Julie Young is a Principal Entrepreneur
Like a dot-com founder whose company never went bust, Julie Young has steered an internet-based growth rocket for 15 years. Since creating the first state online school — the proverbial "first mover advantage" in investing lingo — she's parlayed it into a $120-million-a-year operation that's among the nation's largest K-12 schools, with so many students that it's bigger than 41 of the state's 67 geographically defined districts. And after all that growth, Young and Florida Virtual School may just be getting started. Her operation enrolled more than 120,000 Florida students in 2010-11 in more than 110 courses, from driver's education to Advanced Placement Art History. Not bad for someone who didn't even know she was an entrepreneur until she had been one for several years. Read more...
 Heady Company: A trade publication named Florida Virtual President and CEO Julie Young, along with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, a "top 30 influencer" in education technology. She chairs the United States Distance Learning Association. For the past two years, the Center for Digital Education named Florida and Florida Virtual the top virtual education provider in the nation. [Photo: Brook Pifer] |
Return of grocery anchors cheered by plaza tenants
Some of those empty grocery store hulks are being filled after a lull caused by the economy. While customers may celebrate - especially fans of deep discounter Aldi, which is bringing its first store to Palm Beach County Monday - it's a real relief for business owners trapped for months in a shopping center with no grocery anchor. Retailers are starting to expand again, said Jesse Tron, spokesman for the International Council of Shopping Centers, though the pace is "measured." Having an anchor store - and a grocery is a typical anchor - greatly affects the financial health of the plaza and its other tenants, he said. [Source: Palm Beach Post]
With unprecedented job competition, standing out is a tough order
If an employer doesn't like the first three sentences of your resume, the rest of it might never be read and end up in a virtual trash folder. Among the changes brought by the Internet is an array of new job-hunting tools. The unemployed can find dozens of job openings online and electronically hurl hundreds of resumes at them, but this technique often doesn't work. Most of the nearly 30,000 job hunters in Brevard County are using the Internet in their search for employment. But despite the Internet's efficiency and capacity, online job hunters often fail to get their resumes viewed by employers. [Source: Florida Today]
Oregon inspires craft beer brewers in Florida
For years, Florida was a joke among craft beer lovers. "The wasteland" is what Ben Davis said it often was called. For perspective, Portland, Ore., had about as many breweries in its city limits as Florida had in the entire state. Joey Redner became a fan of craft beer during a 1994 trip to Portland. "I spent the rest of my time in Florida trying to find those beers and failing," Redner said. "And then you start getting into home brewing because you think, 'Oh, well I'll just make it myself.'" He also kept an eye on the market and when he felt interest was growing in Florida for craft beer, he hired brewer Wayne Wambles, who shared his interest in creative recipes. When a friend gave Redner a taste of a beer that had been aged with Spanish cedar — the wood used to wrap and box cigars — he knew it was an idea worth stealing. [Source: AP]
Taxpayers could be on hook for jobs agency's misspending
As investigators dig into the finances of the region's workforce development board, federal law indicates that Central Florida taxpayers might have to repay any money that is ultimately determined to have been misspent.
Workforce Central Florida leaders insist that's not likely, and Orange County's attorney says local governments have "no legal liability." But the federal law that created the agency suggests otherwise.
[Source: Orlando Sentinel]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Entrepreneur promising Tampa jobs has failed before
Timothy M. Roberts is promising the moon to Hillsborough County -- 265 jobs in the next 18 months, maybe an eventual $1.5 billion in revenues.
His new venture in Ybor City, a cloud computing company called Savtira, has job-hungry government officials and economic developers in Tampa Bay atwitter.
But years before Roberts promised to quadruple his work force and move to a downtown Tampa tower, he was at the center of a spectacular flameout in Sarasota.
› Port Canaveral cruise terminal project sets sail
Even as they were celebrating the start of construction of a new cruise terminal, Port Canaveral officials looked ahead to their next big thing: Finding federal and state funds to widen and deepen the port channel to handle the huge new ships of the future.
More than 100 community leaders gathered Friday at the port for a ceremony marking the start of construction of the Cruise Terminal 6 complex, which will cost $60.1 million.
› Health clinics serving the poor face cuts
Cathy Dewey had to wake up her two children at 4 a.m. Thursday in Apopka, just to get a good spot in a long child-immunization line at the Orange County Health Department's clinic in downtown Orlando.
Long drives and crowded lines like the ones she faced are only going to get worse across Florida.
To balance the budget, state lawmakers slashed funding for county health departments, and along with other federal cuts, it resulted in $55.6 million being cut this year from the health agency's $2.9 billion budget.
› Big greenhouse project may create 700 jobs
A roughly 250-acre tract in southern Marion County once slated for single-family homes will soon host a slew of houses of a different kind — greenhouses. Those behind the project say they want to create jobs for the community — perhaps as many as 700 or more — and capitalize on trends in the agriculture industry that emphasize the benefits of consuming unique, locally grown products.
Go to page 2 for more stories ...
› FlowRider surf machine resurfaces at Clearwater Beach Surf Style store
The Adrenalina store in International Plaza closed months ago, but its artificial surf machine roars back to life for land-bound wakeboarders next week on Clearwater Beach.
"It's going to be a real attention getter in a better location," said Avi Ovaknin, president of Surf Style Retail, a chain of 40 beachwear superstores the stretches from Miami to Gulfport, Miss.
Most FlowRiders are in water parks or cruise ships. Purchased and installed for $1 million, the used model will be a drawing card in Ovaknin's first $10 million megastore.
› Swoope talks up Scott's job creation plan
Despite what appears to be painfully slow progress on the jobs front, the governor's chief economic development guru, Gray Swoope, is not discouraged.
Appointed this past spring by Scott to head Enterprise Florida, and assume the role of Secretary of Commerce on Oct. 1, Swoope said Florida is on track to create 70,000 new jobs by the end of this year.
In Pensacola last week talking up Scott's job-creation game plan, Swoope met with local business and political leaders at Jackson's, the downtown restaurant co-owned by businessman Collier Merrill.
› Addiction? Video games crowded out Sarasota man's real life
At the height of what he calls his addiction, Ryan Van Cleave would stand in the grocery store checkout line with his milk and bread and baby food for his little girls and for a split second think he was living inside a video game.
It sounds crazy, but it's true: Something would catch his attention out of the corner of his eye — maybe another shopper would make a sudden move for a Hershey bar — and he was mentally and emotionally transported to another world.
World of Warcraft, to be exact.
› Hollywood's Wi-Fi not working, but not a loss to city's coffers
More than three years ago, the city of Hollywood borrowed $16 million to pay for a wireless communications platform, which would give residents free computer network service, as well as provide an automated water meter reader system and solar-powered parking meters.
But the system doesn't fully work.
› Omni making its mark on the Amelia Island Plantation
A year ago in a bankruptcy courtroom in Jacksonville, a bidding war emerged for the Amelia Island Plantation resort.
The battle between TRT Holdings Inc., owner of Omni Hotels & Resorts, and private equity firm Starwood Capital Group lasted more than four hours. But as the court hearing dragged on, it was clear that TRT and its chairman, Texas billionaire Robert Rowling, were willing to spend whatever it took to buy the Plantation. And when Starwood finally realized it couldn't compete, TRT won the resort with a $67.1 million bid.
› Head-hunting for Hillsborough tourism agency falls short
Hillsborough County's tourism promotion agency has just started reviewing applications for a successor to retiring chief executive Paul Catoe.
But a Tampa lawyer with economic development credentials says Tampa Bay & Co. hasn't cast its net wide enough to catch top-shelf talent.
"For something so important, I'm holding out (hope) they'll do a true national search," said Steven Burton, who sits on the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corp.'s executive committee.