BizTimes Milwaukee

Today, banking, and in particular refinancing, is on the minds of many small business owners, and one way to impress your banker and to speed up the loan process is through good financial planning.

A report by Community Bankers of Wisconsin shows that through the third quarter, net income for Wisconsin banks with assets of less than $1 billion is up 87 percent over last year.

Discussions about mobile technologies have become everyday conversations among business owners and executives. That, coupled with some regional initiatives that push for education, collaboration and advancements in the technology design and development community, could help put Milwaukee on the map next to cities such as Palo Alto, Calif., and Austin, Texas.

The downtown Milwaukee hotel market will gain a major competitor in mid-2013, when a new 200-room, full-service, Marriott hotel opens.

BizTimes asked several Milwaukee mobile web and smartphone app developers to share their insights about effective apps. They agreed a good application must be useful, it must be intuitive, it needs to have a good design and it must provide a positive user experience. The following is a list of 10 strong applications that can provide ideas for other companies seeking to develop their own apps.

With the growing popularity of mobile tablets and smart phones, more businesses must recalibrate how they interact with customers and prospective customers. The mobile devices are changing the way business is conducted.

Virtualization and simulation is the future of health care education, according to Kathy VanEerden, dean of health sciences at Moraine Park Technical College.

One aspect of Chinese business competition that Western companies often fail to grasp is the razor thin margins many companies in China live on. A Chinese boss will tend to look at the amount of money that can be made as opposed to what it represents in terms of margin.

Racine-based Bukacek Construction LLC recently broke ground on a $24.5 million, 208,000-square-foot expansion project for Ruud Lighting, a subsidiary of Durham, N.C.-based Cree Inc., at Ruud's headquarters and production facility in Sturtevant.

With the holidays upon us, children everywhere are putting together their Christmas wish lists for Santa. While the latest video gaming system and cutest doll may bring a smile to their faces on Christmas morning, just imagine the smile on your children's or grandchildren's faces when they graduate from college with little or no student loans to pay back.