We’re serious about our food in south Louisiana, and food-related businesses are as interesting and varied as are our own family recipes for gumbo or oyster dressing. As the food industry becomes more complex and sophisticated there are ever more opportunities for entrepreneurs to craft new business models and come up with new ways of…

Local retailers give a city a sense of place, setting it apart from the next big exit off the interstate. In Baton Rouge, we’re fortunate to have several much-loved local retailers who, in some cases, have spent generations serving Baton Rouge shoppers with quality products.   Manuel Martinez is a well known fixture in Baton…

Teaching skills and imparting knowledge are perhaps the greatest gifts and tools we can give to the young, and the young at heart, hungry to learn. Local Baton Rouge entrepreneurs are coming up with creative ways to turn the act of teaching and educating into small businesses with limitless potential. Jacques Hopkins was an electrical…

In recent months, female empowerment has become an important topic dominating the media, and the issues raised by the #metoo movement have forced this country to have important discussions about how women are treated in the workplace and beyond. Here in Baton Rouge we have some incredibly strong, powerful women who have their own stories…

One of the biggest challenges in Louisiana is a lack of skilled workers in the technical trades. Companies complain about it all the time. And yet, many young people will tell you they can’t find a good paying job, which is a reason so many of them leave after high school. For the past several…

While New Orleans gets the lion’s share of attention for being Louisiana’s premier tourist destination, Baton Rouge has some offerings of its own.    Michael Day is General Manager of the Raising Cane’s River Center, Baton Rouge’s premier event facility. Built in 1977, the River Center has more than 14-thousand square meters of exhibition space,…

Ryan Grizzafi is the owner of The Cajun Spoon, a four-year-old company that makes healthful, easy to prepare box mixes of beloved Cajun dishes like gumbo, etouffe and shrimp and grits. The Cajun Spoon started out as a food truck in 2014, progressed to become a catering business, and more recently has ventured into retail….

We know south Louisiana has a healthy number of budding entrepreneurs. We’ve met many of them on this show over the past year. But one thing we hear over and over again is that south Louisiana doesn’t have a very well-developed entrepreneurial ecosystem. It’s starting to change, but is it happening fast enough? Arthur Cooper…

Quality education is a challenge. It seems like many of our schools are losing ground, as public funding for education is being cut. At the same time, there’s a greater emphasis on alternatives to the traditional school system and an increased interest in things that helps us think outside the box. Ashley Heard has spent…

Some of us find relief for our stress through exercise or meditation. Others find their salvation after a long hard day in a good strong cocktail. Either way, local entrepreneurs have found a way to build businesses around our inherent need to unwind and escape. Stefan Boone, with his wife, Mercy Kitchen Boone, is owner…