New in Town: New Learning Horizons
Corrections or additions?
Between the Lines: NAICS Categories
This article was published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on March 24, 1999.
When we first conceived the U.S. 1 Business Directory
we never dreamed that the mere act of categorizing the companies in
our community would become such a challenge. But it is — just
five years ago we made it work with just 150 categories. This year’s
book has 197, 12 more than the 1998 edition. They certainly reflect
the Princeton business community: farming has just one category but
computers are divided 16 ways (totaling 357 companies) and 159 companies
represent seven different types of R&D.
For obvious reasons we have always taken an interest in the federal
government’s effort to categorize businesses and its badly outdated
classification system, the SIC code. Devised in the 1930s, the SIC
code was good on categories for farming and terrible on categories
for computers. For instance, it offered separate classifications for
the gathering of maple sap and the reducing of maple sap to maple
sugar.
Now the feds have replaced the SIC classifications with the new North
American Industry Classification System (NAICS). They have relegated
sap gathering and sugar making to "all other miscellaneous crop
farming." And telephone soliciting — a late 20th century specialty
if ever there were one — gets its own category, separate from
telephone answering services. But NAICS still hasn’t caught up with
today’s technology. It has 19 kinds of nightwear manufacturers, but
only two categories for on-line information providers, and no category
— that we could find — for multimedia design.
The improved NAICS is available in a $28.50 paperback but will soon
make its census debut with the publication of the new Economic Census.
And because we have just spent a three-month period confronting our
own category decisions, we are sympathetic to the SIC-NAICS dilemma.
Some categories in the U.S. 1 community are difficult to fine tune;
the 289 law firms, for instance, resist being segregated by focus.
But wherever possible we draw fine lines, to distinguish software
developers from software consultants, and manufacturers’ reps from
branch sales offices.
New categories reflect changes on the Princeton scene: research services
to pharmaceutical companies, medical publishing, and data and record
storage providers. And three years ago a dozen hopefuls were trying
to be Internet service providers, but they have dwindled to a handful.
Who knows, maybe in the next U.S. 1 Directory they will go the way
of the Federal government’s sap gatherers.
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To the Editor
THANK YOU FOR your literate article about my new book ["Penelope:
The Story of the Half-Scalped Woman," March 10]. I appreciate
the time you took to read and understand the book and also the care
with which you questioned me. Your article is the best I’ve seen.
I’m always nervous when I talk to a newspaper but you explained me
better than I could have explained myself.
Also I’m glad you mentioned my parents, and I look forward to showing
them the article. As we all know, parents don’t usually get enough
credit.
Penelope Scambly Schott
Rocky Hill
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New in Town: New Learning Horizons
A franchise of New Horizons Computer Learning Center
has opend in the space formerly occupied by the Cittone Institute
at Canal Pointe, next to MarketFair. Classes started January 4 in
everything from software applications to technical network training,
from Microsoft Office Suite to certificates for Novell certified netware
engineers, with prices ranging from several hundered dollars to five
figures.
Based in Santa Ana, California, the firm offers courseware in 11 languages,
in more than 30 countries, at more than 230 locations. "Our focus
is to take employers’ people, train them, and put them back at their
desks. We do take individuals who want to train for their own career
development, but we don’t do job placement, though we will pass resumes
along to agencies," says Ken Foxton, the franchise owner. He is
working currently with Norell and Corporate Staffing Solutions.
"I love it, so far," says Foxton. "We are doing quite
well." Other owners, he says, report going into black in the first
six to eight months. "For the month of December we are ahead of
projections, with close to 150 students enrolled now."
He has hired eight salespeople and is looking for four more. "It
is not typical sales, not telesales, not outside sales." says
Foxton. "Our salespeople contact decision makers — the person
responsible for spending the money on computer training — and
have them come in and take a class."
Foxton is a native of New York State who majored in business management
at the University of Maryland, Class of 1986, and has an MBA in finance
and economics from Chapman University in Orange, California. He has
almost 25 years experience in the computer and communications industry,
for the most part with Allied Signal, where he was, most recently,
senior manager of business development.
"We are the largest network of Microsoft-authorized training and
education centers," says Foxton, referring to the international
organization, "and also the largest Novell authorized education
center network, and one of the largest Lotus education networks."
The Princeton site, which has 11,000 square feet, serves a territory
that includes Mercer and Ocean counties plus parts of Hunterdon, Middlesex,
Southern Monmouth, and Bucks.
Foxton bought the franchise in March of last year and had a difficult
time trying to find space to put it. "The biggest surprise was
how long it took to locate a space that could handle our requirements,"
says Foxton. Though he was using the services of a real estate broker,
"we did this deal on our own." He moved in November and did
his own fit-out, including the painting. "I’m a hands-on manager
— I don’t believe in paying for something I can do myself,"
he says.
"Is it better than working for a corporation? for me it is. I
like doing things the way I want to do them. We can have a meeting,
make a decision, and don’t have to go up the corporate ladder to get
approval. Probably the biggest decision was how large a facility to
start off with. We took 11,000 of the 18,000 square feet that Cittone
had had, and we have right of first refusal." Though he is the
sole owner, he does insist on team meetings. "My experience is
that it is better to have everybody buying into the decision."
Pointe Boulevard, Suite 118, Princeton 08540. Ken Foxton, franchise
owner. 609-452-9770; fax, 609-452-9773. Home page: http://www.newhorizons.com.
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U.S. 1 Ventures
Seven firms covered by U.S. 1 in the past 12 months
are among the 43 companies scheduled to bring exhibits to the New
Jersey Venture Fair on Monday, March 29, from noon to 5 p.m. at the
Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. They include Cell USA Inc.,
Hydro Med Sciences, Justballs!, Princeton Learning Systems, Princeton
Multimedia Technologies Corp., SBX Inc., and Xenna Corporation.
Three new firms will also exhibit: Trenton-based Health Imaging (which
develops medical picture archiving and communications systems), Secure
Commerce Services Inc. (an Emmons Drive-based electronic billing service
at http://www.paytrust.com), and ZATZ, a Rocky Hill-based
Internet publishing firm.
Entrance fee for the Venture Fair is $115. Call 609-452-1010.
Corrections or additions?
This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com
— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
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