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Irvine Business ~ From neighborhood stores to global companies. By Ian Hamilton, the Orange County Register

Archive for the 'irvine' Tag

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Local.com ranked third fastest growing local ad company

November 9th, 2009, 4:20 pm by Ian Hamilton

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Seems that if Irvine-based Local.com isn’t fighting off rumors it’s being bought by Microsoft then it’s getting on some fancy list.

This time Local.com (NASDAQ: LOCM) has been named the third fastest growing local advertising company in North America. It was also ranked as the fifth fastest-growing public company in Orange County by the Orange County Business Journal. In September Nielsen labeled Local.com the 10th largest search engine in the United States.

On second thought, maybe Microsoft should think about buying Local.com. It’s really pushing hard against Google with Bing, maybe adding Local.com would help.

Related Links:

Posted in: Automotive • Awards • Business • Growth • • • • • • | Post a Comment »

How do you define the focus of a business?

November 9th, 2009, 10:57 am by Nick Haschka

Nick Haschka

Nick Haschka, co-founder of the 532 Development Group

Editor’s note: This is part of an ongoing series chronicling the triumphs, challenges, failures and questions facing one Orange County startup, the 532 Development Group, written by the founders themselves with as much openness as competition allows.  If you’re new to the series, start here and come back.

After picking our name (or in our case, our number), we were finally forced to pony up to the question we’d been contemplating, but avoiding a decision on for weeks.

  • What is our business going to do?
  • Who are we going to be?

We decided to start out by seeking the familiar - consulting. We first crafted our value proposition by identifying our most valuable and unique strength, the ability to translate back and forth between the languages of science and business. From this we decided to target technology businesses. We defined and prioritized, based on our own level of excitement, the 4 broad technology industries we had professional experience working in.

After putting up a Web site, probing our business networks, and attending some local networking events, we found a number of attractive leads and received a few proposal requests. Within 2 weeks, we landed two projects. Fortunately, one was in alternative energy, our #1 priority industry, while the other was in mobile software, our #2 priority industry.

Within 2 weeks of embarking on the two projects simultaneously, we found ourselves naturally focusing more on the project we were most excited about. To us, exploring solar opportunities in Arizona was much more exciting than figuring out how to enter the mobile payments market. As a result, the second project became tougher and tougher to manage. Despite successfully completing the mobile payments project, we decided to re-evaluate our target markets and cut out 3 industries to focus exclusively on alternative energy.

This decision to focus seemed obvious in hindsight, but we continue to confront similar decisions.

Questions:

Are there any good rules of thumb people use help decide whether something is too far outside of focus?

How do you balance the desire to explore the unfamiliar with the need to stay focused on your expertise?

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Posted in: Follow The Sun • Innovation • • • • • • | Post a Comment »

Newport company cleans your car using a glass of water

November 9th, 2009, 9:37 am by Ian Hamilton

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Pierrick Bouquet’s business pitch is simple: “We clean your car like pros with just a glass of H2O.”

He picked Newport Beach to base his business, Ecolo Green Car Wash, which launches officially today.

Ecolo comes to several business parks in Irvine throughout the week and workers can pay to have their car washed for $17 for a basic outside hand wash and $20 for both inside and outside, though larger vehicles may cost more. Hybrid cars get a $3 discount. The company also sells a line of cleaning products that come in spray bottles that, according to Bouquet, are made from the same kind of plastic as water bottles so they can be recycled as such. Bouquet also says the cleaning solution is environmentally safe and biodegradable.

So why a green car wash? Without a spray nozzle on the end, a standard garden hose might pass through 10 gallons of water each minute, so a 10 minute long car wash can spend 100 gallons of water. If you’re one of these people using a hose without a nozzle you should probably feel guilty about single-handedly destroying the Earth. A nozzle drastically improves water preservation, but not anywhere close to the eight ounces of water Bouquet promises to use for a wash.

Ecolo also sells a line of car, tire and fabric cleaning solutions so you can clean your car at home.

If you’re a visual person, here’s a video of Bouquet making a video pitch:

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And a quick demo of Bouquet showing how it works:

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We’ve got an Ecolo sample kit which includes two fresh towels and bottles of the car, fabric and tire solutions that I’ll be giving away randomly to a commenter on this post. Make sure you sign up to comment with a real email address so I can contact you if you win.

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Posted in: Business • green • • • • • • | 10 Comments »

Inspiration for the creative professional

November 6th, 2009, 5:51 am by Ian Hamilton

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Walking around Roland DGA’s new Creative Center I couldn’t help but be surprised by how many products are created, or at least made more visually appealing, using printers and engravers.

Roland is a worldwide printing company with its North and South American marketing and sales headquarters in Irvine. The company doesn’t quite have the household presence of a Hewlett-Packard or an Epson because their products aren’t for your average household or daily user. Their machines are priced in the thousands to tens of thousands of dollars and geared more toward the creative professional. Roland printers, engravers and scanners might be found in the design studios of companies around the world.

The company recently announced their Irvine Creative Center where they display a variety of products made by Roland customers.

“I don’t know that [the Creative Center] would mean a lot to the general public, but to creative people who are looking for tools to explore their dreams, I’d say this is a neat place to give them a lot of ideas,” said Rick Scrimger, vice president and general manager at Roland DGA.

From etched rings to a giant replica flying machine hanging overhead, the variety of products made using printed and etched graphics is surprising. Roland officials said the company’s machines were used to help create the illusion of certain locations in Hollywood movies like Charlie Wilson’s War, Miami Vice and Public Enemies. Even the floors of the creative center are covered in different types of printed graphics that give the illusion of different surfaces, from wood to asphalt. There’s an Xbox 360 wrapped in a colorful dragon and tiger design and a Sierra Nevada beer tap station with labels made by Roland printers. There are drums, shirts, jerseys, walls, bottles, cereal boxes, rings, plates, purses, blinds, refrigerators, sinks, windows, paintings, puzzles, toys and more all made visually stunning using Roland machines. Even braille door signage can be made using engravers. Check out this slideshow of various things made with the help of Roland machines.

One of the more impressive pieces Roland had on display was this toy in the video below, made with the help of a Roland engraver. If you can’t hear the audio, it was created by an Italian toymaker who designed this on a computer and then he used a Roland machine to help cut the pieces:

http://www.vimeo.com/7468886

Visitors to the creative center are welcome. Check out www.rolanddga.com for details.

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Posted in: Business • • • • • • • | Post a Comment »

Tea, coffee and boba shop opening at Diamond Jamboree

November 3rd, 2009, 5:11 pm by Ian Hamilton

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A new Lollicup Coffee and Tea shop will be soft opening on Thursday in the Diamond Jamboree Asian-mega-food-super-center in Irvine.

If you’re not familiar with the center, it’s a 114,000 square foot shopping center at the corner of Alton Parkway and Jamboree Road that’s nearing capacity.

According to John Chan, owner of the shop, they won’t be holding a true grand opening until January but beginning Thursday around noon you should be able to get your boba, tea, coffee, slushies and smoothies there.

As an added bonus, Chan say they asked the Kogi Korean BBQ truck to come and it should be there Thursday night around 10:30 p.m.

Posted in: Openings • • • • | 1 Comment »

Craft fair Friday and Saturday in Irvine

November 3rd, 2009, 3:42 pm by Ian Hamilton

More than 150 artists will display their work at the Irvine Fine Arts Center’s annual Holiday Faire from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Items available will include hand-blown glass, ceramics, jewelry, crafts, clothing and more. Admission is $2 and children 12 and under are free.

The center is at 14321 Yale Ave. in Heritage Park. More information at www.irvinehearts.org or call 949-724-6880.

I love going to craft fairs but I hate buying things at craft fairs.  I just don’t have a place for all the neat knick knacks I find. I’d be curious how the independent artist community is surviving the recession with people tightening their spending.

Full press release below:

27th Annual Irvine Holiday Faire
Handmade and one-of-a-kind items hallmark of annual event

IRVINE, CA (November 2, 2009): Handmade and one-of-a-kind items are the hallmark of the Irvine Fine Arts Center’s annual Holiday Faire Friday, November 6 from 5-9 p.m. and Saturday, November 7 from 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. More than 150 talented artisans will showcase a variety of unique holiday arts and decorations for purchase including hand-blown glass, ceramics, jewelry, folk crafts, porcelain dolls, clothing and more.

The faire also features live music and a selection of delicious foods and desserts, including the ever-popular handmade ceramic collector bowls filled with piping hot chili or baked potatoes with all the fixings.

Admission is $2; children 12 and under are free. Event proceeds benefit special projects and art programs sponsored by the Irvine Fine Arts Center. Purchases from past fundraisers include new kilns, glaze mixers, and spray booths for the ceramics department.

The Irvine Fine Arts Center, located at 14321 Yale Avenue (in Heritage Park), is a non-profit organization devoted to the development of mutual involvement between artists and the community. The Faire is an opportunity for local and community artisans to display their creations in an atmosphere of sharing and education. Parking is free and the Faire is open to the public. For more information, visit www.irvinefinearts.org or call (949) 724-6880.

Posted in: Go and Do • • • • • | Post a Comment »

Chipotle delivers to your car at Irvine Spectrum

November 2nd, 2009, 2:04 pm by Ian Hamilton

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The power of the press, people.

Last week I mentioned that Chipotle was noticeably absent from the Irvine Spectrum’s free Curbside To-Go Program. Well, no more.

I’ve heard from the Irvine Spectrum people and Chipotle has decided to join the program. Now you can get Chipotle without ever having to get out of your car too.

Be sure to check out the original post for all the times this service is offered, where to go to pick up your food and  see what other restaurants are participating.

Posted in: Fast Food • • • • • • | Post a Comment »

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