Business
Crisis Management
The Martha’s Vineyard Women’s Network will host an evening program, What to Do When Life Happens: Crisis Management from Those Who Have Been There, on Tuesday, Oct. 28 from 6 p.m. to 8 at The Old Whaling Church. Moderated by Plum TV’s Guinevere Cramer, the program will feature a panel of business owners who will discuss the challenges facing business owners. Panelists will include Jaime Hamlin, Maria Metters, Susan Gibbs and Heather Kochin.
Retail sales may be slumping around the country and on the Island, but the thrift stores and consignment shops of the Vineyard are thriving hubs of business these days.
“We have been incredibly busy,” said Sandy Pratt, comanager of the Vineyard Haven Thrift Shop.
“I could literally stay open 24 hours a day sometimes,” echoed Deborah Alpert-Sylvia, manager of the Edgartown Second Hand Store.
Paul Currier, owner of the Café Moxie building destroyed when a fire broke out there on the Fourth of July, plans to apply today for a permit to rebuild the Main street, Vineyard Haven restaurant, with the backing of Mike Ryan of Island Woodworks.
“I would love nothing better than [for the new Cafe Moxie] to be open for the Fourth of July next year,” Mr. Currier said.
Greening your company can contribute to the environment, but as the Martha’s Vineyard Women’s Network will show on Sept. 23, it also can boost your bottom line.
A roundtable discussion called Living Green! Saving Green! is set for 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the Baylies Room in the Old Whaling Church. The panel will discuss entrepreneurial opportunities in the green marketplace and give tips to make even the smallest office environmentally friendly — while making money doing it.
Island visitors and residents may have cut back on many extravagances as the economy slowed this summer season, but weddings were not on the list.
“The economy does not seem to be affecting the desire and the interest in destination weddings to Martha’s Vineyard,” said Sue Curley, event coordinator at Tilton Rentals, a company that rents everything from tents to forks for celebrations here.