This is the first episode of our brand new podcast called Rework. If you like it you can subscribe to Rework on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.Welcome to the first episode of Rework! This podcast is based on Jason Fried and Da

Business Model

Aug 1st, 2017 19m 4s

Lily Liu was 16 years old when a talent scout approached her at a department store. She started her career as a model, but found her true calling behind the scenes, first representing her three daughters and then opening her own talent agency.

Going to the Mattresses

Jul 18th, 2017 16m 3s

Tim Masters describes himself as "just a mattress maker," but that belies the business acumen he's gained over decades of building and selling beds. Tim's store in the Chicago suburbs, Quality Sleep Shop, opened in 1969 and has held its own aga

If It Ain't Baroque, Don't Fix It

Jul 3rd, 2017 17m 46s

Ben and Larry are longtime owners of two different music-related businesses, a payroll service for musicians and an auctioneer of rare classical LPs. They don't know each other, but they have something in common: They're both still running thei

Troy Henikoff

Jun 20th, 2017 17m 54s

Troy Henikoff was a college student in 1984 when he wrote his first program, a piece of software to help his grandfather's steel warehouse manage their inventory. That summer project led Troy to start his own software consulting business a coup

The Business Cycle, Part 2

Jun 6th, 2017 19m 54s

In 2010, as Worksman Cycles was emerging from the recession and ready to grow again, the maker of heavy-duty cycles saw an exciting opportunity to supply the bikes for New York City's bike share program. But the city rejected Worksman's proposa

The Business Cycle, Part 1

May 23rd, 2017 19m 8s

Worksman Cycles is the oldest American bicycle manufacturer that still makes its products in the U.S. Founded in New York in 1898, Worksman has outlasted the demise of American cycle manufacturing by focusing on a niche category: heavy duty tri

Steeped in History

May 9th, 2017 15m 33s

Nom Wah Tea Parlor is New York Chinatown's oldest dim sum restaurant. For decades, it served Cantonese dumplings and rolls in the traditional way, from trolleys pushed around the restaurant. When Wilson Tang took over Nom Wah in 2011, he switch

Make It Rain

Apr 25th, 2017 14m 9s

Matt Stock is a business owner who loves marketing and has embraced the unglamorous job of selling a pretty mundane service: basement waterproofing. He's tried everything from Yellow Pages to billboards to Internet advertising at U.S. Waterproo

You Butter Believe It!

Apr 11th, 2017 13m 55s

Every year in the weeks leading up to Easter, the four-person staff at Danish Maid Butter Co. starts counting sheep. The Chicago company has made lamb-shaped butter for more than 50 years, moving from wooden molds dropped in cans of ice water t

Jungle Jim, I Presume?

Mar 28th, 2017 14m 29s

In an industry known for selling commodities at low margins, Jungle Jim's International Market in suburban Cincinnati, Ohio is something else entirely. It's a super-sized grocery store that's also a tourist attraction with animatronic character

The Richest Man In Town

Mar 14th, 2017 14m 15s

Cullinan's Stadium Club and Beverly Records sit next door to each other in the Chicago neighborhood of Morgan Park. The owners of the two businesses have been friendly since Dan Cullinan opened his bar and grill in 1989. But even Dan couldn't i

All the Art That's Fit to Print

Feb 28th, 2017 15m 22s

In 1989, Deborah Maris Lader had recently moved to Chicago and was looking for a studio where she could make prints and meet other artists. She couldn't find a place like that, so she opened her own: the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative. Debor

Solo Act

Feb 14th, 2017 15m 22s

Bruce Roper never planned to start a business. As a teenager, he wanted to be a Beatle. As an adult, he moved to Chicago after a brief stint running a music store and began fixing guitars. Over the next quarter century, Bruce built up a modest

Diamonds Are Forever

Jan 31st, 2017 16m 3s

Jewelry tells a story. For Kathy, the owner of a 90-year-old jewelry store in Berwyn, Illinois, every piece of her jewelry adds up to a larger, richer history about the business that she joined as a 16-year-old part-time employee and ended up r

Neighborhood Fixture

Jan 17th, 2017 13m 50s

The neighborhood appliance store is all but gone from the American retail landscape. But on Chicago's north side, Cole's Appliance and Furniture Co. has been selling refrigerators and sofas from the same corner since 1946. The Krasney family, w

Bonus

(rerun) - If These Cubicle Walls Could Talk

Jan 3rd, 2017 16m 35s

The modern office has gone from private offices to cubicles, and from cube farms to more open spaces with lower partitions. All those changes have been good business for Office Furniture Resources, which is marking 25 years of buying and resell

Bonus

(rerun) - Homestead for the Holidays

Dec 20th, 2016 16m 34s

The Richardson family arrived in Spring Grove, Illinois in 1840, when brothers Robert and Frank each claimed 80 acres of farmland that had become available for homesteading. Successive generations of Richardsons tried their hand at cash crops,

Clothes Call

Dec 6th, 2016 14m 54s

When the Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series, Jim Piko Jr. wasn't just thrilled as a longtime fan of the team. Marathon Sportswear, the screen printing company his father started in the family garage in 1980, began printing tens of thousands

Bonus

Help Wanted

Nov 29th, 2016 4m 22s

In 2009, as Chicago manufacturer Wiegel Tool Works was emerging from the recession and wanting to hire again, company president Aaron Wiegel noticed that his job ads for tool and die makers were going unfilled for months. That realization led t

Test of Metal

Nov 22nd, 2016 13m 26s

Otto Wiegel founded Wiegel Tool Works the day before the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. This year, his three grandchildren mark the manufacturing company's 75th anniversary. The family business, which specializes in precision metal stamping,

Bonus

Party Foul

Nov 15th, 2016 4m

The products that AR-EN Party Printers makes—customized items like gift tags and coasters—are a luxury and not a necessity, but that doesn't make them any less important to the company's customers. AR-EN can't afford to misprint a couple's mono

Party in the Front, Business in the Back

Nov 8th, 2016 16m 40s

When Gary Morrison's mother and her best friend got into the foil-stamped napkin business in 1979, the two women were just looking for a side project that would make them some extra money. Decades later, Gary is running AR-EN Party Printers, a

Bonus

Cremains To Be Seen

Nov 1st, 2016 8m 25s

From seagrass caskets to biodegradable urns designed for water burials, there is a growing number of options when it comes to burying the dead. In this mini episode, Claudette Zarzycki of Zarzycki Manor Chapels, a 101-year-old funeral home, tal

Home is Where the Hearse Is

Oct 25th, 2016 15m 36s

Four generations of the Zarzycki family have lived behind or above their funeral home, starting with founder Agnes Zarzycki, the first woman funeral director of Polish descent in Chicago. Today, 101-year-old Zarzycki Manor Chapels is still run