Business

New Canaan Small Business Owners: Mastermind Group Info Session To Be Held Tuesday

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About one-quarter of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce’s member businesses are independent—small retailers, entrepreneurs and other sole proprietors—and the organization’s leadership continuously looks out for programs to ensure that those members succeed. Next week, that chamber is offering local independents a tool that’s already proven successful for longstanding New Canaan business owners. The 2-hour Mastermind Group session led by business coach Rich Gee will be held at 6 p.m. on March 31 at Halo Studios, 45 Grove St. Register here. “We understand that being an independent or sole proprietor can be a daunting experience and this session really gives people a forum in which to grow their business,” said the chamber’s Laura Budd.

Business

Upscale Resale CT: New Canaan Women’s Online Consignment Service Fills a Local Niche

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Jane Ponterotto encountered some strange behaviors as she researched online services to help sell furniture as her family downsized its home within New Canaan last year. With their kids getting older and a shifting tax burden in town, the Ponterottos did what many New Canaanites do: They moved out of the large home they’d known for more than 20 years, in this case down the street and into a house less than half its size. Seeking a good price for select furniture pieces she no longer needed, Ponterotto herself looked into tag sale companies, but found that fees for ads, signage and manpower made little sense given that the sale itself was largely weather-dependent and hit-or-miss. Some online “services” carried the red flags of a scam by demanding bank routing numbers over the Internet, and one woman who responded to a Craigslist ad showed up at Ponterotto’s home about 10 minutes after emailing a response to it. “She shows up and walks right in through the door, and I didn’t know who she was,” Ponterotto recalled.

Business

Ten Thousand Villages in Downtown New Canaan To Close at the End of May

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Ten Thousand Villages on the corner of Main Street and East Avenue will close at the end of May, according to officials with the handmade gifts, jewelry, home decor, art and sculpture retailer. The fair trade organization’s New Canaan location—known for years by locals as the Wire Whisk space—hasn’t generated sufficient foot traffic to make end’s meet, according to Carol Starkweather, store manager. “We’ve had a lot of support from the town and the customers we have are fantastic, so I want to thank everybody for giving us a chance and for shopping here,” she told NewCanaanite.com Tuesday morning. Ten Thousand Villages right now has a 25 percent off sale, she said. Asked about the store’s closing, Laura Budd of the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce said: “Of course as always we are disappointed to hear when a local business chooses to close its doors.

Business

New Canaan’s Jacqueline Dorman, Breast Cancer Survivor and Pink Stroll Supporter: ‘I Don’t Want Anyone To Miss a Mammogram’

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Though she had no family history of breast cancer, New Canaan resident Jacqueline Dorman goes diligently for mammograms and—as an additional (not substitute) screening tool that sometimes can detect masses where mammography isn’t helpful, the American Cancer Society says—ultrasounds. Last December, through ultrasound, the 45-year-old mom of three discovered that she had two masses in her breast, and one of them was malignant. After testing positive for “BRCA2”—sometimes called the “breast cancer susceptibility gene”—Dorman in January underwent a double mastectomy, reconstructive surgery and, fearing the development of ovarian cancer, a partial hysterectomy. On Thursday, Dorman—a Scotland native and town resident for 10 years who is a professional lawyer—will join other local breast cancer survivors for New Canaan’s first-ever Pink Stroll, a joint effort of the Chamber of Commerce, local merchants (full list below) and Connecticut affiliate of Susan G. Komen. The event, to run 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at participating shops, will see Dorman and other survivors model fashions of the individual stores while donating 10 percent of all proceeds to Komen and raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research.

Business

New Canaan Gears Up for Aug. 21 ‘Taste of the Town Stroll’

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New Canaan’s business community is gearing up for an increasingly popular annual event that connects local merchants with customers while benefitting the local food pantry. The New Canaan Chamber of Commerce’s third annual Taste of the Town Stroll, benefitting the New Canaan Food Pantry, runs from 6 to 9 p.m. next Thursday, Aug. 21 (rain date Aug. 22). Chamber Marketing Associate Laura Budd calls the event “a triple win.”

“Number one, the food pantry gets stocked.