Chuck Dondero messing with the display in his family’s Boardwalk shop. While it’s not, strictly speaking, a point of dispute, Dondero claims he was showing his budding talent as a stock boy, arranging the items for sale. His wife, Linda, claims he was just caught playing. Whatever he was actually doing is really secondary to the point that Dondero has spent the better part of his life in his family’s Ocean City shops. Christmas Pointe moved round the lower Boardwalk for decades before settling in the 45th Street Village and spent the better part of its first decade of existence as a seasonal Ocean City shop. So much so that it was with more than a little anxiety that the couple moved across the bridge to Ocean City Factory Outlets five years ago and decided to make an all year go at running the shop. Setting aside the kind of exhaustion that comes with running a large store full time lookin...

BERLIN — While the big retailers inch Black Friday forward in an attempt to stretch the holiday shopping rush, small retailers are taking the opposite tack with the help of an unlikely sponsor: American Express. Last year the credit card company inaugurated Small Business Saturday to highlight supporting small local businesses not only as part of the shopping season but also as a more approachable, sustainable way of conceiving retail. This year six Berlin businesses — Abigail's, Bruder Hill, Bungalow Love, j.j.Fish Studio, Simply Shades and Victorian Charm — are participating by offering special Small Business Saturday discounts. Community and Economic Development Director Michael Day said he hopes the local merchants’ success spawns greater participation as the program continues. “I think it’s a great opportunity for the town and the merchants,” he said. The idea of a coordinated, national movement that focuses on supporting local small...

 WEST OCEAN CITY — The upside to the economic downturn is that it gives entrepreneurs not only the opportunity but also the means to strike out on their own in establishing a new business. It was, in fact, a primary motivator for Jill Ferger and her mother, Joan Ferger, in establishing the Six Eleven Salon and Gallery. With more than a decade of makeup and manicure experience, Jill had gone as far as she was likely able to as an employee, but as an owner she recognized that the sky was the limit, providing she could find and appoint the right place to showcase her skills and the right staff to fulfill her vision. She said both endeavors took a significant amount of courage and effort but in the end, she said it was worth it “It think it’s important for my daughters to see it’s possible to be an independent woman,” Ferger said. “You keep going if you have the passion and the drive.” The place she found — in the Trader Lee’s ...

BERLIN — What started out as an alternate way of carving pumpkins for his children’s class projects has turned into a cottage industry for carver Kenny Bliss. When he began carving pumpkins professionally, he was working at the Dough Roller in Ocean City and convinced his bosses to commission one from him. The project took off after that. In the intervening decade, Bliss has become one of the most sought after pumpkin artists in the area, keeping busy for the better part of each fall as a continually increasing number of businesses and residents commission pumpkins of all kinds. As the hobby became a business, Bliss worked to make sure he had a reliable supply of superior pumpkins. He contracted with a farm in Powellville to provide him with pumpkins that had just the right skin texture. That connection has helped to protect Bliss from worrying about supply issues and fluctuations in demand or the combination of the two that has put a bit of a crimp in pumpkin availab...

By Tony Russo Staff Writer BERLIN — Earlier this month new banking regulations went into effect limiting the amount a bank could charge a merchant for accepting debit cards. Each time a merchant swipes a card, the bank that processes the charge takes a fee. Depending upon the bank, the merchant’s volume and other factors, this fee used to be as much as 44 cents per swipe, but under the new regulations, the maximum amount a bank can charge anyone is 21 cents per swipe. Credit cards were not affected by the legislation. While this is excellent news for most merchants, some banks are making an effort to protect their profits by finding new ways to make their retail divisions more profitable to compensate for continued losses in other corporate departments. Late last month, Bank of America announced its intention to begin charging account holders a $5 monthly service fee for the use of a debit card. While the fee is for the most part nominal, analysts suggest it is an indi...

BISHOPVILLE — As Halloween approaches, the paper spiders used as decorations are a reminder of how pervasive the creatures really are, especially at this time of year. What makes people so concerned about the arachnids is that, without a specialized degree, it is difficult to tell the dangerous ones from the others. For example, there is a large brown spider that is commonly misidentified as a brown recluse — although that is just as well because these other brown spiders are poisonous as well —  but is not as poisonous. Similarly, black widow spiders occupy the woodpiles, treed areas and houses of many local houses. Dean Bennett of Bennett Services has made a point of understanding how to eradicate these and other pests over his nearly two decades in the business. Over that time, he’s witnessed both the changes in his industry and its aim, which is pest control, and has been able to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to products and practices that ...

BERLIN —  What separates Amy Wood’s from the other artists in the Chamber of Commerce gallery is that there is nothing on her gallery walls for sale. Wood’s specialty is creating business centered art including web and logo design so for her, art is a service rather than a product. Wood owns and operates MidFin, a marketing and design company that specializes in helping other firms develop and brand both themselves and their products. From her perspective these aren’t separate services, so much so that she talks about what she does as web, graphic and marketing integration. The integration aspect is key, because piecemeal Internet marketing that is more targeted at having a web presence rather than using a web presence is one of the primary reasons many small business owners have trouble getting the most out of the medium. As people start to abandon Facebook for less cluttered social media playgrounds, the businesses who treat it as their only Internet...

OCEAN CITY — Cliff Sutherland, Mike Alexander, Rebekah James, and Kathy Micheal have been running motorcycle rallies for years but holding one in Ocean City is a goal that eluded them for some time. But as Delmarva Bike Week began focusing more on the Salisbury area, the group understood they had an opportunity to bring their brand of rally into town. In order to make it a viable production, however, they understood the need to offer something that was missing from the well established regional event. Their success in other places has hinged on providing a bike-centric event that also appeals to people who don’t happen to be motorcycle enthusiasts. The plan being to create a new kind of event that is equally pleasing to locals, tourists, families and bikers alike. The first order of business was to convince the Ocean City Town Council not only that their plan would work but also that it would benefit the town’s merchants in a way that has been missing. Although the...