The Wall Street Journal
By Angus Loten

Small business lenders are demanding hard assets to back up their loans. How one man risked the family farm -- and won.

"Take Two" is an ongoing series about first-time business owners over 50 by Angus Loten, a small-business reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

Craig Holman is betting the farm on his new business -- literally. After getting laid off from a high-level job in the steel industry, the 58-year-old engineer put up his share of the family farm as collateral for a loan to open an emergency home cleanup service in Columbus, Ohio. "Having the farm on the line has made me pretty focused," says Holman, who launched the business early last year with his wife as a partner. The hardwood tree farm has been in Holman's life for years.

Bloomberg Businessweek
By Karen E. Klein

Keep calm, communicate clearly, and install a system to share resources across business locations, says the founder of an emergency cleanup service

Since Hurricane Irene rampaged up the East Coast last weekend, calls for service have more than doubled at AdvantaClean, the Huntersville, N.C., emergency water removal service Jeff Dudan founded in 1994. The 30-employee business, which Dudan says has revenue of $15 million to $20 million annually, started franchising in 2006 and now has 75 locations in 20 states. Dudan spoke recently with Smart Answers columnist Karen E. Klein about keeping service consistent during weather-related spikes in business. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow.

Fox Business
By Kate Rogers

Small businesses up and down the East Coast were hard-hit by Hurricane Irene last week, leaving them with physical damage and lost revenue. And this week some other small businesses—namely flood cleaning and disaster repair shops— are getting to work helping those entrepreneurs and other families who suffered losses during the hurricane pick up the pieces.

Daily Finance
By Sheryl Nance-Nash

The estimated tab for Hurricane Irene's fury is already in the billions of dollars. If you're among those who have property damage, proceed with caution -- you don't want to get hit again, this time by home repair companies that jack up their prices, do a poor job, or walk away before the work is finished.

The Better Business Bureau is warning Americans about fly-by-night bogus contractors, "storm chasers" and door-to-door salespeople peddling dubious deals that may cost homeowners thousands of dollars and create serious headaches.

NBC 17

The threat of Hurricane Irene comes just about four months after tornadoes devastated parts of North Carolina.

“When the wind started coming and the house started shaking, I mean it was a rather emotional experience, knowing that so much devastation was going on in this area,” said Adam Smith, who lives on Springfield Creek Drive.