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Monday's Afternoon Update

NASA races to find tenants for vacant shuttle facilities

Officials with NASA are racing to find new tenants for several vacant shuttle facilities at KSC before the money to maintain them runs out -- which is expected to happen by fall 2013. With the space-shuttle program ended, NASA either must find someone to lease major buildings -- such as the facility where workers repaired shuttle tiles -- or abandon them, because the cash-strapped agency lacks the money to demolish them.

?Ron Stein Column ?

Three steps to boost your sales with strategic marketing

I’ve have had clients in the past who managed their businesses by only zeroing in on the need to generate revenue. Before you quickly agree that there’s nothing more important than sales, notice I said "only." Of course every company needs to make the selling of their product or service the dominating goal in everything they do. Yet, focusing all activities on just sales without any kind of strategy in place is a recipe for disaster... continued.
Ron Stein
Florida Trend's business
coach Ron Stein

Crumbling buildings would hinder efforts to remake KSC into a modern spaceport, an initiative estimated to cost $2.3 billion during five years. More from the Orlando Sentinel.

Sen. Marco Rubio seeks middle ground on immigration as Hispanic voice for GOP

Sen. Marco Rubio is now working on an alternative to the Dream Act. The plan, not yet public, is generating widespread discussion, underscoring Rubio's status and potential as a Hispanic voice for the GOP. It would grant legal status to children of undocumented immigrants, but not a path to citizenship, as the Dream Act would. "You have to wait in line, but you get to wait in line in the U.S. legally," Rubio said in an interview. More from the Tampa Bay Times.


Lilly & Associates International on the move

Lilly & Associates International, a Miami-based trade logistics company, is planning a Latin American expansion. With 70 employees and offices in Colombia, Guatemala, Panama and Venezuela, the firm recently opened a 100,000-square-foot warehouse in Panama to handle growing trade volume with Latin America. More from the Miami Herald.


Small Biz Advice
Micromanaging

What separates a great manager from a micromanager is their ability to facilitate instead of control. A micromanager controls the work being done, whereas a great manager facilitates by supporting and empowering others to excel at the task at hand. So how do you know if you are a micromanager? Find out here.


Business Profile: Event planners balance day jobs with dream jobs

Emmanuela Stanislaus is founder of Pembroke Pines-based Precious Occasions event planning services for weddings, birthday parties, bridal and baby showers and anniversary celebrations. Her husband, Michael Stanislaus, started Official Sounds Entertainment as a professional DJ for weddings, special events and corporate events. The couple tries to coordinate networking events to allow time together while still working. More from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

» More profiles of wedding planners from Florida Trend.

» Related, from the Miami Herald: South Florida couples spending more on weddings as businesses vow to keep costs low


Executive lifestyle trend

metropole Fashion-savvy Florida businessmen avoid malls by shopping online

Like his fashion touchstone Don Draper on "Mad Men," Jordon Stone of Sarasota often sports trim-fit suits, a sharp pocket square and fine-cut Italian shoes. Stone runs his own fashion blog, "Neatly Collected." But you won't find him strolling the mall. "I'm just not a mall shopper," Stone said. "I'm a master of buying online." Some websites for men offer custom-made suits - they only ask for precise measurements. Other sites for males who hate malls offer subscription services that will deliver t-shirts, socks, underwear even razors to your door on a regular schedule. Kirk Kaiser, a software developer in Naples, said "It's a really low-value use of my time to take two hours, drive back and forth to the store, and walk around crowded aisles with terrible service." More from TBO.com