Biz New Orleans October 2015

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October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

Editor’s Note

Off With Her Head!

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t’s Halloween y’all!

And being that it’s my favorite time of year, there’s absolutely no way, I could resist the chance to have some fun at Southern Costume Company with a little help from my personal costumer, owner Wingate Jones. For someone who loves any excuse to dress up, I have to say that walking into his warehouse and seeing rack after rack of costumes spread before me felt like being handed the keys to Disneyland and a Haagen-Dazs factory at the same time.

I can’t say I’ve ever thought of dressing up like Marie Antoinette, but when I did manage to wrangle myself into all the layers, I’ll admit it was pretty hard to pull away from the mirror. Luckily, Biz New Orleans’ Art Director, Antoine Passelac, was only too happy to grab a sword and provide me with something else to think about.

Speaking of a lot to think about, with this issue we are officially into “Volume 2” of the magazine, so I’ve been sitting here thumbing through all 12 issues of our first year back in print.

My how we’ve grown! In just one year we’ve added 16 pages and this month we’re welcoming our third new column, “NOLA By the Numbers,” where each month urban planner and GCR Inc. consultant Robert Edgecombe will use his love of all things data to provide some insight on local trends, facts and figures.

When we were in the planning stages last summer the goal was simple: cover business in southeast Louisiana the way it deserves to be covered, with full color photography, in-depth articles and a behind the scenes look at the businesses and people shaping this region into the economic powerhouse it’s becoming. From the response we’ve been receiving across all industries, I think we’re on the right track.

Keep the ideas coming!

Happy reading.

Kimberley@BizNewOrleans.com In the print version of last month’s cover feature, “The Next Governor,” quotes from Gov. Vitter were inadvertently left out. For the complete version, please visit BizNewOrleans.com.

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October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

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OCTOBER 2015 | volume 2 | issue 1

Publisher Todd Matherne Editorial Editor-in-chief Errol Laborde Managing Editor Kimberley Singletary Art Director Antoine Passelac Photographer Cheryl Gerber Web Editor Kelly Massicot Assoc. Multimedia News Editor Leslie T. Snadowsky Contributors Robert Edgecombe, Calvin Fabre, Suzanne Ferrara, Carolyn Heneghan, Anne Roderique-Jones, Pamela Marquis, Phil McCausland, Jason Perry, Chris Price, Peter Reichard, Judi Russell, Jennifer Gibson Schecter, Melanie Spencer, Keith Twitchell, Bonnie Warren advertising Vice President of Sales Colleen Monaghan Sales Manager Maegan O’Brien Maegan@BizNewOrleans.com (504) 830-7219 Account Executive Caitlin Sistrunk Caitlin@BizNewOrleans.com (504) 830-7252 Account Executive Courtney Andrée Courtney@bizneworleans.com (504) 830-7225 PRODUCTION Production/Web Manager Staci McCarty Production Designers Ali Sullivan, Monique DiPietro, Claire Geary Traffic Coordinator Jessica DeBold administration Chief Executive Officer Todd Matherne President Alan Campell Executive Vice President Errol Laborde Vice President of Sales Colleen Monaghan Director of Marketing & Events Cheryl Lemoine Administrative Assistant Denise Dean Distribution Manager John Holzer Subscriptions Manager Sara Kelemencky

110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005 (504) 828-1380 Biz New Orleans is published monthly by Renaissance Publishing, LLC, 110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005; (504) 828-1380. Subscription rate: one year $24.95, two year $39.95, three year $49.95 — foreign rates vary call for pricing. Postage paid at Metairie, LA, and additional mailing entry offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Biz New Orleans, 110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005. Copyright 2015 Biz New Orleans. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the consent of the publisher. The trademark Biz New Orleans is registered. Biz New Orleans is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photos and artwork, even if accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. The opinions expressed in Biz New Orleans are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the magazine or owner.

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Contents

88

50

40

Features

From the Lens

40 Cashing in on Costumes

78 Great Offices

In NOLA it’s a year-round business.

Al Copeland Jr.

50 Commercial Affordability

88 Why Didn’t I Think of That?

Prices are up: Where can businesses

still find a deal?

96 Behind the Scenes

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October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

Local brothers harness the power of drones.

A unique Saints stat you probably didn’t know.

On the Cover Wingate Jones, owner of Southern Costume Company, poses with a few of the spookier offerings housed in his 9,000 square-foot Downtown headquarters.

Contents

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60

Columns

20 Dining Biz

Your palate takes in more than just the food.

22 Tourism Biz

House of Shock won’t stay dead.

24 Sports Biz

For sports lovers it’s the most wonderful time of the year.

26 Film Biz

The New Orleans Film Festival celebrates its own big wins.

28 Entrepreneur Biz

Japanese entrepreneurism — part two

of a two-part series.

30 Biz Etiquette

The do’s and don’ts of Asian business customs.

32 Tech Biz

Is your business on the map?

34 NOLA By the Numbers

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All the new New Orleanians, where are they from?

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82 Perspectives

News

60 Technology

18 Calendar

The cloud has you covered.

64 Home Health

A look at the local options in this growing business.

68 Hotels & Hospitality

Why hotels love loyalty programs.

74 Guest Viewpoint

Sometimes good is good enough.

Upcoming events not to miss

36 Biz Bits

Industry news

82 Biz Person of the Month

Q&A with Wade Ragas

94 Around Town – Events

Industry gatherings

BizNewOrleans.com October 2015

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Publisher’s Note

Real Men Wear Pink

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his month I have volunteered to be part of the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Real Men Wear Pink campaign to raise money and bring more awareness to such a devastating disease.

I know some very strong people that fight cancer daily and my heart and prayers go out to them. My sacrifice of a simple walk is nothing compared to the tough times they face everyday. Please join me in helping battle this disease.

If you would like to participate in the walk here are the details: Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Saturday, October 10, 2015 Champions Square | Downtown New Orleans www.MakingStridesWalk.org/NewOrleansLA If you would like to make a donation, please send it to: American Cancer Society ATTN: Real Men Wear Pink 2605 River Road New Orleans, LA 70121 Please write the name of the candidate in the memo line.

Todd Matherne

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October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

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Meet the Sales Staff Colleen Monaghan Vice President of Sales With over 30 years in the publishing and non-profit sectors, Colleen Monaghan is an accomplished sales strategist and solution-oriented Vice President of Sales at Renaissance Publishing. She thrives in challenging, fast-paced environments where her performance directly impacts the bottom line. As a seventh generation New Orleanean, Colleen loves her hometown of New Orleans with a passion, enjoys volunteering in the non-profit sector allows Colleen to strategize about new events that bring people together in a fun environment while also raising money. Colleen loves art collecting, traveling the world and living life to its fullest, while wearing fabulous hats and elaborate costumes while partaking in the elixir of life, Vino Dahling! You can reach Colleen at (504) 830-7215 or Colleen@BizNewOrleans.com.

Maegan O’Brien Sales Manager, Biz New Orleans Maegan O’Brien was born in New Orleans and raised on the Northshore in Mandeville, La. She graduated from Louisiana State University in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in finance, but marketing and advertising are her true callings. She currently lives in Old Metairie and loves traveling, wining and dining, and spending time with family and great friends. You can reach Maegan at (504) 830-7219 or Maegan@BizNewOrleans.com.

Caitlin Sistrunk Account Executive, Biz New Orleans Caitlin Sistrunk was born in New Orleans and raised in Covington, La. She graduated from Louisiana State University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. While attending LSU, Caitlin fell in love with both marketing and advertising. She is ecstatic to begin her career as a sales associate with our new magazine. Caitlin loves painting, hanging with friends and cooking. You can reach Caitlin at (504) 830-7252 or Caitlin@BizNewOrleans.com.

Courtney Andrée Account Executive, Biz New Orleans Courtney is a native New Orleanian who enjoys all our city has to offer. Her favorites include outdoor music festivals, shopping on Magazine Street and sipping on cocktails with her mom at the trendiest new places around town. She’s an animal lover and couldn’t imagine her life without her two rescues, Billy and Lilly. She loves being on the water, especially fishing and trips to the beach. You can reach Courtney at (504) 830-7225 or Courtney@BizNewOrleans.com.

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Calendar Saturday, October 3

October 13-16

Louisiana International Trade Gala

NAHSE 30th Annual Education Conference, Business Meeting and Exhibition

6:30 p.m.

The National WWII Museum Boeing Pavillion 945 Magazine St. For more information, call (504) 619-9834

New Orleans Marriott 555 Canal Street NAHSE.org

Wednesday, October 14

Saturday, October 3

St. Tammany West Chamber of Commerce Northshore Rising Professionals Luncheon Featuring Paul G. Aucoin, exec. dir. Port of South Louisiana

LABI’s 14th Annual Benefit Golf Tournament

9:30 a.m.

University Club of Baton Rouge 15333 Memorial Tower Dr.

11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Staybridge Suites 140 Holiday Blvd., Covington

LABI.org

StTammanyChamber.org

October 14-22

Tuesday, October 6 BRAC Monthly Lunch: The Business of Innovation

11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.

East Baton Rouge Parish Library 7711 Goodwood Blvd., Baton Rouge

New Orleans Film Festival

Various events citywide NewOrleansFilmFestival.org

BRAC.org.

Wednesday, October 21 Thursday, October 8

St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce Luncheon featuring Dr. Loren C. Scott

11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Tchefuncta Country Club 2 Country Club Dr., Covington

ABWA New Orleans

2015 Leadership Conference D.R.I.V.E. Communication Workshop 1 – 4 p.m.

NOLA Motor Sports Park 11075 Nicolle Blvd, Avondale

StTammanyChamber.org

Wednesday, October 28

ABWANewOrleans.org

Prosper Jefferson Seminar: Public Relations

Friday, October 10

9 – 10:30 a.m.

East Bank Regional Library Jefferson Room 4747 W. Napoleon Ave., Metairie

French Quarter Business Association Volunteer Graffiti Removal Day

Jedco.org/events

9 a.m. – 12 p.m.

8th District Police Station 334 Royal St.

Wednesday, November 4

FQBA.org

ACG Louisiana’s Fifth Annual “Taste of New Orleans”

October 12 and 13 5th Annual Economic & Real Estate Forecast Symposium Loyola University

Roussel Hall 6363 St. Charles Ave. For more information, call (504) 885-3200

9:30 a.m. – 8 p.m.

Roosevelt Hotel 130 Roosevelt Way, New Orleans ACG.org/Louisiana

We’d love to include your business-related event in next month’s calendar.

Please email details to Editorial@BizNewOrleans.com.

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October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

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Columns | Dining Biz

La Candelaria, Bogota, Colombia

Savoring More than the Flavor Does the color of your bowl affect the taste of your food?

You’d be surprised.

P Peter Reichard is a native New Orleanian who has written about the life and times of the city for more than 20 years, including as a former newspaper editor and business journalist.

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erhaps it goes without saying, but the food is only one part of a great dining experience. The service and atmosphere are part of what we pay for when we eat out.

A recent trip to Colombia brought this point home to me.

I had a 12-year-old memory of a restaurant in a charming colonial-era building in a town outside of Bogota. The décor and furniture were rustic-antique in the lamplight, and the air swooned with classic serenata music. The romance of the ambiance that evening lodged itself in my memory. So, during my most recent visit to Colombia, I insisted on returning.

Yes, we pay for more than just the food. But one Colombian chef, Charles Michel, has teamed up with a University of Oxford researcher, Charles Spence, to

October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

go far deeper into what makes a rich culinary experience. Michel received press for creating dishes that looked like Kandinsky had painted them. Spence, a professor of experimental psychology, is exploring “multisensory” taste perception and the role of illusion in our experience of food. Together, they’re joined in culinary research endeavors by the likes of envelope-pushing Spanish chef turned mad philosopher-scientist Ferran Adria, whose elBulliLab in Barcelona seems to be searching for a gastronomic God-particle.

Other researchers (and chefs) are knee-deep in similar research.

Taking as a given that all of this sounds rather whimsical, these guys are actually learning some things.

Spence conducted an experiment using more than 130

patrons at a hotel restaurant in Scotland in which half received high-quality cutlery, while the other half were given cutlery weighing one-third less – the cheap stuff.

The patrons who ate with the heavy cutlery enjoyed the flavor of their trout dish more and thought it more artistically presented.

They were also willing to pay more for it. In short, heavy forks, knives and spoons made the food taste better.

Other researchers have found that the size of cutlery affects satiety. The bigger the fork, the fuller you feel – but, oddly enough, only in restaurants. At home, people were satiated more quickly with small forks.

The shape and color of the plate apparently make a difference, too. Researchers have found that diners found a dessert to be sweeter, tastier and more intense on a white dish, compared to a black dish. Spence and company also found that the color of the bowl affected the extent to which a sweet popcorn tasted sweet and a salty popcorn, salty.

Spence also has found that the heaviness of a bowl affected taste perceptions – specifically, that a heavy bowl made a yogurt taste more “dense,” and thus perceived as more satisfying.

Perceptions of drink flavor and tastiness also depend on the cup or glass. (I, for one, have always found that Coke tastes best from a red translucent cup.) One researcher served coffee on a fancy tray with fine china and silver, pitting it against the same coffee from a styrofoam cup. Guess which one people thought “tasted upscale”?

In another experiment, people preferred their coffee based on the lighting. Some experiments even suggest that music at a high volume or intensity can diminish the flavor of food.

The names of foods on menus also apparently affect our enjoyment of them.

Diners in one experiment much preferred “savory salmon mousse” to “Food 386” – even though they were the same thing.

Researchers have also found that diners tend to prefer foods when they are described elaborately on menus, rather than just listed with simple names.

Ultimately, though, the food still matters a heck of a lot. My return to the Colombian restaurant was a big misadventure. I had to apologize to everyone at the table for dragging them there. While the atmosphere was still good, the service was bad and the food was worse. It was so disappointing, in fact, that not even seranata music, a heavy fork and a white plate could have saved it. n Photo Pxhidalgo

BizNewOrleans.com October 2015

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Columns | Tourism Biz “If we were coming back, we knew we had to come back with a completely new event,” says House of Shock Owner Ross Karpelman.

Risen from the Grave House of Shock “Resurrection” promises new thrills.

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Jennifer Gibson Schecter was

once a tourist in New Orleans herself and is now proud to call NOLA home. Prior to New Orleans, she wrote for publications in the Midwest and New York City.

She advises travelers to ask their cab/pedicab/ gondola driver for their favorite restaurant and taking a chance.

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hen House of Shock closed its ghastly doors at the end of the 2014 Halloween season due to financial issues, many people thought it was the end of an era, and in a way it was. That iteration of the famous haunted house, a popular attraction for 22 years, has passed on to the great beyond, giving way to the “Resurrection.”

House of Shock returns with a 100 percent retooled haunted house on October 2. It will be a welcome sight for the community of supporters who rallied to persuade the owners to continue the scares.

Ross Karpelman, owner of House of Shock along with partners Jay Gracianette and Steven Joseph, says the decision to return started with a Kickstarter campaign created

October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

by loyal volunteers and fans.

“The campaign really raised awareness to see how the public felt about us coming back,” he says. Along with awareness, it raised $25,000. “The donations gave a resounding message, and what we heard was, ‘Yes, we want you back’ from the public,” he says.

Like many small business owners, there is a tangible emotional connection to the work. “When we dug down deep,” Karpelman says, “it was something we had dedicated our lives to and built into something of note with 300 volunteers who love it too.

To see it go would have left a giant hole in our hearts, as well as those fans who make House of Shock part of their Halloween ritual.”

The Kickstarter campaign ended successfully before it

expired, and a new investor (who wishes to remain anonymous) contacted the three owners. That person provided additional capital to rebuild and reopen one of the highest-rated haunted houses in the world.

“We made the call to stay,” Karpelman continues, “and we have completely torn down just about everything and are building two brand new events, including ‘The Bordello of Freaks’ and a 3-D area called ‘LAFF in the Dark,’ which includes 3-D glasses. We are providing more scares per square foot, and really compiling an all-out assault on you with clowns. If we were coming back, we knew we had to come back with a completely new event.”

Visitors will also be greeted by a new entrance, one designed to mimic the old LeBeau Masion, a plantation home in Old Arabi that burnt down in 2013.

Resurrection will also incorporate feedback from visitor exit polls to improve wait times and provide more entertainment while waiting.

After being featured in magazines like Rolling Stone, Maxim, Playboy and Bazaar, House of Shock is internationally known and attracts tourists from across the globe. Some have traveled from as far as Japan and Israel just to cross House of Shock off their bucket lists.

“We love New Orleans,” Karpelman says. “We could have taken this concept anywhere but we are New Orleanians and this is a uniquely New Orleans event.

We’re really happy to be back and have the support of the community.”

For the schedule and online ticket sales, visit HouseofShock.com. n

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Columns | Sports Biz

The Month of American Sports With college football, NFL, MLB, NBA and hunting in action, it’s the best time of the year for sports fans.

“W chris price is an award-winning journalist and public relations principal.

When he’s not writing, he’s avid about music, the outdoors, and Saints, Ole Miss and Chelsea football.

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ell there’s a feeling in the air, just like a Friday afternoon,” is how local favorites Better Than Ezra start their classic song “This Time of Year” on their 1995 debut record Deluxe. In the song, lead guitarist Kevin Griffin sings about a football in the air across a leafblown field.

Word has it the group came up with the song after following their beloved LSU Tigers on a Halloween weekend road trip to Ole Miss and experiencing the pageantry involved with tailgating in the The Grove and partying on the Oxford Square.

The sentimental song endures because of the imagery it induces and emotion it evokes. It taps into the palpable energy that spreads across the country on game weekends. And for most of the country, October is when American athletics are at their peak.

October means college and professional football are in the

October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

second month of their respective schedules. On campus, teams are entering the middle third of their schedule, the heart of conference play, and the pros are in the second quarter of their 16-week schedule. For the most part, all involved have yet to be eliminated from post-season play. Every game matters, and, except for the truly horrible, every team has the potential to make the season magical.

The 2014 football season left local fans sorrowful. The Saints came into October 1-4, exited the month 4-4, and finished 7-9. LSU entered the month 4-1, exited 7-2, and completed the season 8-5.

With two conference losses to Mississippi State and Auburn, the Bayou Bengals were, in essence, eliminated from national and conference title consideration with a month left in the season.

And Tulane, led by underclassmen, limped to a 1-4 record entering the month and 2-6 upon its end. The Green Wave finished 3-9.

Of the three, Tulane looks like it has the most potential for improvement. AD Rick Dickson thinks the team can double its win total and compete for bowl eligibility. Unfortunately, salary cap woes have caused a lack of depth for the Saints, while an unsettled situation at quarterback leaves too many question marks for the Tigers.

Let’s hope our teams jell and get off to a much better start than last year.

While football is in its middle stretch, Major League Baseball is inching closer to its pinnacle, the World Series. It’s been a great season of parity for baseball this summer. A month after the mid-season All-Star Game, the Cubs, Astros, Royals, Twins and Mets – usual cellar dwellers – were competing for playoff positions, if not for division crowns.

While television ratings are best when large-market teams, like the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and Giants compete in the Fall Classic, it’s great for the game, which has no salary cap, that the clubs that don’t have the biggest payrolls are not only making an early season splash, but also sustaining success well into the second half of the season. America loves an underdog, and if any of the five aforementioned teams can reach the World Series, it will make for a special season.

As baseball comes to a close, basketball is just tipping off. Girod Street should be jumping this season, as Pelicans superstar Anthony Davis looks to lead New Orleans back to the NBA Playoffs. The Pels’ pre-season marketing campaign focused on quotes from reigning NBA superstars about Davis’ potential. Already considered one of the top three players in the league, Davis has the potential to impact, if not dominate, each and every game he plays.

With new head coach Alvin Gentry’s uptempo offense, the Birds should not just compete this season, but continue to move up to one of the Western Conference’s best teams.

I’d be remiss not to mention the opening of hunting season. Across Sportsman’s Paradise, duck blinds and deer stands will be filled with hunters hoping to reach their bag limit in time to return home to catch a shower and either get to the stadium or their favorite easy chair to catch their favorite teams.

Of course, October means a reprieve from the south Louisiana summer heat.

But while the temps cool, local athletics are heating up.

Yeah, you can feel it in the air. Feeling right this time of year. n Photo Thinkstock

Columns | Film Biz Ethan Hawke plays jazz musician Chet Baker in “Born to Be Blue,” the film chosen to open this year’s New Orleans Film Festival.

Totally Jazzed Long before this year’s winners are announced, the New Orleans Film Festival celebrates some big wins of their own.

A

Kimberley Singletary is the

managing editor of Biz New Orleans magazine.

A 20-year Southern California veteran, she has been surrounded by the film industry for most of her life and is thrilled to be covering its emersion in her newly adopted home.

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year ago I wrote my first film column for in inaugural issue of Biz New Orleans. The topic was the 25th year of the New Orleans Film Festival (NOFF).

At that time, New Orleans Film Society’s (NOFS) Executive Director, Jolene Pinder expressed her excitement that the festival was gaining “premier status,” having premiered a film the previous year that had gone on to with the Oscar for Best Picture.

This year Pinder is thrilled to announce that the festival’s relationship with the Academy Awards has officially hit a new level.

“We are one of the few not documentary only festivals in the country that was chosen this year to be a Oscar qualifying festival for documentary shorts,” Pinder says. “That means

October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

the winner of our jury award for documentary short this year will now qualify to be nominated for an Oscar.”

Spurred on by the good news, Pinder says next year plans are to apply for Oscar qualification for the category of Live Action and Animated Short.

For now, though, it looks like there’s going to be some strong competition in all of this year’s categories.

“We’ve received about 58 percent more submissions this year than last year,” Pinder says. The New Orleans Film Society has whittled down 3,400 submissions from more than 100 countries to a total of 188 films that will be shown during various screenings around New Orleans from October 14-22.

Opening night for the festival’s 26th year will take place at the newly restored

Orpheum Theater and feature “Born to Be Blue.” Written and directed by Robert Budreau, the film stars Ethan Hawke as jazz legend Chet Baker who leads a troubled life in the 1960s.

The featured Centerpiece film will be “I Saw the Light,” a biography of country music star Hank Williams that filmed in Shreveport, and the closing film on October 22 will be “Brooklyn,” a dramatic romance film about a young woman in the 1950s set in Ireland and New York. The screenplay was written by Nick Hornby — who also wrote “About A Boy,” “High Fidelity” and the 2014 Oscar nominated film “Wild.”

Pinder says that more than just putting on a great festival each year, the NOFS works year-round to promote the film scene in Louisiana and support its burgeoning filmmakers.

“I’m also excited to report that the trade publication Variety will be doing a full eight page editorial on the film industry in Louisiana Entertainment,” Pinder says. “It is set to come out a day before the festival starts, so we’ll obviously have copies available.

Pinder says the coverage is a result of a successful push from the NOFS, along with Louisiana Entertainment and the Mayor’s Office for Cultural Economy.

Pinder also adds that the Society has been working to expand its filmmaker services — helping those starting out to make connections and find funding. In May they announced their partnership with the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities to offer a $50,000 grant — the 2015 Create Louisiana Filmmakers Grant — which will go to fund a short film for the winning filmmakers that will be screened at the 2016 NOFF. I have to say, with how much NOFS has managed to accomplish in just this past year, I can’t even imagine what 2016 will look like. And the Oscar goes to… n

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Columns | Entrepreneur Biz The main port in Kobe, Japan has bounced back 20 years after a massive earthquake hit the city.

More Lessons From Across the Sea Japanses disaster entrepreneurism, Part 2.

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Keith Twitchell

spent 16 years running his own business before becoming president of the Committee for a Better New Orleans.

He has observed, supported and participated in entrepreneurial ventures at the street, neighborhood, nonprofit, micro- and macrobusiness levels.

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s I reported last month, I recently traveled to Japan to learn about civic engagement and disaster recovery – and a bit about entrepreneurism in the Land of the Rising Sun. After spending time in the small city of Miyako, in the northeast region devastated by the March 2011 tsunami, the much larger Kobe was a very different experience. A port city like New Orleans, Kobe is home to 1.5 million people and sits in the middle of a multi-city metropolis.

Twenty years after an earthquake wreaked havoc even beyond what we experienced here after Hurricane Katrina, only a close inspection revealing the many new buildings would give a visitor the first

October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

clue that this was the scene of epic destruction.

In a recovery of this speed and magnitude, surely entrepreneurism must have played a substantial role, right?

Yes and no.

“Money to support business operations was slow to arrive after the earthquake,” recalled Hisanori Nakayama, now a professor at Kobe Gakuin University but a city planner at the time of the disaster.

“Businesses received funds to help them retain workers, but not for an extended period of time, and this did not help smaller businesses stay afloat.”

The culture of loyalty between companies and their workers was a plus. Yasuzo Tanaka, owner of a large auto parts wholesale business, lost

11 buildings, most company vehicles and close to $1 million dollars in inventory.

“I could have given our employees retirement benefits and shut the business down – I wanted to do that,” Tanaka said.

“But I felt I owed it to our employees to restart.”

Those employees, despite having lost everything on a personal level, worked long hours to help rebuild the business, and it began operating again only two months after the earthquake.

This embodies one major part of the recovery: Businesses rebuilt themselves.

On the community side, Kobe established neighborhood-planning units in the mid1960s; as soon as the fires were put out and enough rubble was carted away to have meeting spaces, every neighborhood in the city was given the tools and resources to begin formulating neighborhood plans.

Some neighborhoods completed their plans in as little as nine months, and government began rebuilding according to those plans in less than a year.

Mostly, though, these were plans reconstituting what had been there before, albeit with safety improvements like wider streets. Clearly, the general trend was toward re-creating the past than innovating towards the future.

“There is a culture of seeking perfection in Japan,” Keizo Yamada told me at dinner one night. Yamada is director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.

“Combined with a fear of failure, this perfectionism is a real impediment to entrepreneurism and innovation.”

While both New Orleans and Kobe have clearly taken different paths to recovery, each have met their goal by focusing on their own priorities and drawing on their own strengths ­— prooving there’s more than one way to bounce back. n

Feature your restaurant in our

BIZ POWER DINING HOT SPOTS advertising section

Reach a powerful business audience and encourage them to close their next deal at your business friendly bistro!

For more information, contact Maegan O'Brien at (504) 830-7219 or Maegan@BizNewOrleans.com

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Columns | Biz Etiquette

Cultural Primer Trust, respect and lasting relationships epitomize Asian business culture, customs.

A

Melanie Warner Spencer is editor of

New Orleans Bride Magazine. Her writing has appeared in the Austin American-Statesman, the Houston Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune and Reuters. Spencer’s ever-expanding library of etiquette books is rivaled only by her everready stash of blank thank-you notes. Submit business etiquette questions to Melanie@ MyNewOrleans.com.

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ccording to the Louisiana Economic Development department, Louisiana is home to more than 150 Japanese facilities. China has invested billions in the state. India is touted on the department’s website as the state’s “second-largest investor,” and billions in exported and imported goods are in play with South Korea.

With international business going in and out of the Port of New Orleans and this level of commerce and exchange throughout the state, it’s likely you or someone you know does business with people in or from Asia.

As such, I turned to Sharon Schweitzer, intercultural and international etiquette expert and author of “Access to Asia: Your Multicultural Guide to Building Trust, Inspiring Respect and Creating Long-Lasting Business Relationships” — published this past spring — to provide some guidance.

“Recovering from a cultural faux pas is almost impossible,” says

October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

Schweitzer in an email interview.

“So, the best way to proceed is to be prepared in advance and not blow the deal.”

Schweitzer says, for example, Chinese and Japanese delegations would find it an unforgiveable offense if top executives were to fail to greet them in the lobby during a visit to the United States.

Schweitzer says she once observed Korean executives greeted informally by their American counterparts at their U.S. headquarters. The Americans used the Asian colleagues’ first names, which is an irreversible fault in the latter’s culture. In Japan, it’s important to know silence is a negotiation tactic. “[It’s] used for contemplation and as a way of showing politeness,” says Schweitzer. “It is not a snub. Filling the silence by speaking out of nervousness shows lack of research.”

The following are a few hardand-fast rules from Schweitzer, first for email etiquette, then for in-person meetings.

Email etiquette: • Use excellent-quality writing skills.

• Do not default to first names — do your due diligence.

• Personalize and address the recipient by name in the first sentence (Mr. Tang, Ms. He).

• Be concise and brief.

• Respond within 24 hours.

• Use an electronic signature, because email has no letterhead.

• If English is a second language, use words that will be understood.

• Use “please” and “kindly.”

• Spell the name of the month because date order is written differently worldwide. April 1, 2020 may be 01/04/2020.

• Indicate the specific time zone when setting up a conference call (GMT/UTC).

Schweitzer says when dining with clients, customers or colleagues from Asian countries, you should eat first and talk later.

“Socializing and dining are the opportunity to build trust, inspire respect and create long-lasting business relationships,” she says. “Sharing meals is a vital component of the rapport-building process in business relationships.”

Dining do’s and dont’s: • Don’t decline a dinner or socializing invitation (extend your trip, rearrange your schedule).

• Don’t pour your own beverage (pour for your neighbor).

• Don’t try to talk during the meal — silence is a time of politeness and contemplation and for dining.

• Don’t forget to reciprocate hospitality.

• Don’t eat or pass food with the left hand (use right hand or both hands depending on the host’s culture).

• Do wait for your host to seat you.

• Do try a little bit of each dish.

• Do remember there may be 10-12 courses, so pace yourself.

• Do research whether it is a “clean plate” or “leave the last morsel” culture.

Be sure to practice patience in cultivating a business relationship, she advises, and don’t focus on the bottom line. Essentially, do your homework and learn about the culture, customs, traditions and history of the other person’s country.

In business — as in life — respect goes a long way. n Photo Thinkstock

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Columns | Tech Biz

Oh The Places We’ll Go… ...assuming you’re on Yelp, Google Maps or Apple Maps.

W

Jason MICHAEL Perry is the director of

the Drupal Practice at Fig Leaf Software. I guess I should ask Siri for the closest coffee shop on my Apple Watch. If you know one, tweet me at @jasonmperry or email me@jasonmichaelperry. com.

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hen in New Orleans I have a routine. My coworker Sean and I spend part of the work day at CC’s on Magazine Street. There, I zone out into a combination of casual banter, ferociously typing code on my laptop, and pacing back and forth on conference calls. At some point it dawns on me – I’m starving! But where do I go? Like many of you, I know every restaurant up and down Magazine Street (or at least I think I do)… but I want something different. With the parade of exciting restaurant openings, who could blame me?

For many of us this means tools like Yelp and Google. After all, the evolution of search and discovery has changed drastically over the last few years. While we are well beyond the days of the Yellow and White Pages, searching on the Internet has adapted to better understand what we want and what we are attempting to ask. In many ways, search has become predictive: it attempts to answer a question before you even ask.

Google, which I consider the

October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

gold standard of search, has focused on trying to better engage searchers and return a response that almost immediately meets what you want. Ask Google a math question; it solves it. Ask about a restaurant, and see reviews and a map. Want tickets for the next blockbuster movie?

Here is a nearby theater and upcoming showtimes.

For local businesses, it is important to know that all of this doesn’t just happen. It requires you to proactively provide information. Having a website is not enough. In the new world of search, results are integrated into maps and aggregate information, including reviews from many different websites. Because of this, shoppers of all types have grown to expect that the online information about your business is up to date — no matter where it comes from.

For instance, over this past July 4 weekend while I was in Washington, D.C., I checked Yelp before heading to a popular barbecue spot. Yelp listed the spot as closed, but a friend who

called (crazy antiquated phone calls!) confirmed it was indeed open.

This is our reality now. As we get more comfortable with the next realm of search — which uses your voice — these little mishaps may get more important. Every major technology company is or has integrated voice controls into their phones and computers, including Google Now, Microsoft’s Cortana, Amazon’s Alexis and Apple’s Siri. For those tools to work, they need a central source of information about your business. More importantly, voice search and wearable devices like a watch do not allow a user to drill into websites or other search results. Results need to be correct and concise.

Google captures tons of restaurant data from Zagat (which they bought in 2011) and asks all types of businesses (not just restaurants) to provide detailed information about times, locations or payments accepted at places.google. com. They also work exhaustively to aggregate information on products, retail outlets and hotels.

One way Google does this is with something called microdata. Microdata allows a website to alert Google or other search engines about information it might need. For example, a calendar on your website can let a search engine know that not only are these events, but here is the date of each one and how you can register. Currently, support exists to expose locations, events, organizations, products, reviews, recipes and tons of other structures. Each of these items can be exposed to search engines in a smart way using your existing content.

Apple Maps deals with the data issue through its strong partnership with Yelp. Using Yelp, a business can claim an existing listing or create a new listing, one which powers the majority of Apple Maps’ search results. However, Apple has also introduced an option for business owners to claim listings and provide detailed information about who and what they are with Map Connects (https://mapsconnect.apple.com/). n

Photo Thinkstock

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Columns | NOLA By The Numbers

0

1-100

1000-2000 WA MT OR

ND

ME

MI VT

MN

ID

WI

SD

NY 587

MI

WY IA

NE NV

UT

CO

CA 1,053

PA IL

KS

OH

IN

WV

MO

KY

OK

NM TX 4,317

AR

LA 9,721

MA

CT RI

NJ MD DE

VA NC

TN

AZ

NH

SC MS 2,195

AL 691

GA 1,300

FL 2,032

AK HI

Newcomers’ Ball New Orleans is constantly attracting new residents — a look at where they’re coming from.

R Robert Edgecombe is

an urban planner and consultant at GCR Inc. He advises a wide range of clients on market conditions, recovery strategies, and demographic and economic trends.

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elatively speaking, those of us living in New Orleans haven’t strayed far from home. According to the most recent census data available in 2012, 74 percent of residents in the New Orleans metro area were born in Louisiana. Compare that to Atlanta — where only 47 percent of residents were born in Georgia, or Houston, where 55 percent of residents were born in Texas — and New Orleans appears to be a place where native ties are fastened tightly.

On the other hand, the city has become a popular destination for people looking to relocate. I’m a native New Orleanian, but many of my new friends, acquaintances and co-workers are from other parts of the country. And even though “transplants” comprise a relatively small percentage of the area’s population, the characterization of New Orleans as an appealing and fashionable place to move has become one of the most prevalent

October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

narratives of our recent history.

To put all this in perspective, I analyzed migration statistics published by the IRS between 1993 and 2012 (the first and most recent years for which the data is available), and compared the number of residents moving to the sevenparish metro area during three periods: the 1990s (1993-1999), the pre-Katrina 2000s (2000-2004), and 2010-2012. (I omitted 2005-2009, since a large number of people relocating to New Orleans during that period were more likely to be those returning to the area after Katrina, thereby distorting the results.)

Some clear patterns emerge from the numbers. First, more people relocated to the metro area from other states from 2010-2012 than in the previous periods. Between 2010 and 2012, an average of over 27,500 people relocated from outside of Louisiana each year during this stretch, compared to about 21,000 in the early 2000s and 23,000 in the 1990s. In Orleans Parish alone, an

100-500

500-1000

2000-5000

5000 +

Origins of residents who moved to the New Orleans Metro area in 2012

average of about 10,500 non-Louisianians arrived each year from 2010-2012, compared to 8,000 in the 1990s and 7,300 in the early 2000s.

Secondly, and perhaps just as importantly, the overall patterns of migration in the area haven’t changed all that much.

From 2010-2012, 42 percent of residents who relocated to a parish within the metro area came from another parish in the metro area (for example, they relocated from Jefferson to Orleans), 15 percent came from another Louisiana parish outside the metro area, and 43 percent came from out of state. This breakdown isn’t dramatically different from the 1990s, when the same proportions were 49 percent, 11 percent, and 40 percent, respectively.

Put another way, of all people relocating to the New Orleans area, roughly 60 percent are from Louisiana and roughly 40 percent are from out of state. With some minor variations, that trend has held steady over the past 20 years. And this data only includes people who are relocating; the vast majority of residents stay put in any given year.

Finally—and perhaps contrary to public perception—the average income for people who have moved to the area from out of state since 2010 is lower, when adjusted for inflation, than those who relocated here during previous periods.

For the entire metro area, newcomers’ average income during 2010-2012 was about 13 percent lower than the 1990s and 15 percent lower than the pre-Katrina 2000s. (In Orleans Parish, income levels for out-of-state newcomers have remained roughly the same.)

Putting these trends together, I think, tells us something important about our region. Newcomers, like natives, are diverse—they span the entire professional, economic, demographic and cultural spectra. For reasons new and age-old, New Orleans is a compelling place to come, whether it’s because of emerging economic sectors, proximity to family, or simply to stake a small claim to our customs. As we always have, we can enhance our region with our hospitality and embrace of those who have come to appreciate, absorb and enrich our unique and celebrated way of life. n

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Biz Bits - Industry News Around town New Orleans has a significant amount of diversity in healthcare management at middle and lower levels of management and access points. Beyond this point, New Orleans becomes homogenous, lacking in representation of the community we serve.

- Brandon Darrington, president of the South East Louisiana Chapter of the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE). The organization’s 30th Annual Education Conference, Business Meeting and Exhibition will be held at the New Orleans Marriott Oct. 13-16. The theme is “Creating the Blueprint for Sustainable Change: Diversity, Inclusion and Equity in Healthcare Management.

Tops in Their Industry “Top 200 Accounting Firms” for 2015 for the sixth year — LaPorte CPAs & Business Advisors was one of only two Louisiana firms that made INSIDE Public Accounting’s list this year.

Named to “Best Lawyers in America” In 2016 n

Chaffe McCall – 2 lawyers (total now 21)

n

Baldwin Haspell Burke & Mayer – 10 lawyers

n

n

Jones Walker – 57 lawyers – 16 recognized as Best Lawyers’ 2016 Lawyers of the Year Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann– 29 lawyers – 6 recognized as Best Lawyers’ 2016 Lawyers of the Year

Chamber of the Year (large chamber division) n

Jefferson Chamber of Commerce. Presented by the Louisiana Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (LACCE).

Grand Award for Communications Excellence St. Tammany West Chamber of Commerce. Presented by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE).

n

2015 Maritime Person of the Year The Propeller Club Port of New Orleans will honor Arnold W. Donald, president and CEO of Carnival Corporation & PLC, at its 82nd Annual Maritime Person of the Year Gala Thursday, Oct. 22 at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. RSVPs for the event are due by October 15 and can be made by calling (504) 779-5671.

Something to Smile About National children’s dental care provider Kool Smiles has provided $334,354 in uncompensated dental care throughout Louisiana and is on track to reach more than $668,000 by the end of the year.

“We know that many families throughout the state struggle with the high cost of dental care,” says Dr. Brad Bryan, managing dental director for Kool Smiles. “We’re proud that by providing uncompensated care where no reimbursement is available, as well as care to Louisianans with insurance plans that most dentists do not accept, we are able to fulfill our mission of expanding quality, affordable dental care in local communities that are often overlooked or otherwise underserved.”

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EMV is Now the Way to Be

Big News at Propeller Local social innovation hub Propeller is set to launch twice as many entrepreneurial ventures this year with an expanded three-month-long Accelerator program offering hands-on mentorship to close to 30 ventures addressing issues relating to food, water, health and education. The program received a boost recently thanks to a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA).

Propeller was one of four organizations in the Gulf South that received a total of $2.1 million in EDA grants.

The organization has also announced a partnership with education incubator 4.0 Schools to announce PitchNOLA: Education, a competition that will reward entrepreneurial solutions to increase equitable education outcomes for all New Orleanians with over $10,000 in cash prizes.

As of October 1, 2015, financial institutions and businesses that haven’t switched over to using and processing EMV (or “chip) cards risk being liable for credit card fraud.

EMV — which stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa — replaces the traditional magnetic stripe on credit cards with a small metallic square that creates a unique transaction code that is never used again. Already successfully used to battle fraud around the world, the U.S. is the last major market to switch over to EMV cards.

In order to battle rising rates of fraud, more than 120 million Americans have already received an EMV chip card and that number is expected to grow to nearly 600 million by the end of the year according to Smart Card Alliance.

“Currently, if a criminal uses a fraudulent credit card the banks will absorb the cost of the charges,” explains Clayton J. Mouney, president of thinkIT Solutions. “After October 2015, if a fraudulent card is ran and the merchant doesn’t have an EMV card reader the merchant could be responsible for the fraudulent charge and not the bank.”

Pictured: Matt Erskin, COO of the Economic Development Association presented Propeller with a $300,000 grant on behalf of the EDA. Photo by Robert Warren

Irish Channel Bakery to become Residential Subdivision New Steamboat Under Construction The Steamboat Natchez will soon welcome a sibling. New Orleans Steamboat Company and Gray Line Tours are currently in the design phase of constructing a new Mississippi Riverboat set to be 160 feet long and 36 feet wide with three passenger decks, a dining room that seats 200, a full service galley and bars. It will be licensed to carry up to 600 passengers on harbor cruises, dinner cruises and private charters. The yetto-be-named vessel is scheduled to begin sailing in late 2017.

Turnbull Bakeries of Louisiana, which once occupied over half a city block in the Irish Channel, is now being developed into New Orleans’ newest residential subdivision. Owner and developer Nicole Webre, CEO of Livewell Properties, is calling the new project Bakery Village, and says it will consist of 15 singlefamily houses and residential lots. For more information, visit BakeryVillageNOLA.com.

Lot Availability Available for purchase Available for purchase as new, completed home Under contract

We’d love to include your business-related news in next month’s Biz Bits.

Please email details to Editorial@BizNewOrleans.com.

BizNewOrleans.com October 2015

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October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

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Krewe of Orpheus Captain Sonny Borey and his mother, Helen Koenig, opened Broadway Bound Costumes in 1987.

Borey says sales in the Mardi Gras costume supply store have continued to grow along with the growth of Carnival.

Dollars are Up for Dress Up Local costume shops are seeing revenues rise year after year.

By Kim Singletary

L

ast year the National Retail Federation released some data on Halloween spending surprising enough to garner nationwide press. Second only to Christmas as the most commercialized American holiday, Halloween spending has now reached over $7.4 billion a year.

Of that total, $2.79 billion was spent in 2014 on costumes alone, and it’s a number that’s been on the rise.

For costume shop owners in New Orleans, these statistics aren’t surprising, but here it’s more than just Halloween that’s causes a bump in sales.

“The Halloween season starts in New Orleans in September and really lasts all the way through Mardi Gras and into Spring Fiesta,” says Wingate Jones, owner of Southern Costume Co. at 951 Lafayette St. In 2010, Jones opened SCC as the only “Hollywood-style” costume house in New Orleans.

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Photo Cheryl Gerber

No Purchase Necessary Far from your typical small neighborhood costume shop, SCC’s 9,000 square feet encompass an on-site wardrobe design space, private offices, and wardrobe supplies and storage.

What you won’t find here, however, are the cheaper bagged costumes sold at big-box stores like Walmart and Costco.

“We don’t sell costumes,” Jones says. “What we have here are class-A, production-ready items like you see in the movies.”

In fact, a full third of SCC’s business is film and TV rentals and supplies.

“We work with about 99 percent of the productions that come into this city and 30 to 40 percent of those outside of the city,” he says.

“For the really big productions, since they typically bring their own costume department with them, it could be something simple like providing them with some items they forgot or last-minute needs.

For the smaller productions, it could be full costumes.”

Jones is no stranger to class-A costumes. Growing up, his father, John Golden, was president of Western Costume Co. in Los Angeles — a six-story costume house spanning over 150,000 square feet.

“When I was 15 years old, I started there as a stock boy,” Jones says. “I’m sure I dusted every single box in that building, but on the way I learned where everything was.”

Years later, Jones moved on to the wardrobe department at Universal Studios before retiring from the industry in 2000. Ten years after that he opened his own version of Western Costume— on the other side of the country with about 10 percent of the stock he has now, most of it purchased in Los Angeles.

“We’ve really grown,” Jones says. “I’d say we’ve seen about a 30 to Photos Jeffery Johnston

In addition to renting out professional grade costumes, Southern Costume Company’s 9,000 square-foot headquarters includes large spaces for costume manufacturing and tailoring.

40 percent growth rate each year.”

The second third of SCC’s business is public costume rentals, where visitors can browse from a warehouse packed with creations dating from all periods of history — from the caveman days to present-day men’s and women’s formal wear. Rentals are all for seven days and average about $150.

The final third of the business’ revenue comes from manufacturing — SCC creates costumes year-round, including everything from school mascots and theatrical characters to elaborate Mardi Gras masks and ensembles for krewes and courts.

“The sky’s really the limit here,” Jones says. “It’s not like in L.A. when we were always limited to a script. Here, you can really let your imagination go.”

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Indian Outfitter While Hollywood South has provided a rather recent boom in the New Orleans costuming market, the Mardi Gras Indians and their intricate beaded and sequined apparel and sky-high feather headdresses have been a tradition since the late 1800s.

Not real Indians and not limited to Carnival appearances, the tribes are composed of local African-Americans who dress as Indians in their own self-taught, handcrafted costumes and “battle” in the streets by competing for the title of “prettiest” Big Chief.

And where do the Mardi Gras Indians go to buy all the materials to make these stunning creations that can weigh up to 150 pounds?

Broadway Bound Costumes at 2737 Canal St. Since 1987, Broadway Bound Costumes has sold everything a person could need to create the costume of their dreams, including fabric, feathers, sequins, hats, boas and pearl appliques.

“Mardi Gras here is a year-round business,” explains Sonny Borey, who, since starting the shop with his mother, Helen Koenig, has since gone on to become the co-founder and captain of the Krewe of Orpheus and chairman of the Mayor’s Mardi Gras Advisory Committee. “For the Mardi Gras Indians we’re talking about costumes that are so elaborate and expensive to create they have to be done a little bit at a time over a period of months and months.”

Borey says about 40 percent of the store’s sales are from the

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October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

Beads,glitter and feathers: These Mardi Gras essentials are in plentiful supply at Broadway Bound Costumes on 2737 Canal St.

Indians; the other 60 percent comes from Mardi Gras krewes.

“We create all the costumes for two of the krewes,” Borey says. “Of course I can’t tell you which two.”

And business, Borey says, is good.

“It’s very healthy,” he says. “I mean, look at how healthy Mardi Gras is. We keep adding more krewes, more membership, more parties.”

Borey says that, like a lot of businesses, the challenge is figuring out what to stock.

“You have to try and guess what people are going to want each year,” he says, “and it’s not always the things you yourself would pick.”

Photos Cheryl Gerber

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LEFT: Claudia Baumgarten poses in front of the costume store that bears her name.

BOTTOM: Miss. Claudia’s has been outfitting costumers from head to toe since 2003.

The Woman Behind the Name The music and film industries are packed with celebrities so successful in their craft that the public is on a first-name basis with them — think Madonna, Angelina, Elvis, Oprah — but in New Orleans there is only one who can claim that level of familiarity for costuming: Miss. Claudia.

Miss. Claudia’s Vintage Clothing and Costumes has been a haven for lovers of fabulous finds from every decade since it first appeared at 4204 Magazine St. in 2003.

What many may not know, however, is that owner Claudia Baumgarten actually opened her first shop on Magazine Street almost a decade earlier.

“In 1994 I had a small storefront where I started selling handmade crafts,” Baumgarten says. “This was back when Magazine Street was pretty rundown — filled with thrift stores and old furniture stores.”

Baumgarten says it wasn’t long beforea woman named Mrs. Archinard approached her about selling some clothes for her.

“They were vintage, well-made items, and they sold fast,” she says. It was then that Baumgarten found herself in the vintage clothing business.

Catering to the New Orleans culture, costuming was soon added.

After a few years, her original shop closed its doors but Baumgarten returned in 2003 with a new resolve and a new name for her business.

“I thought I’d go with my name,” she says. “That’s what they do with a lot of art galleries and it seems to work well, so I thought I’d try it.”

Miss. Claudia’s has since become a costume staple in the city; she currently helps outfit all of the female dance krewes (Baumgarten herself is a member of the Pussyfooters) and offers them all a 10 percent discount on any purchase.

“Every year I’m seeing an increase in sales — costuming is definitely getting bigger,” she says. “There’s so many more costumed events now than when I started. It seems like everything has a theme now. I do a lot of bachelorette parties, and then of course there’s themed weddings, murder mystery parties, and I’ve seen a lot of 1920s-themed parties lately.”

Baumgarten says she has no problem with inventory.

“I have a ton of merchandise that I pack into a small space,” she says.

“People are always bringing in things that belonged to their grandmother, or a tuxedo shop might come in and offer me some of their stock.”

While the clothing may come to her, that doesn’t mean there’s no work involved. “Every item has to be washed, pressed, priced and hanged,” she says. “It’s a big job.”

On the costume side, Baumgarten carries a mix of commercially produced items and unique handmade options.

“We have these incredible turbans made by someone in Las Vegas that you just can’t find anywhere else,” she says.

In her store, at least, she says the old favorites just aren’t what people are looking for.

“Last year I sold a witch hat for the first time in five years,” she says.

“When people come in here they have an idea in mind — an original creation. We work with them to help it all come together.”

This kind of hands-on professional customer service, she says, is what sets Miss. Claudia’s apart. “I tell people all the time, if you go buy things online just to save a few bucks, that’ll drive us out of business. And then

“There’s so many more costumed events now than when I started. It seems like everything has a theme now.”

– Miss. ClaudIa 44

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Photos Cheryl Gerber

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LEFT: “Part of the fun of costume shopping is walking in and seeing what options there are,” says Miss. Claudia’s owner Claudia Baumgarten.

BOTTOM: At Fifi Mahony’s wigs aren’t just for costumes.

“Nobody looks at your shoes during Mardi Gras.”

– MARCY Hesseling

of course people are always coming in because they bought something online and it didn’t fit, or it was the wrong color, or it didn’t show up in time. Part of the fun of costume shopping is walking in somewhere and seeing what the options are. Here you don’t have to guess if something will go with something else. We have all the elements right here.”

In a city renowned for creativity and celebrating those who march to the beat of their own drummer, Miss Claudia’s advertising fits right in.

“We try and make sure that everything we do is funny and interesting,” she says, of her regular ads in the Gambit. “And of course I pose in about 90 percent of the ads myself. I mean, I’m Miss. Claudia, who else would it be?”

With only one employee for most of the year — six during Carnival season —Baumgarten is hands-on in all aspects of the store.

“I design and decorate all our window displays,” she says. “I put hours into each one and change them out every month.”

There’s one thing, however, that she says she can’t just do herself.

“I’d love to have someone show up and make me a great website,” she says. “That’s not one of my skills.”

Hesseling says the first challenge was how to keep sales going all year long.

“That’s when we started carrying regular wigs and things to cater to those affected by hair loss or undergoing cancer treatments,” she says.

Named for the Hesselings’ former French poodle, Fifi, and Mahony’s, a shop in Atlanta that the couple love, Fifi Mahony’s was a name that quickly spread through town. Things were going well until 2001, when their building was sold and they were forced to leave.

“We didn’t want to go, but it ended up to be a blessing in disguise,” she says. Fifi Mahony’s soon found its current 1,700-square-foot location at 934 Royal St. inside the former home of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, a Confederate officer during the Civil War. Now, with almost twice the space, Hesseling says business continued to grow.

“Every year we’ve seen an increase in sales,” she says, noting that 80 percent of her stock is costuming and fun wigs. “I used to sell about 50-50 regular vs. colorful wigs,” she says. “But as of about two years ago, people began buying the more colorful wigs for everyday use as well. I sell a lot of pink, purple and blue.”

Recognizing that a lot of customers were coming in to try on wigs in order to see how they would look with a hair color change, Hesseling decided to make Fifi Mahony’s a one-stop shop.

“In 2013 we added a salon,” she says. “Now you can walk in and try out a

Wigging Out Right about the same time Baumgarten was opening her first shop on Magazine Street, Marcy and Ryan Hesseling — then-recent San Francisco transplants — opened their store, Fifi Mahony’s, in an 800-square-foot space on Chartres Street.

“We opened right around Halloween in 1997 with a song and a prayer,” Marcy Hesseling says of the costuming and wig store. “The community response was immediate. It wasn’t long before we were overnighting orders because we were selling out of things.”

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Photos Cheryl Gerber

BizNewOrleans.com October 2015

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hair color and if you like it, we can go ahead and do it for you right there.”

Hesseling says the salon has been a success. “It helps, of course, that we already had the infrastructure and customer base in place,” she says. The salon is adding its fourth stylist this fall.

Whether it’s a temporary or permanent change, Hesseling says hair and wigs are a great way to start creating a look.

“Nobody looks at your shoes during Mardi Gras,” she says. “It’s just not a complete costume without the right hair. If you think about it, it’s such an easy way to transform yourself into an identifiable character.”

Hesseling adds that she’s already buying up Donald Trump and Caitlyn Jenner wigs.

“I’m anticipating a lot of ‘Game of Thrones’ and Day of the Dead looks again this year as well,” she says.

1: Located inside the former home of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, Fifi Mahony’s has a distinct NOLA vibe.

2: In 2013, the store added it’s own onsite salon. Shown here is store owner Marcy Hesseling.

3: Hesseling says the store’s busy time starts around Labor Day and doesn’t end until June.

Wigs at Fifi Mahony’s range from about $30 to $250. “On the high end you’re paying for a hand-tied wig,” she says. “It’s a really timeconsuming process, but the result is a wig that looks just like it’s growing out of your head.”

Hesseling knows all about what it takes to make a good wig. She and Brooklyn Shaffer construct all the shop’s custom wigs by hand.

Their creations make up 90 percent of the store’s online sales.

“Once I have an idea of what someone wants, we send them back a price quote and time schedule,” she says. “Then we photograph the completed wig and send it to them before we ship it. That way everyone knows what they’re getting.”

While most of her wigs are purchased from vendors in California and New York, Hesseling says she’s proud to offer items like hats, headpieces and jewelry from various local artists. “Most tourists want to buy something from Louisiana,” she says — an important factor considering that about 75 percent of her business comes from out-of-towners.

She has gleaned another bit of wisdom over the years — “Always have something for $10,” she says. “People will come into your shop and want to take a piece of it home with them, even if they don’t have much money to spend.”

Thanks to a year-round tourism season and no shortage of costumed events, Fifi Mahony’s busy season starts on Labor Day and doesn’t let up until June.

“You can definitely feel it when June hits,” she says, “but by that time we’re ready for a little break.”

With all the success, Hesseling says she’s been approached about expanding Fifi Mahony’s reach.

“We’ve looked at expanding to other markets, but I feel like anywhere else we’d just be a costume shop that people only think of one time a year,” she says. “New Orleans is different that way. We belong here.” n 48

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Photo Cheryl Gerber

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Location, Location, Location A look at the current status of commercial affordability, and unaffordability, throughout Greater New Orleans.

By Carolyn Heneghan

i

n New Orleans, there’s no denying that business is booming. But with demand for space continuously outpacing supply in the city, each neighborhood offers its own set of benefits and challenges, perhaps most importantly for pricing.

Businesses will pay a premium to be situated in certain areas of the city, particularly those with the highest traffic counts. Other areas may be more affordable and still offer businesses benefits they didn’t realize were available.

The following is a look at how various retail corridors throughout Greater New Orleans compare in terms of average commercial rental rates.

French Quarter

The French Quarter may be a 14-square-block area, but most of its commercial real estate is still concentrated on a few streets, so the lack of “for rent” signs combined with high foot traffic has driven prices up considerably in this neighborhood.

“Everybody wants a taste of the French Quarter,” says Schaffer Mickal, commercial real estate agent and French Quarter specialist for Latter & Blum. “The French Quarter has a name and a draw, and it’s going to continue that way.”

Unsurprisingly, Bourbon Street commands the highest rents, which may be double that of other streets, starting around $100 per square foot. Royal Street carries some of the nexthighest prices, starting around $50 per square foot, but since these rental prices increased after Katrina, several of the antiques and furniture stores have begun moving out and are slowly being replaced by other mixed retail.

Decatur Street, because it’s the only two-way street in the French Quarter is in high demand for retail, and that street is also almost at the $50-per-square-foot level. Chartres Street is on its way up as a popular commercial strip as well, and side-street commercial properties are running about $30 to $50 per square foot.

Prices can also vary considerably by street based on how close to Canal Street the property is, as well as physical aspects of the property itself. The neighborhood’s 150-to-200-year old buildings were not built for commercial spaces, but the ones with French doors and good exposure to the street tend to command more per square foot than others.

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mid-$30s to lease commercial real estate, except for some outlying hot areas, where pricing can reach $40 or $50 per square foot. A handful of sales have even gone for over $300 per square foot, such as one in the 5200 block of Magazine and another in the 6100 block of Magazine, according to Schaver, who was familiar with the transactions but unable to disclose confidential information. “Prices are rising for sure,” he says.

The three primary stretches of commercial Magazine Street are from St. Andrew Street to Jackson Avenue, from Washington Avenue to Louisiana Avenue, and from Jefferson Avenue to Nashville Avenue, and rents in those three core areas are higher than other parts of the thoroughfare. Because Magazine Street is one-way from Downtown into the Lower Garden District, the pedestrian traffic is not as strong, so rates tend to be lower.

Downtown – Central Business District

Downtown New Orleans and the CBD also boast high commercial rental rates in the city, particularly for multifamily and retail developments. Commercial rental prices for retail tend to range from $30 to $45 per square foot depending on location.

The area around the South Market District, which stretches from Loyola Ave to Baronne St and Julia St to Lafayette St, for example, is a market unto itself, says Paul Richard, commercial and investment broker with NAI Latter & Blum. This area is essentially driving rates and setting the tone for the kind of development that’s going to be seen Downtown.

Higher rental prices have been a hindrance for smaller local businesses, which is one of the reasons the market has been moving toward national and luxury brands rather than local and mom-and-pop stores. This change toward a national and regional orientation, rather than local orientation, particularly since Katrina, feeds into the area’s higher prices.

“The question is, is this pricing level the new baseline or just top of market?” says Richard. “There’s a lot of discussion that this pricing could be the new baseline, and the market is going to have to integrate this pricing if it wants to develop. Or, if it is a market top, I don’t see any real decrease in pricing, but I do see a leveling as the marketplace digests what has been built, what’s being built, and what’s contemplated to be built.”

Magazine Street

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Magazine Street is another one of the pricier areas for commercial real estate in New Orleans, as it is arguably the city’s most famous commercial strip, stretching from the Central Business District to Audubon Park.

“Retailers want to be by other retailers, so when you’ve got this really nice mix of shops, boutiques, restaurants, art galleries, and other stores along the street, it becomes cyclical,” says Jonathan Schaver, commercial real estate agent with RE/MAX Commercial. “And they all want to be on high-visibility corners, so all that comes into play [in pricing].”

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Uptown

Thanks to the recent resurgence of streets like Oak, Freret and Oretha Castle Haley, these streets offer more affordable options than Magazine Street while still being popular retail traffic areas for the Uptown area.

Schaver believes that the availability of property on these streets is actually helping to slightly slow the rise of rents along Magazine St. Even so, because Uptown in general has a more desirable set of Photos Cheryl Gerber and RE/MAX Commercial Brokers, Inc

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demographics in terms of household income and other indicators that retailers are interested in, the neighborhood still tends to remain more expensive than some other parts of the city. At the same time, pockets do exist that can be just as affordable as other commercial areas, such as Central City, Broadmoor and parts of the Lower Garden District and Carrollton neighborhood.

Mid-City

Mid-City is starting to see price hikes for commercial real estate that rival other, more expensive areas in the city.

Thanks to construction on the University and VA hospital systems, Mid-City now boasts two main commercial corridors, Carrollton Avenue and Tulane AvenueGravier Street, also known as the University Medical Center area.

The University Medical Center area has seen major price appreciation along with its development. Larger parcels of land are available around Tulane Avenue; fewer are available along Canal Street, so businesses have to adjust their building plans around the makeup of historical structures, which are located on and between both thoroughfares, says Richard.

The Carrollton corridor has seen significant retail development over the past few years, and prices for real estate now hover around the $35-to-$40-per-square-foot range, Richard says.

“The market is moving very far from affordability and moving more toward expensive and luxury, which makes it difficult to do affordable development in those areas,” says Richard. “There aren’t really any pockets of affordability left. Everything left is essentially expensive to acquire and develop.”

Bywater – Marigny – St. Roch

The Bywater, Marigny and St. Roch neighborhoods, especially with the St. Claude commercial corridor, is feeling the pressure of being deemed one of the cool, up-and-coming areas of New Orleans, says Kendra Home, commercial real estate agent and urban planning consultant at Latter & Blum. With an influx of new residents has come commercial development, but businesses face many challenges in this area, which prevent it from being as commercially robust as some other New Orleans neighborhoods.

The area is relatively affordable depending on the size and state of the space and can range from $16 to $18 per square foot for office space, with the Healing Center on St. Claude Avenue being the main provider, to up to $30 per square foot for a smaller space in the neighborhood’s interior, such as the commercial strip on Burgundy Street, Home says.

However, setting up shop inside the neighborhood from St. Claude Avenue to the Mississippi River, can be difficult due to permitting issues, such as parking, zoning, liquor licenses, historical preservation, and pushback from residents who are resistant to new businesses in the area, Home says. Having to renovate and retrofit historic buildings, some of which date back to the 1880s, to meet modern-day building codes can be cost-prohibitive for owners without raising their rental rates, and that can make this neighborhood expensive for some business owners.

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Gentilly- Eastern New Orleans

Gentilly and eastern New Orleans have been slower than other neighborhoods to return to commercial growth since Katrina. According to Clarence Moret, commercial real estate with Hamilton Realty, they are mostly stable but with some developments, including a new Walmart and hospital in eastern New Orleans.

Rentals tend to be $16 to $18 per square foot for retail and office spaces. Gentilly Boulevard is slightly higher, particularly around Elysian Fields.

“These areas are going to grow,” says Moret. “Some of the other areas, like Mid-City, are growing so fast that they’re at capacity, so people are going to have to start looking at an alternative, and I think Gentilly and New Orleans East are going to be the choice.”

Metairie – Kenner

Metairie and Kenner, both just a quick drive outside the New Orleans city center, are also on the rise. As more new construction emerges on Veterans Memorial Boulevard, West Esplanade Avenue, and other parts of Jefferson Parish’s east bank, more local and national businesses are moving in, particularly when the location is desirable.

In certain areas, Veterans Memorial Boulevard can command higher commercial rental rates than Airline Drive or Williams Boulevard, two other highly commercialized areas of Jefferson Parish. According to Matt Eaton, senior sales executive for RE/MAX Commercial Brokers, rates can vary widely even on the same corridor, such as Veterans, where one building might rent for $26 per square foot, and a couple of blocks down, rent could be $45 per square foot.

Fat City in Metairie has also seen a push, and more commercial real estate has been snapped up in that area over the past few years. Eaton says that section of Metairie could end up being a more highly foottrafficked, suburban-type commercial area if development continues.

Like anywhere else, businesses in Metairie and Kenner wish for more land, but otherwise, this area tends to not have some of the problems that other parts of New Orleans might see, Eaton says, such as parking or preserving historical structures. This makes the area attractive for both local and national businesses that cannot afford or do not want to be in Orleans Parish.

Photo Cheryl Gerber

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Westbank

When it comes to the Westbank, the river acts as both a physical and psychological barrier for commercial real estate, particularly retail. It’s not often that many people venture to the Westbank to do their shopping, and many Westbank residents tend to stay within their communities rather than travel across the river, says Jon Ceruti, commercial real estate agent at Jack Stumpf & Associates. As a result of lower demand, commercial rental rates tend to be lower, save for some pockets like the Manhattan Boulevard or Barataria Boulevard corridors and parts of Gretna and Harvey.

When it comes to office space, however, it’s a different story. While some people may not want to cross the river to shop, they do seem willing to drive the extra few minutes for more affordable office space than what’s available in the city proper. Interestingly, Algiers is closest to the river, and thus the city, but because it is still Orleans Parish, some businesses choose to go deeper into the Westbank, particularly Gretna or Harvey, to open their offices, so as to not deal with Orleans Parish business politics, according to Ceruti.

Northshore – St. Tammany Parish

Since Hurricane Katrina populations in St. Tammany Parish and the Northshore have grown, and with them, the cost of commercial real estate, says Ryan Pearce, commercial sales and leasing agent for Latter & Blum. Judging by some closed real estate deals, average prices for office space averaged from $10 to $17 before Katrina, while retail averaged from $8 to $15 on some properties, according to Pearce. Today prices tend to range from $15 to $20 for office space and $10 to $18 for retail in West St. Tammany.

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Some of the newer developments in this area have been on par with retail markets in New Orleans, particularly construction like the Fremaux Town Center in Slidell, which has attracted a number of larger retailers to the area and continues to expand, and Colonial Pinnacle Nord du Lac, the first phase of which opened a few years ago in Covington.

The proposed Port Marigny development on the Mandeville lakefront could be another such development in the future, as it is set to include 60,000 square feet of commercial space. Highway 21 has seen a great deal of newer development and is one of the priciest corridors in St. Tammany, says Pearce.

St. Tammany has seen steady interest from national retailers wanting to come there because the timing is right, says Pearce. Some of this area’s highest rents are still lower than other places in the South, such as Houston or Nashville, so the affordability combined with an influx in population are making this area more attractive.

New Orleans businesses as a whole are enjoying an influx of residents and tourists, creating what Richard calls “one of the best real estate markets we’ve have since Katrina.”

Commercial real estate will always see its challenges, such as availability of land and buildings, parking, licensure, and preservation of historic structures, but that hasn’t stopped local agents from seeing all of the positives coming the city’s way.

“It’s really exciting to see New Orleans really growing,” says Eaton.

“It’s a great time to be in commercial real estate and to see what happens with the city.” n

Photo NAI/Latter & Blum, Inc.

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Perspectives A closer look at hot topics in three southeast Louisiana industries

60 Technology

64 Home Healthcare

68 Hotels & Hospitality BizNewOrleans.com October 2015

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Perspectives | Technology

Are You in the Cloud?

What you need to know about keeping your data safe.

By Suzanne Ferrara

W

hether or not you’ve jumped into the cloud like millions of others, cloud computing is advancing at a blinding rate and technology experts say it’s the future of data storage.

What is cloud computing? It’s essentially the delivery of hosted services over the Internet, and it’s being used by businesses, both small and large, all across the world.

A few facts: By 2020, global cloud computing is expected to generate $270 billion. Plus, providers are currently doubling their data storage every 18 months.

“New Orleans in particular continues to see massive growth in the technology sector, increasing the demands for data center and cloud services,” stresses FOGO Data Center’s chief executive administrative officer William G. “Bill” Esslinger Jr. The primary reasons for this massive crossover? Efficiency and 60

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reliability are two factors, as cloud platforms are cost-effective, and many providers offer “pay as you go” plans.

Businesses and individuals have access to their information anytime and anywhere. The cloud also saves businesses serious capital investment dollars as it allows them to start quickly without the need to set up and run their own data centers.

So which service company should you choose in the New Orleans area? Each is striving to keep up with “fever pitch” demand, and understandably, the leaders at all of them have reasons for you to choose them.

Esslinger, for instance, is quick to point out that FOGO owns and operates the only full-service, fully staffed data center facility in the New Orleans Exchange Centre in the Central Business District.

“Clients have the benefit of having a local provider close to their Photo courtesy of FOGO Data Center

OPPOSITE PAGE AND ABOVE: FOGO Data Centers operates New Orleans’ only full-service, fully staffed data center inside the New Orleans Exchange Centre within the Central Business District.

business operations, with the option of geo-redundant backup and disaster recovery in our facility in metro Atlanta,” he says.

But Bellwether Technology Corp.’s CEO Steven Ellis says it’s a mixture of people and technology that make his company the top choice. “Having been in business for over 35 years, with low employee turnover, we have assembled a fantastic group of employees whose knowledge and experience are hard to beat. And that applies both to technology in general and to our specific clients.”

Meanwhile, Venyu’s vice-president of marketing, Matt Wallace, cites management, accessibility and human expertise. “We have experts in-house that manage our cloud environment and platform and also experts from a systems perspective,” says Wallace, “plus we own our own data centers.”

As with all things technological these days, threats are out there. Cyber security is at the forefront of cloud-computing concerns because in cloud storage, data may be vulnerable to the wrong people. When you hand off your systems to a third party, essentially asking them to run them for you, you want to know your data is protected from these threats.

Providers are constantly trying to stay ahead of security threats, and thus, give customers the maximum protection conceivable. It’s a battle they will continue to fight as more and more companies and individuals discover cloud technology.

So how do they protect your data? “Fortunately, new and better ways to address all types of vulnerabilities are constantly appearing,” explains Ellis. “Our job is to become aware of them and recommend them to our clients when it makes sense. We Photo courtesy of FOGO Data Center

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TOP: “Having been in business for over 35 years, with low employee turnover, we have assembled a fantastic group of employees whose knowledge and experience are hard to beat,” says Bellwether Technology Corp.’s CEO Steven Ellis.

BOTTOM: In-house experts manage Venyu’s cloud environment.

OPPOSITE: With data, security is always the top concern.

have employees whose primary responsibility is to do precisely that, which is a concrete sign of our recognizing and responding to the importance of security.”

But making you and your data safe, says FOGO’s Esslinger, sometimes results in his company contracting a third party security audit to check the effectiveness of FOGO’s security protocols. “We continually review and improve both our physical security at all locations and our electronic network security,” he says. “We provide our customers assurance that we are monitoring security issues and threats on a constant basis using the most advanced tools, updates and equipment.”

Customer peace of mind is the ultimate goal at Venyu as well.

“We pride ourselves on making sure our clients’ data is made invincible,” says Matt Wallace. “We employ 24-7-365 security and monitoring at our facilities, relying on enterprise-grade firewalls, network and monitoring systems. All physical access points to the data centers require two forms of authentication, and our personnel pass FBI background checks and are trained in security protocols.”

If there’s a natural disaster like a hurricane, or even some kind of man-made crisis, experts say you want your viable information stored in cloud technologies primarily because of the vulnerability 62

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of physical hardware. That means your cloud source should have dependable alternate hosting sources. Experts suggest having at least two backups.

“People often ask why we chose to locate a data center facility in New Orleans.

But we are quick to point out that our facility stayed fully operational and never lost power during Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Isaac,” says Esslinger, describing FOGO’s underground utilities and upper-f loor redundancies at their site.

“If necessary, our locations in Georgia provide critical backup and disaster recovery options. We provide multiple redundancies at every level to insure 99.999 percent uptime in power and connectivity.”

Wallace is proud of Venyu’s track record as well. “We feel we are battle tested! We have been through the worst disasters our state has encountered in the past few decades, and as such we felt the people’s businesses survived and f lourished in the face of these disasters. We never missed a beat, the lights never went out, and our data center never lost power.”

In the wake of a disaster, having dependable backup systems and being prepared is key for Bellwether. “Every critical system we use is either hosted in or replicated to our off-site data center in Philadelphia,” explains Ellis. “We have a hot site for our help desk in Birmingham, and systems engineers are ready to go where clients need them. Because of the nature of their businesses, some people have less work to do during a hurricane evacuation. Not so for us, as we are busy helping our clients implement their own business continuity plans, and we have to be prepared.”

Software development companies are also working with progressive methods in the cloud to give customers disaster-proof peace of mind. New Orleans-based Susco Solutions, a custom web and desktop software development company, relies on the cloud’s leverage for developing efficiency in software systems and disaster protection. Like many regionally based software companies, Susco uses the cloud for both secure hurricane-proof hosting of applications and data, and platform-based application development. “We aren’t afraid of new technologies when it’s clear that they are becoming the standard,” says Neel Sus, Susco’s CEO. “Our focus is on choosing, then properly implementing, the best solution, and turning away work when we’re not the best fit.

We take the long view on per client profitability.”

If you are not an expert in cloud computing or software Photo courtesy of Bellwether Technology and Venyu

development, find out whether a third party is regulating what the company is offering its customers before handing over your viable data. Depending on your type of business, there are specific accreditations available from groups like the wellrespected AICPA SOC II audit to HIPA A (for health care-related industries). This nod of approval is also crucial when it comes to your company’s peace of mind.

The rapid adoption of cloud services across every industry will continue at a record pace, forcing technology companies to rise to the occasion because of cost-effectiveness, cyber security and efficiency. “As businesses continue to discover, understand and demand the efficiencies, reliability, availability, and security offered by cloud technology, our potential and actual customer base expands at an exponential rate. We expect that to be a welcome challenge for New Orleans and FOGO for the foreseeable future,” says Esslinger.

Ellis adds, “For us, one thing it means is that less of our work at Bellwether will involve supporting applications that run on servers in our client’s offices. At the same time, more of our work will involve helping clients benefit from the growing number of options available to them.”

Highlighting a twofold challenge, Wallace says, “It comes down to making sure infrastructure we have in place at Venyu can not only receive and manage that much data, but meets the demands in growth of our customers. The cloud industry is extremely dynamic, and the advances we see in the cloud monthly and yearly will pay huge dividends for customers and will continue to impact the way we do business.” n

Photo courtesy of Venyu

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Perspectives | Home Healthcare

SAFE AT HOME A look at the state of the local home health care industry.

By Judi Russell

F

ew people are fortunate enough to age without some degree of physical or mental impairment. In response, the home health care industry has expanded to include medical professionals such as registered nurses as well as companions who make sure older people aren’t home alone every day. Most importantly, the right home care can help the elderly avoid hospitalization by managing chronic conditions and supervising post-operative healing.

The term “home health” can encompass a wide variety of services, says Warren Hebert, CEO of the HomeCare Association of Louisiana.

It’s difficult to say whether Louisiana has enough providers to meet its population’s needs, he says; some parts of the state are well supplied while others are lacking.

“The whole business is growing because of demographics,” he says.

The challenge will be to have enough providers in many categories,

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including therapists, social workers and nurses’ aides.”

Social workers Betty B. Tedesco and Dianne C. McGraw saw this need in 1991 and founded a business to provide case management to help families manage elder care. In 2001, they added home care to their services and changed their company’s name to Home Care Solutions.

“All clients receive an in-home visit from a care manager,” McGraw says. Then a plan of care is drawn up, and the company supplies caregivers who can provide for just about any need a client has, including transportation, cooking and help with grooming needs.

Out-of-town clients use the company’s care management division to schedule doctor’s visits and accompany older relatives to medical appointments.

Care managers oversee the caregiving, and make periodic visits to see how clients are doing and whether their needs have changed.

PhotoThinkstock

The goal is to keep elders as independent as possible by helping them remain active.

“We really don’t use the word ‘sitter,’ ” Tedesco says. Caregivers can help people entertain, garden or do volunteer work. Long Term Care Insurance can help to pay for services provided by Home Care Solutions, but the bulk of their business is private pay.

Employees are specially trained to work with adults who have Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, McGraw says. The company employs between 100 and 130 people.

Sometimes families have a tough time agreeing on how much help an elderly member needs, Tedesco points out. It isn’t until an older person ends up in the hospital that a spouse or children realizes it’s time to bring in help to “stop the slide down,” she says.

Home Care Solutions does not provide medical treatment; a patient who needs wound care, for example, may need the services of a visiting nurse. But the caregivers can remind people to take their medications and make sure meals are nourishing, appetizing and served on time.

Loren Berot, owner of Right At Home Metro New Orleans, got into the home care business for a very personal reason: She had an elderly father who couldn’t be left alone overnight. When her mother wanted to take a short trip, Berot realized the family needed a trusted caregiver to call on. She bought the franchise for the Orleans and Jefferson Parish territories in March of 2014.

Berot says the best part of her job to date has been making home visits. “I really enjoy going out to see how clients are doing,” she says. “I love to hear (their) stories. That to me is part of the fun.”

Right at Home doesn’t have an hourly minimum, and some clients simply need a one-hour visit every morning to help them get up, dress and eat breakfast. Others need round-the-clock assistance. Many are

PhotoThinkstock

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people who need some help while they recover from surgery. Medicare can cover a given number of hours of occupational or physical therapy, Berot says, but it doesn’t pay for companionship, housekeeping or other nonmedical services.

Because clients tend to form bonds with their caregivers, Berot tries to send the same people out to a given client as often as possible.

Like other agency owners, Berot says finding enough good employees is an ongoing challenge. “There is quite a bit of turnover in these jobs,” she says. All of her employees undergo background checks, driving tests and drug testing. She pays the necessary taxes and worker’s compensation insurance, so clients don’t have to worry about the legal requirements.

It isn’t unusual for older people to deny they need help. Once they realize how much more they can do with just a little assistance, though, they change their minds, Berot says. They enjoy the companionship, and they look forward to having caregivers come.

Having a third party such as Right at Home discuss the situation with them can make home health care easier to accept. Sometimes, “someone who is not a family member does better with your loved one,” she says.

Passing it down In New Orleans in 1925, nurses seeking private duty work registered with the New Orleans District Nurses Registry. As time went on, hospitals developed their own nursing pools, so a nurse 66

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bought and privatized that business in 1980, which was then bought

by Rose Mary Breaux and her husband, Raymond in 1988. In 1993, they added Nurses Registry Home Health to their portfolio. Their daughter, Jeanne Caldwell, came aboard in 1994 to “help out for a few years to help get the home health side off the ground.”

Rose Mary Breaux died in 2006. Raymond Breaux, Jeanne Caldwell and her daughter, Molly Caldwell, now run the businesses.

Jeanne Caldwell says her mother considered nursing a vocation and was very proud of her R.N. and B.S. N. degrees. “My mom treated the whole patient: body, mind and spirit,” she says. Nurses Registry is a private-pay business that can supply nurses, aides and custodial caregivers, while the home health division is a Medicare-certified agency that supplies home health services.

The need for in-home medical care of all types is growing, Jeanne Caldwell says, thanks to the development of technology that allows people to undergo such treatments as IV therapy and infusion at home. Sometimes people can recuperate from surgery better at home, amid their familiar surroundings, if they can have daily visits by a nurse or nurse’s aide.

Attitudes towards aging have changed, and people are as interested in quality of life as they are length, Caldwell says. She considers it part of her job to work with each client’s family to make caregiving easier for family members, and to promote healthy lifestyles for her clients. She points to her own father, who at 87 still plays tennis and remains active in the business.

PhotoThinkstock

Ready for help?

The Mayo Clinic’s website includes checklists to help you decide whether aging or ill family members need home health care.

The following are a few points to consider: n Do they wear the same clothes every day or dress inappropriately (summer clothing in cold weather, etc.)? n Are the bottoms of their pots and skillets scorched?

(This may indicate an inability to remember leaving food on the stove.)

Have they experienced rapid weight loss, due to an inability to shop or cook? n Have they gained weight suddenly? (They may be retaining fluid.) n

n

Are they happy? Or do they seem lonely, confused or frightened?

Does their home seem safe? Can they handle the steps, for example, or read the fine print on medicine bottles and cleaning supplies?

n

Who pays for what?

Often family members are confused about what home health care is Medicare-covered and what must be paid by the patient or family. The majority of care offered by Guardian Home Health Care of Louisiana is covered by Medicare and/or Medicaid, says Beverly Odom, who has owned the business since 1997. To qualify for covered care, a patient has to have a face-to-face visit with a physician who orders the medical care needed. “Our nurses have to be relevant” to the patient’s medical problem, she says, to perform such services as wound care, disease management and short-term care after a hospitalization.

Typically, these patients are 65 or older, Odom says, but occasionally a younger person qualifies because of a disability.

Odom prides herself on the longevity of her staff. For example, her director of nursing has been with the company since 1997. She has employed as many as 99 people and as few as 48. “The burden of training is on us,” she says. “It has its challenges.”

In the years after Hurricane Katrina, Odom saw a lack of places where the terminally ill could receive palliative care, so she opened My Hospice (the name Guardian Hospice was already taken.) To qualify, a patient must have a doctor’s diagnosis of six months or less to live. The hospice strives to make its patients as comfortable as possible.

“There is a need for in-patient hospice, too,” she adds, because some families choose to keep their dying family member at home.

Her company offers support and training for them as well.

“Dying is not painful,” Odom says. “Disease is.” n PhotoThinkstock

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Perspectives | Hotels & Hospitality

Loyalty points at Aloft New Orleans Downtown (225 Baronne St.) can be used for hotel stays, airline miles or at Amazon.com.

Separate and Not Always Equal Why loyalty programs are a must-have for the hotel and hospitality industry.

By Anne Roderique-Jones

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he customer may always be right, but they’re not always equal.

For the hotel industry, customers who are part of a loyalty program will always reign superior.

Loyalty programs are essentially a marketing tool instituted by a business to reward customers for making purchases that are specific to that brand, and therefore remain loyal to the company.

For hotels, they are essential for growth, retaining customers and boosting reputation.

Reward programs may vary from immediate perks, like upgraded rooms and complimentary wifi, to points good toward future hotel stays — all are perks designed to improve customer retention. According to a February 2013 article in Forbes magazine, keeping an existing customer is seven times less expensive than acquiring a new one—making these programs a smart tool for both the business and the consumer.

Following is a look at a few standout reward programs currently offered by New Orleans hotels.

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Aloft New Orleans Downtown Aloft New Orleans Downtown’s loyalty program, SPG: Starwood Preferred Guests, runs though Starwood Hotels. The program encompasses all the Starwood properties, including Aloft, the W Hotel and Westin.

“This rewards program is a free membership where the more you stay, the more you get,” explains Maureen Greany, director of sales at Aloft.

The program offers three levels: preferred, gold and platinum.

Here, members can earn points in a variety of ways, but staying at the hotel is often the most popular. Preferred members receive 2 points for every dollar spent, while Gold and Platinum receive 3 points. Once members earn points, they can be used toward complimentary hotel stays, airline miles (SPG partners with airlines to run special deals) or at Amazon.com.

SPG members also receive perks and are immediately recognized upon checking in. This could result in an upgraded room, free wifi, Photo courtesy of Aloft New Orleans Downtown

The Bourbon Orleans Hotel is part of The New Orleans Hotel Collection, which joined the worldwide Stash Hotel Rewards Program two years ago.

or a personalized welcome gift. At Aloft, the welcome gift could be a handwritten note and a personalized New Orleans-theme treat like pralines or Zapp’s chips—even a free drink at the bar. Greany says that people often choose points over a gift, though, as “a praline is great, but points get you somewhere.” There are no blackout dates for any level to use points. “Even during Mardi Gras, you cannot be blacked out,” she says.

Once members reach platinum level, the perks really start to feel VIP. Here guests are treated with their own concierge and access to the club lounges, along with a guaranteed 4 p.m. checkout.

But for all members, rewards are about personalizing the experience. Just by filling out preferences, guests are treated to requests that are addressed the minute they check in, including things like an extra bottled water, a higher room or extra pillows.

For platinum members, it may be that you’d like fresh flowers in the room. Greany says, “If we think it’s going to make their stay better, we’ll do it.” (She did mention that a stack of dollars would not be included in this request.)

The New Orleans Hotel Collection This independent collection of hotels based in New Orleans joined the Stash program about two years ago. According to Marc Becker, the area director of marketing, sales and public relations, the New Orleans Hotel Collection chose this program because “it’s on a volunteer basis, and we can remain independent to do business the way we like doing business.”

Photo courtesy of The New Orleans Hotel Collection

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With Stash, the program is more flexible but tracks points and members for its member hotels. For the New Orleans Hotel Collection, this means customers earn a whopping five points per dollar, along with the special promotions that regularly accompany double or triple points to be used at any Stash hotel.

“As a hotelier, we can set our price value based upon our needs—lower in low season and higher in high season—just as you would paying per dollar,” says Becker. Some major programs don’t give you that flexibility, and the cost is a set number of points, which makes it relatively unique to Stash.”

In addition, the New Orleans Hotel Collection focuses on a guest recognition program that rewards members on arrival. This could be anything from an upgraded room to a bottle of champagne, which is currently being offered at La Marais. The hotel also offers free wifi, bottled (local) water, free drinks, and a free breakfast.

“I want people to feel like they’re staying in our guest room and not a shopping mall,” Becker says. “You don’t have to be a member to get the extras.” Becker adds that making the guest comfortable is the first step to loyalty.

Windsor Court Hotel While the Windsor Court, an iPrefer hotel, has a loyalty program set up through Preferred Hotels, they also have their own, less formal program for VIP customers.

Under the Preferred umbrella, the hotel offers guests a tiered system where Preferred guests receive one point per dollar, free wifi and late checkout. The perks increase for Gold and Platinum members, with gifts such as complimentary champagne and extra bonus points.

But the true value is in the hotel’s less formal loyalty program that 70

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The Windsor Court hotel is both part of the worldwide group of Preferred Hotels and has it’s own, less formal program for VIPs.

truly honors VIP guests. Tara Minamoto was hired to serve as a customer experience manager, a position that is unique to the hotel. Minamoto works closely with the operations team to handle improvements and inefficiencies, and alongside sales and marketing for online reports. In a nutshell, her role is to ensure that guests have a seamless experience.

“There’s also a VIP manager on-hand, too,” Minamoto says. “We have repeat guests who stay every week, and may store their reading glasses and charger.” The hotel embraces this in order for the property to feel like a second home to regular visitors.

Minamoto explains that it’s her job to know the guest. “If [they] like bourbon and grapes and bananas, that will be the welcome amenity.”

She says that the hotel works to make these individuals feel like family, which helps to retain customers. “We know their pets as well as their kids,”she says. Pets may get their own plush bed and treats, while the kids may receive a New Orleans-themed cookie, mask and beads.

The Roosevelt Hotel The venerable Roosevelt New Orleans, a Waldorf Astoria property in the French Quarter, falls under the Hilton Company, which utilizes the HHonors loyalty program. “This allows our travelers to utilize our full portfolio of 12 brands worldwide and then, in turn, decide where they would rather reap the rewards,” explains Tod Chambers, general manager of the Roosevelt.

Whether a guest stays at a Doubletree or the Roosevelt, they receive benefits. “Some stay in hotels convenient for their business and then use the points to redeem in a luxury hotel,” Chambers says, “others may stay Photo courtesy of Windsor Court Hotel

Part of the Hilton brand, the Roosevelt New Orleans falls under the company’s HHonors loyalty program.

in hotels picked by their companies and redeem their points for a trip of convenience, like a child relocating to college or summer road trip.”

Under the HHonors program, members can earn points anywhere and use them for a multitude of rewards—even airline miles. “Those travelers strategizing their approach earn bonus points or airline/rail points by choosing the “My Way Earning Style Option,” says Chambers.

“In addition, when that traveler achieves Silver, Gold or Diamond Elite status they receive bonus points. Finally, they receive extra HHonors Bonus Points when using one of our Hilton HHonors credit cards. All of these add up fast and help attain incredible redemption awards.”

Not only is the program vast and flexible, it retains customers by offering an experience. Chambers says the hotel chain’s points cater to those of any interest, including everything from a golfer’s paradise in Phoenix’s Biltmore Arizona to a tour of Hagia Sophia in old-town Istanbul at the Doubletree in Turkey. “Perhaps mud masks at the Reykjavik Hilton or a roller-coaster ride in Orlando?” Chambers says.

“All these experiences, combined with the assurance of a quality stay with admirable hospitality, helps retain the Hilton visitor, as well as encourage those who have not experienced the awe-inspiring Roosevelt New Orleans to come and become our new loyal customers.”

In New Orleans, the Roosevelt hotel adds a bit of lagniappe to the stay.

Chambers explains that Diamond members receive an additional $30 credit to use in the hotel’s outlets, be it a quick breakfast at Teddy’s Café or a cocktail in the famed Sazerac Bar. n

Photo courtesy of Roosevelt Hotel

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Guest Viewpoint

Don’t Let the Quest for Perfect Ruin Good In today’s fast-changing market, sometimes good is good enough.

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Calvin Fabre is president of Envoc (pronounced “invoke”), For over 12 years, Envoc has been creating custom software you can’t “buy off the shelf” and seeing client brands from creation through consumption, whether in web design, print, brand strategy, corporate dashboards, portals or mobile applications.

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ou have an idea — perhaps a brilliant business venture, a lifechanging gadget you thought up or a new app for your company. You are excited about the possibility of the project but you start getting stuck in the details of how exactly it should look and work.

You try to anticipate every needed feature and function. You are trying to make the project perfect.

Stop!

It is easy to get caught up in the pursuit of perfection mulling over the smallest details over and over without ever executing the project. After six months of planning and planning, you can end up with nothing to show for it except a few documents, sketches, and prototypes.

After 12 months you may have something

useful, and even good, but not perfect – so you don’t launch.

Stop!

Many customers, clients, and coworkers need and will be satisfied with “very good.” Will you accept a dry cleaner that is very good or will you not wear clothes unless they are perfect? Will you accept a software application or website that is very good or will you abandon it because it is not perfect? No, you won’t.

Your project is no different. In your insistence and quest for “perfect” you deny your customers, clients and coworkers something that could be “very good” to them. You must continually ask yourself, “Is what I have created so far usable by someone, and will it help them in some positive way?” If the answer is yes, launch it.

Sources: Image Inspiration: Blog.Fastmonkeys.com | Content Inspiration: “Selling the Invisible” by Harry Beckwith

Million-Dollar Mistakes I was a member of a software team that created a large compliance software application that tracked and satisfied the Sarbanes-Oxley compliance regime. The software was amazing in my view, and I was very proud of our work. When the team had completed all the requirements, the product manager (and business owner) told us, “We need a dashboard.” So we designed a beautiful dashboard in about a month, and it was wonderful.

We were ready to put the software in front of the thousands of customer demanding it. The product manager again crushed our enthusiasm with his next demand: “We need a survey module.” On and on, the Version 1 masterpiece was denied from the starving market of customers. Four million dollars later, the company had zero customers and eventually folded. Why? Because the quest for “perfect” ruined what was “very good.”

Launch Early and Often - A Few Cases This sounds scary, but it doesn’t have to be. There have been many good ideas that went for it—and took off to extreme success.

Their initial launches weren’t perfect, or even aesthetically pleasing for that matter, but their good idea was more than enough. The fact that they did the work and put it in the public eye before anyone else had the same idea or application made a big difference in the success of the idea.

Photos Thinkstock

Take SnapChat, for example. The concept is simple: Send and receive photo and video messages that disappear after 15 seconds or so. What makes SnapChat unique is that it capitalizes on the idea that some things we just don’t need (or want) to have a digital record of forever.

When founders Bobby Murphy and Evan Spiegel had the idea, they didn’t waste any time in launching. SnapChat now boasts [Link] 700 million messages sent a day [/Link]. They even turned down Mark Zuckerberg’s offer to acquire the company. Facebook then launched a nearly identical app called Poke days later, but because SnapChat was the first to market, Poke didn’t make a dent (pun intended) in SnapChat’s success.

How about Plenty of Fish? Founder Markus Frind came up with a dating service that was different from the rest: It was free.

Frind mastered the art of SEO and quickly grew from 40 members to 10,000 between March and November of 2003. Thanks to capitalizing on ad revenue early on, he is now able to offer a free service to users while raking in $10 million per year. Is another online-dating site revolutionary? Does the site have the best design? Has it changed much at all in the past 11 years? No. But it works. And it’s the No. 1 dating site in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.

And then there’s the ultimate “good” not “perfect” example: Craigslist. Brilliantly simple, what started as a way to post upcoming arts and music events in San Francisco quickly evolved into the online classifieds forum we know today. It looks the same as it did in 1995. And it’s not the prettiest thing to look at. But it does its job, and we all use it.

Agile Expects Change but Delivers As You Go Okay, so you’re ready to dig in and get to work. You’ve got an idea for an application for your company but you don’t know where to start.

Where to begin? Enter Agile, a methodology that forwardthinking software shops use to develop custom software, websites and projects. Its whole premise is based on action: breaking the work down into phases and handing in deliverables every two weeks. Planning is executed on the deliverable at hand. Instead of spending a few thousand dollars planning for seven months without any product to show for it, Agile gets you developing the product immediately, refining, revising, and planning for the features as they are executed. You have deliverables every two weeks, which allows you to adapt, overcome and respond.

In this style of delivery, you can work toward a MVP (minimum viable product) that makes and keeps users happy. The attached visual looks at the difference between a quest for perfect and delivering a viable product: The idea isn’t perfect from the get-go? No problem. Agile not only anticipates change, it expects it. Changing, adding or even dropping features is expected and does not result in a trip back to the drawing board.

Don’t be scared, and don’t spend six months writing documentation that turns a forward-moving project into a fight over contract verbiage and change orders. Get your MVP defined and developed so you can be their MVP (most valued professional) n

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PUBLISHER’S NOTICE: All real estate advertised herein is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Ace and the Louisiana Open Housing Act, which make it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation, or discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or intention to make any such preference, limitation, or discrimination. We will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. For more information, call the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office at 1-800-273-5718.

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Great Offices

Tower of Strength From atop the Copeland Tower, Al Copeland Jr. successfully manages his family’s various companies.

By Bonnie Warren | Photography by Cheryl Gerber

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hile sitting in his new office, overlooking a panoramic view of Jefferson Parish and the New Orleans skyline, Al Copeland Jr. shares his vision for Al Copeland Investments (ACI). The management company for the Al Copeland Family of Companies, it includes restaurants, hotels, and Diversified Foods & Seasonings, a food manufacturer.

ACI is located in the newly-named Copeland Tower, the easily 78

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recognizable round building at 2601 Severn Ave., just off Interstate 10 and Causeway Boulevard. Having undergone a $16.4 million renovation, it is a big contrast from the small, windowless office on what was then known as Airline Highway, which housed his famous father’s headquarters back when Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits consisted of three fast food restaurants and a big dream.

Today, at 52, Copeland takes pride in being his father’s namesake.

It is his steady hand that successfully guides the ACI empire, ever mindful to pay tribute to his legendary father.

“Al Copeland Investments is a privately owned, multifaceted management company, where my chief responsibilities consist of managing the ACI Restaurant Group, Diversified Food & Seasonings manufacturing operation, and Copeland’s Hotel Division.” he says.

Included in the empire are 20 Copeland’s of New Orleans locations throughout Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Georgia.

Another location in Longview, Texas recently opened.

“We also have four Cheesecake Bistro by Copeland’s located in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Bossier City and Atlanta, along with our two ‘fast casual’ restaurant concepts — Copeland’s Gourmet Kitchen and a Cheesecake Scoop Café — both located inside the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport,” Copeland says. “What may not be well-known to the general public is that our Diversified Foods & Seasonings now has three plants that are located in Madisonville, Louisiana; Mobile, Alabama; and Nebraska City, Nebraska.

On the restaurant side, ACI keeps one of its offerings very close.

Located within the Copeland Tower, Best Western Landmark Plus

LEFT: The main conference room displays plaques outlining the company’s core values under a toast Al Copeland Sr. would make before each each of his powerboat races.

ABOVE: Al Copeland Jr., president and CEO of Al Copeland Investments, sits between a commanding desk and photographs of his five daughters (left to right) – Allison, Ashley, Alexandria, Ariel and Alyssa.

Hotel & Suites is a full-service operation with 156 guestrooms, 95 new condo-style suites, a grand ballroom, new breakout meeting spaces, exercise facilities and free parking, “What we have done here is a wonderful addition to the convention and visitors market, as well as for the leisure traveler,” he says. Other hotels in the ACI stable include Best Western Plus French Quarter Landmark Hotel on North Rampart Street and the Clarion Hotel Grand Boutique on St. Charles Avenue.

On Copeland’s oversize curved desk in his new headquarters, the chairman and CEO likes to keep things simple with only a nameplate, a business card holder, pencil box, telephone and a framed $2 bill that reads, “The strength of a group is founded in the character of its leaders.” Behind his desk are large photographs of his five daughters.

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Across from the desk lies a large conference table and two bookcases where he displays his mementos, including photographs of his two grandsons – Hayden and Liam – a photo of Liz, his wife of almost 32 years, and his his sports collectibles.

“We are proud to be longtime sponsors of the Saints, and we have always been fans of the team,” he says, pointing out the window toward the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Although there are large and small meeting rooms included in the new office, Copeland likes to have a conference table right in his office. “It’s ideal to have a place to spread things out on a large table and to call a quick impromptu meeting,” he says.

There is no mistaking that Copeland pays constant tribute to his father. A wall of framed montages of historic company photos surround a portrait of his father as a young man in the reception area of the headquarters. Inspirational plaques hang under a sign in the main conference room that read, “TO THE WIN!” – a toast Copeland Sr. made before each powerboat race.

Probably the most unusual item in the offices is the pedestal of dual lions that support a glass top in the main conference

1: The newly-named Copeland Tower on Severn Avenue in Metairie just underwent a $16.4 million renovation. The top floor is now headquarters of Al Copeland Investments.

2: Curved slatted architectural features designate the seating area of the reception area 3: A group of historical photos with a portrait of Al Copeland Sr. in the middle is featured in the reception area.

4: The reception desk greets visitors to the top floor.

5: The small conference room is known as the “Operations Think Tank,” and is used for quick, open meetings that can take place throughout the day. The words on the wall are designed to help spark ideas.

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“It’s ideal to have a place to spread things out on a large table and to call a quick impromptu meeting.” room — a seemingly fitting symbol of the father and son who have led the company since it was founded in 1972.

For Copeland, one of the joys of his new space is the natural light.

“The executive offices on both Airline and Elmwood were windowless,” he says.

“I enjoy having lots of windows where I can take in the view for miles,” he says. “I even like the rainy days from my 17th-f loor vantage point.”

The Copeland brand has seen its share of rainy days. His father’s financial woes made national news in 1993 when the company was purchased by AFC Enterprises.

Copeland is quick to point out there was a silver lining behind the cloud of selling the company. “We retained the rights to the fried chicken recipe and eventually sold it for $43 million,” he says. “The sale of the secret recipe benefited my father’s family estate. For our family, it was a wonderful deal, as it was for the now Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen that today has over 2,000 restaurants in almost every state and more than two dozen countries…I saw it as a win-win — moving the recipe from one vault to another.”

Although his dad was the boss, Copeland

received no special treatment.

“I worked for my father from the time I was 12 years old, mopping f loors, taking out the trash, then moving up to working in the kitchen,” he says. “My big break came when I moved up to the role of assistant manager of a Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits.”

Prior to becoming CEO of ACI, Copeland served as the senior executive vice president of Copeland’s Restaurants, where he provided leadership and direction for the marketing, operations, purchasing and research aspects of the fully franchised restaurant division. “I still personally own three Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen franchises in Marrero, Harvey and Avondale,” he says.

Today, Copeland also enjoys his duties as head of the Al Copeland Foundation (ACF), a nonprofit that supports local research for cancer, the disease that led to his father’s death on Easter Sunday 2008. “My father had a rare form of cancer called merkel cell carcinoma,” he says. “He aggressively fought the rare disease and died in Germany, where he had traveled to seek the latest treatment.”

Copeland is ever mindful that it takes teamwork to make both ACI and ACF successful, “ACI wouldn’t be as successful as it is today without the people at the corporate headquarters who oversee the daily operations of all of our entities and are the heartbeat of the company.” Pausing to ref lect on the many worthy projects ACF has supported, he adds, “We have many people to thank for their support to make our foundation’s fight against cancer successful at events, such as its annual golf classic and Krewe du Cure.” n BizNewOrleans.com October 2015

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Q&A - Biz Person of the Month

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MarketMaster With close to 50 years in the New Orleans real estate industry under his belt, Wade Ragas shares his thoughts on the present — and likely future — of the market.

By Pamela Marquis - Photos by Cheryl gerber

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hrough hard work and years of experience, Wade Ragas has become the leading expert in the New Orleans real estate industry and throughout the country. Since 1982, his business, Real Property Associates Inc. has worked with large-scale property owners, lenders, law firms and corporate clients, providing a wide range of services including complex property valuations, economic impact studies, estates, real estate market/feasibility studies, litigation services and environmental damages.

Ragas authored or coauthored more than 30 articles in national publications. Many people may know him as author of the “New Orleans Real Estate Market Analysis,” a 100-page semiannual review of residential and commercial market conditions on the Gulf Coast. When he worked at the University of New Orleans, from 1978 until 2005, he wrote 35 volumes of this influential guide.

While at UNO, Ragas also directed a wide range of applied real estate research projects through the Real Estate Market Data Center. As a research and full professor, he taught all aspects of real estate to thousands of students and more than 30,000 real estate professionals.

A Jefferson Parish native, Ragas holds a doctorate from Ohio State University in real estate and urban analysis (finance) and professional credentials with the Member Appraisal Institute (MAI) and as a Senior Residential Appraiser (SRA). He’s also provided expert opinions in more than 70 court cases at the State and Federal District Court levels as well as the Federal Circuit Court of Claims. Additionally, he’s served as a consultant to the Louisiana Real Estate Commission, Louisiana Appraiser Certification Board and Louisiana Tax Commission.

Many know Wade Ragas from his role as the author of the “New Orleans Real Estate Market Analysis,” a 100-page semiannual review of residential and commercial market conditions on the Gulf Coast from 1978 to 2005.

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“Metro New Orleans average [home] prices have risen from $102 per square foot before Katrina to $121 per square foot, or by 18.6 percent.”

BIZ: When did you get interested in real estate?

My father sold real estate, so when I was 11 years old or so I started helping him.

When the newspaper ads came out on Saturday mornings, we’d be either showing property or looking at property. I enjoyed doing that with my father and think it began my love for this business.

BIZ: When did you decide real estate was going to be your chosen profession?

In 1969 I graduated from the University of New Orleans with a degree in economics.

Then I took a job with Smolkin-Siegel Corp., a national business that did real estate market research, and I began doing research all across the country. That was the beginning. I was interested in a job that used my skills, and I am good at math so this was a good fit. My next job was as an assistant vice-president in PringleAssociated Mortgage Corp. There I gathered many skills and became qualified in mortgages and loaning and learned about both residential and commercial lending.

I profiled properties and tried to identify niche markets that had demand. Then when I was working on my doctorate at Ohio, I worked more in the field of urban analysis.

In 1976 I began teaching at UNO. BIZ: What did you enjoy about teaching others about real estate?

God gave me a few talents and it’s richly rewarding to use those to help others. Our programs helped students discover and 84

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enhance their career paths. I worked with a wide variety of people in the business such as agents, bankers, contractors, developers and appraisers. I also wanted to help those people who were selling real estate to become independent brokers.

BIZ: Tell me about the other work you did at the University of New Orleans.

I helped develop the Real Estate Research Center, which serves the real estate community and the general public. We had three main areas of services: professional real estate education, primary real estate market data and contract research. Also, in 1990 I was asked to create a seminar for professionals in the real estate industry. So we did a four-hour look into the future of the economy and real estate. It was the New Orleans Economy and Real Estate Market Forecast. We routinely had 600 people attend.

I did that for 15 years until I retired.

BIZ: What have you been doing since retiring from UNO?

Many things. One thing is five years ago we began providing housing market analysis for the New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors that focuses on data by ZIP code.

The latest one came out in July and the next will be in February. I’ve also been involved with another annual symposium.

BIZ: Can you tell me a bit more about that?

It’s the Annual Economic and Real Estate Forecast Symposium. The Commercial Investment Division of the New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors presents

it. This will be our fifth symposium, and it will be held on Oct 12 and 13 at Roussel Hall on the Loyola campus. We will have two wellregarded national economists presenting at the symposium. The first is Adrienne C. Slack, the vice president and regional executive at the New Orleans Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Her topic will be The Economy: Insights from Rubbing the Federal Reserve Crystal Ball. The second is Paul Bishop, VP of research for the National Association of Realtors. His topic is Economy of Housing: Forecast for America.

Both these speakers will have a lot to offer.

We will also have some of the area’s top real estate experts who will look at jobs, housing interest and so much more.

We really try and focus our individual presentations because we want to leave room for questions and answers. So we usually have a short presentation with lots of visuals and then we leave room for the questions. That’s where the learning happens. The symposium is open to the public. My topic is In Search of Value: Rates, Return and Rationale. I will present with D. Wesley Moore, vice president of Cook, Moore and Associates.

“No other city in the southern coastal area has the protection we have…

New Orleans is a very good place to invest.”

BIZ: What do you think is going to happen if the Federal Reserve raises interest rates?

The rates have not gone up in nearly a decade, and we really don’t know what the Federal Reserve will do. If it’s a one and out that won’t be a big problem. For example, if they raise it a quarter point it won’t make a big difference. That results in a 10 percent increase in a monthly mortgage. That’s not great, but the bigger problem is if it looks like this will be one at the start of many more increases. Right now, the stock market is very volatile, so you usually try to avoid raising interest rates. Also, keep in mind that typically the stock market performs poorest during the month of September.

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BIZ: How does the New Orleans real estate market look 10 years after Katrina?

It looks good. For example, one of the things our most recent report looked at was the housing market, and it showed that that market has fully recovered in levels of housing prices and sales volume. Just for example, the metro New Orleans average prices have risen from $102 per square foot before Katrina to $121 per square foot, or by 18.6 percent. So the average price of a house in the metro area in 2005 was around $196,000, and now it’s around $234,000.

BIZ: How is New Orleans meeting the need for affordable homes?

Since Katrina we’ve built 20,000 affordable units that are new or renovated. In public housing we’ve built more than 8,000 Section 8 units. Most of those were for elderly housing. One of the problems is that New Orleans has a very large low-income population, and there is a real lack of higherpaying jobs here.

BIZ: What impact do businesses such as Airbnb have on the New Orleans real estate market?

At this point it’s probably not making that much difference. We have 36,000 hotel rooms in the New Orleans area and Airbnb rentals are 2 or maybe 3 percent of 86

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the market, with most of the concentration in the French Quarter. The main thing, I think, is to make sure we have a regulatory structure in place for these units that looks at fire safety, cleanliness and parking, and creates a set of guidelines.

BIZ: With the potential for hurricanes is New Orleans a good place to invest in property?

No other city in the southern coastal area has the protection we have. If you look at downtown Tampa or Miami, they don’t have the floodwalls or the pumps we do. It’s dangerous to look back 40 years to forecast that Katrina-type hurricanes will happen again in the next 40 years. The weather has so many more global factors and issues. The bigger issue is the sea rise. It may be risky to buy property on the water in places like Biloxi, Miami or Houston without the kind of protection we have in New Orleans. New Orleans is a very good place to invest.

Do you sell property? No, I think it represents too much of a conflict of interest and since 1980 my firm has been interested in consulting others.

BIZ: Do you do any volunteer work in the community?

I’ve served on many boards and committees. Since 1984 I’ve been on the board

Ragas will be a featured speaker at this year’s Annual Economic and Real Estate Forecast Symposium, which focuses mostly on the commercial market.

of directors on the Mutual Savings and Loan in Metairie. I’ve also served on the Rummel High School Development Committee.

BIZ: What advice would you give the average investors?

If you are purchasing a home, find a location you love and that you know you will live in for an extended time. There is almost always appreciation on a well-maintained property. And for the most part, your home will be a better investment than the stock market or gold. If you are buying property to rent, be realistic. Make sure your rent will fully cover the loan and other expenses such as repairs and property taxes. Some of my clients have bought rental properties every couple of years and now they can retire with a fairly comfortable income.

BIZ: What do you do in your free time?

The truth is I don’t have much free time.

I’m lucky, I believe my work is not work. So much of what I do on a day-by-day basis I find really enjoyable. n

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Why Didn’t I Think of That? | Creative Businesses Taking Hold in Southeast Louisiana

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Photo by Cheryl Gerber

Drone Sweet Drone Landbros Aerial Photography showcases the positive side of this often-vilified technology.

Phil McCausland

I

t seems that drones are always making their way into the news — and it’s not typically positive.

We’ve all heard about their military use overseas, how they’ve acted as drug mules for prison yards, how a father once shot one out of the air and was arrested, and even North Dakota’s new law legalizing law enforcement to use armed drones.

Of course there’s also Amazon’s recent announcement of programs like Amazon Air, which will allow them to deliver packages via unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) — a perfect example of how drones are destined to be a large part of America’s technological future. Some estimates project that in two years we might see 30,000 UAVs flying overhead at any one moment in United States airspace.

But should this be a scary thought? A local company, Landbros Aerial Photography, says not necessarily, and certainly not in their case.

Founded a year and a half ago by Baton Rouge brothers Danny and Kevin Landry, Landbros uses drones to offer commercial photography — both still photos and video — to construction and real estate firms.

The new company has even supplied its services to The New York Times.

“We’re very diverse in terms of our capabilities,” says Danny Landry.

“We’re a lot further than, say, a startup company since we’ve been doing this for a while. We do mapping, 3-D modeling within mosaics, thermal imaging, and general photography and video as well. People use our work in a bunch of different ways, whether it’s just to document something or create an ad to use for their marketing.”

The Landrys first started the company in 2014. In early 2015, they were among the first 500 applicants ever — and first company in Louisiana — to obtain a commercial exemption from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The exemption allows them to fly UAVs under 55 pounds up to 200 feet above the ground for commercial projects.

One of the company’s main focuses is to offer high-quality aerial photography while maintaining and heightening workplace safety. It’s a subject that the brothers feel particularly passionate about because of their backgrounds.

Brothers Danny and Kevin Landry use drones to offer professional commercial photography — both stills and video ­— to construction and real estate firms.

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How they got started The Landrys have two particular characteristics that have helped them gain footing in the industry: Landry has been an RC (radio control) hobbyist since childhood, and their family has a background in construction work.

“My dad owned a small construction company, and I worked construction my entire life pretty much until college,” Landry explains, citing his more than 15 years of construction experience. “I was always a bit of an RC junkie, always playing around with RC vehicles and little copters and stuff like that.”

After he returned from college, Landry upgraded his RC helicopter to a full drone and started trying out the more advanced vehicle. Still only a hobbyist at the time, he had no idea this would turn into a career.

“It was right when they were coming out with the consumer-grade drones that were not the traditional RC helicopters,” Landry says. “They were finally accessible to pretty much everybody. So I got one of those and put my skills from my entire life into learning that, and then from there expanded. I quit my full-time job, and I’ve been doing this for about a year and a half, since I started the company.

But getting to a point where they were legally allowed to work commercially took a good deal of work. The FAA restricts commercial use of drones, so without the commercial exemption they received, Landbros would not have been viable as a company.

Getting the word out Landbros hasn’t had to do too much work to get its name in the hands of potential customers. Their history and connections within the construction industry have allowed them to find steady work. Landry worked within the marketing and branding industry after college, and though he says that experience has been beneficial, “we don’t really spend any money on advertising or anything like that,” he says. “For us, we didn’t really do any of that. It’s more so connections. Building those 90

October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

TOP: An image for an inspection progress report taken of industrial pipe being laid under the Mississippi River in Port Arthur, Texas.

ABOVE: A marsh drilling rig in Galliano, Louisiana.

and delivering a quality product – people talk. Everybody says word of mouth, right?”

With word of mouth alone, the Landrys have been able to create a constant stream of business. But they don’t just wait for the phone to ring.

It helps that the brothers are drone junkies — using Google alerts to make sure they are the first to read about every bit of industry, keeping Photos courtesy of Landbros Aerial Photography

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abreast of industry trends and challenges that could affect them and remaining on the frontier of drone technology in Louisiana.

“I follow the industry,” Landry adds. “It’s really exciting to see the new stuff because there’s new stuff every day. For us, we’ve been at the forefront of it all. We haven’t been at the forefront of it globally, but in Louisiana, in our industry—construction—we are. It’s a really cool industry, but it’s also starting to become competitive. I’ve been very busy, and there’s a lot of opportunity.”

The importance of safety and the challenge of perception The biggest challenge Landbros faces is the perception of UAVs. Landry specifically mentions that some drone pilots have had near misses with airplanes by flying drones too close to airports. That’s where the importance of safety comes in for him — he feels that by remaining vigilant about his own safety protocols, the company may help to change some of the negative views.

Landry says he’s a real stickler for rules his customers trust him.

What are those rules?

“It’s basically a preflight checklist: full safety gear, not flying within 5 miles of an airport, below 200 feet off the ground, line of sights so you can always see it,” he says. “These are all basic safety restrictions, but a lot of people don’t obey them. Really it’s just about following the rules.”

This is, again, where the Landrys say their background and experience comes in handy.

“For us, having that construction background, we’ve definitely got the edge against our competitors because we are much more experienced 92

October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com

Landbros Aerial Photography caught this image while inspecting the World Trade Center Building.

in that market. We understand it, we understand the people, and we know what they’re looking for.”

The future of the industry Many people come to Landry to speak about drone safety, but they also often have questions about the future of the industry. What will its role be? What markets will expand to include it? They are questions that require long answers, but he says he sees many different applications for UAVs. From farming to real estate, the ability to use drones is wide open.

“I think it will become more and more prevalent in real estate,” Landry says. “You’ll see a lot of companies pop up to provide that service for agents. We’ve already seen a lot of it in agriculture, tracking crops and things like that. In construction it will continue to be used to make job sites safer and more efficient. That’s what they do. They can create a safer environment in any industry. They can do surveying work, crop analysis work—they’re getting more and more intelligent.

They have sonar sensors and things like that on them now. Battery life is getting better and better.”

“It’s crazy to think about what the future is going to look like, but there will be a lot of drones and UAVs in the future,” Landry says. “They will be in the air and people will see them, and there will be that initial freakout.

Hopefully the government can keep up with the technology and create it so that it’s safe and there aren’t more near misses and issues.” n

Photo courtesy of Landbros Aerial Photography

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Events Diana Lewis Citizen Participation Awards

Small Business — Big Potential

August 18th, 2015

August 18th, 2015

Hyatt Regency Hotel, New Orleans

Causeway Branch Library

Designed to honor those that have demonstrated leadership in mobilizing groups of citizens to help make New Orleans a better place, this year’s Diana Lewis Citizen Participation Awards featured a keynote address from Sen. Mary Landrieu.

Co-sponsored by the St. Tammany West Chamber of Commerce, SCORE, St. Tammany Economic Development Foundation and Frannet, this event showcased leading business opportunities coming to Louisiana this year.

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1. Calla Victoria, Sandy Rosenthal and Sallie Walker 2. Mary Landrieu 3. Lea Young, Linda Walker and Rosalind Blanco Cook 94

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1. Al Barron, Ed Meyer and Sandy Summers 2. Ted Fireman 3. Malcom Moses, Beth Wheeler and Marcia Mead Photos by Cheryl Gerber

K10 Panel August 25th, 2015 Sheraton New Orleans

New Orleans Small Business Symposium: Learn How to Do Business with NASA August 26th, 2015 NASA Michoud Assembly Facility

As part of the City of New Orleans’ Katrina 10 year anniversary of events, GNO Inc. President and CEO, Michael Hecht, moderated a panel discussion between economic development leaders from throughout Greater New Orleans focused on how the region has grown post-Katrina.

Senior NASA representatives from senior fields were on hand to answer questions on the availability of helpful marketing tools and prime contractor subcontracting opportunities, as well as provide center acquisition updates.

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1. Jerry Bologna, Brenda Bertus and Quentin Messer Jr. 2. Michael Hecht 3. Torri Buckles and Corey Faucheux Photos by Cheryl Gerber

1. Ronnie Burns, Barbara Jones, Sean Bruno and Earl Washington 2. Rob Watts 3. Stephanie Borrello, Terri Baptiste-Franklin, Brittany Brown and Salena Gaiennie BizNewOrleans.com October 2015

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Behind the Scenes

Another Successful Pass Check out these stats! Long before the Saints hit the field, there’s work to be done at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Fourteen workers spread into three teams each take a color and work together to make sure the field has that black, gold and white “Who Dat” flair. The paint is then carefully touched up between every game.

Over the course of 10 Saints games, two Bowl games, the Bayou Classic and three days of high school football championships, approximately 800 gallons of latex-based removable synthetic turf paint hits the field.

Photo by Jeff Johnston 96

October 2015 BizNewOrleans.com