If you grew up around Lafayette and Lake Charles and you’re a certain age, you might know Don Begneaud. If you’ve got kids – and you leave out the part where he dropped out of college – Don Beagneaud’s story is inspirational. Don started out as a welder, riding a bicycle to classes while a…

When we talk about emergency services we think of the three types of first responders, police, fire, and medical, as equals. Although they are indeed equal in their vital function of saving lives, they’re not equal financially. When a police car or a fire engine shows up, the vehicles and the people in them are funded…

In business, when we talk about “exports” we’re referring to a complex set of conditions that need to be fulfilled to get products out of the United States and into other countries. One of the first problems an exporter faces is finding a market where his or her products are going to be desirable. Or…

If you’re in business and you’re lucky or talented enough to be doing well, it’s not long before you start comparing your business with others that are doing better. And start wondering how you could do as well as they are. Or better. We do the same sort of thing, consciously or unconsciously, in our personal…

We’re in an era of the Sharing Economy. Home sharing business Air B’n’B has a capital valuation of over 10 billion dollars. Car sharing business Uber is closer to 20 billion. This mindset finds its way into day-to-day business as well. Ground rules that used to be based on competition are becoming infused with a…

In business, it’s good to remember the old saying, “All that glitters is not gold.” In Acadiana, that glittering might be a rare gemstone. Or a shiny new violin. For a long time Lafayette’s economy was based on one of the most valuable rescources buried below the earth’s surface. Oil. In 1970,  another of the…