Alan Hall knows his business.
And he plans to share that knowledge with our readers on a regular basis.
Hall, founder of MarketStar Corporation, a global marketing and sales company for high-tech companies, and Mercato Partners, a growth equity venture capital fund, will begin writing a column Wednesday for the Standard-Examiner entitled "Launching Business."
He is the first of what we hope becomes a series of individual professional community columnists sharing their experiences and advice with readers.
On Sundays we currently run Job Search, a helpful column by Ron Campbell, a local employment specialist who has worked in the job search and job preparation industry. Now we would like to find columns to appear the other days of the week.
If you are a professional and feel you have experiences and knowledge that would be worthwhile sharing with readers, contact me at my email address below. We are looking for professionals in the following fields: legal, medical, home ownership, home fix-it and auto repair. But we are not limited to that list.
The only condition we have is that the content of the columns not be self-promoting.
Hall is an excellent choice to write about entrepreneurship and what goes into starting a business. The focus of Mercato Partners, where Hall is managing director, is to invest in high-growth technology companies that need additional funding and expertise in marketing and sales. Companies benefiting include Skullcandy, Fusion-io and Control4.
Hall is also the founder and chairman of Grow Utah, a not-for-profit entity set up to stimulate economic development through entrepreneurship.
Hall doesn't just have a big footprint in the business world. He also continues to have a positive impact on the community.
He is chairman of the Utah Technology Council, chairman of Weber State University's Board of Trustees and chairman of the university's capital campaign committee.
He and his wife Jeanne head up the Hall Foundation. The mission of the foundation is that "there be no poor among us."
The Ogden native is a proud graduate of Ogden High School and was instrumental in helping raise funds for the restoration of the Ogden High auditorium. He also graduated from Weber State College, where he played basketball in the 1960s.
He and his wife are the parents of six married children and 15 grandchildren.
He has some exciting plans for the Ogden area that he hopes to share with you in the near future.
I can hardly wait.
TALKIN' TURKEY: The Standard-Examiner broke the record set last year for single-copy sales Thanksgiving Day. Eager shoppers and readers purchased 12,266 copies of the hefty paper, shattering the previous record by more than 2,000 copies. That day's paper included 858 pages of advertising inserts, along with the regular 48 news pages, also an increase over the previous year. It weighed 5 pounds.
The high demand was probably due in part to the record number of shoppers who took advantage of the Black Friday sales. Nationwide, retailers saw a 2 percent increase in sales year-over-year for the day. For a change, that's some good economic news.
We hope the trend continues. This Sunday's paper has more than 700 pages in inserts, also well above average.
Andy Howell is executive editor. He can be reached at 801-625-4210 or ahowell@standard.net.
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