We have another business-related movie we'd like to chat about...this time, it's 2011's Margin Call starring an all-star cast. You can see details on the film here.

First off, what is a "Margin Call?" According to Investopedia, a Margin Call is:

A margin call occurs when the value of an investor's margin account falls below the broker's required amount. An investor's margin account contains securities bought with borrowed money (typically a combination of the investor's own money and money borrowed from the investor's broker). A margin call refers specifically to a broker's demand that an investor deposit additional money or securities into the account so that it is brought up to the minimum value, known as the maintenance margin.

Amazing performances from a cast of Academy Award winners and nominees, this film is a slow burning cerebral look inside the world of Wall Street.

What did we think? Listen and find out.

Centered on Business is a production of the Miller Business Center at Middle Country Public Library, an initiative of the Middle Country Library Foundation. For more information, visit our website at http://millerbusinesscenter.org

Sorry we are a week late to posting an episode, but we have big news... we are all back at the Miller Center! Now, while currently we are not taking visitors from the public we are here getting ready for just that...so it's been a little busy. When we were discussing what to talk about on this week's podcast, Elizabeth had the idea to talk about...podcasts! Elizabeth is a HUGE podcast fan and listener (she subscribes to over 50 podcasts! Wow!) Alex is right behind her as well. We all love listening to podcasts and we all have our favorites. This week, we bring just a few out to share them with you. But, if you want to subscribe to these and check them out for yourself, here is a list of both what we chatted about...and some we didn't mention.

Business Wars Daily

Business Wars

The Dream

The Indicator

Brought to You By… (formerly Household Name)

How I Built This

Smart Passive Income

Have a favorite business podcast? Let us know in the comments section!

Centered on Business is a production of the Miller Business Center at Middle Country Public Library, an initiative of the Middle Country Library Foundation. For more information, visit our website at http://millerbusinesscenter.org

Have you heard of Statista? No, it's not a new miracle drug or a sugar substitute. It's one of the many useful resources we utilize here at the Miller Business Center.

Believe it or not, there's a good chance you've already been exposed to Statista's wealth of information. Major news organizations, pharmaceutical companies, small business owners, social networking companies, entertainment conglomerates...all use Statista to gather data about...well, about you...among other things.

Companies use data compiled by Statista from over 22,000 sources to create marketing plans, design new products or services, improve existing brands, and more. In 2019, more than 135,000 media articles sited Statista as their data source. And speaking of sources, Statista has their own team of analysts, so almost half of the data they compile is in house.

We love Statista here at the Miller Center, and it's a great tool to assist our members...so how about we have a little fun on today's episode...let's do Statista Trivia with Elizabeth and Alex! Sal has compiled 30 questions based on information mined from Statista's huge database. Play along if you like and let's see who will be triumphant!

If you would like to browse the Statista database, check them out at http://www.statista.com.

If there is something you'd like to download, please contact us at [email protected]

While in our first episode we briefly touched on what the Miller Business Center is and what we do, we thought I'd be a good idea to dive a little deeper. So here's something about us and something about what we do. Hopefully after listening to this episode, you'll reach out to us and let us help you build your business.

We discuss a few of our favorite databases...if you already have a Miller Business Center membership, you can access them on our Subscription Database page here: http://www.millerbusinesscenter.org/subscription-databases

The Miller Business Center is an initiative of the Middle Country Library Foundation. The Foundation assists the Library in managing its growing number of regional and national initiatives and maintaining its leadership role in the broader community. The Foundation supports the Library’s ability to introduce exemplary programs and services to other libraries and populations, and to provide the mentoring and training necessary to ensure widespread implementation, including the Miller Business Center.

Please visit the MCL Foundation website for more information. http://www.middlecountrylibraryfoundation.com

Sal had an idea: what if we picked a "business" movie and discussed it? We are all home right now with not much to do, why not watch a movie and chat about it? We had a bunch of ideas, but the one that really stood out for us was the 2000 film, Boiler Room starring Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nia Long, Nicky Katt, and Ben Affleck. 

It's the story of a young college drop-out who is recruited into the dark underbelly of illegal stock trading. 

We chat about how the movie made us feel 20 years ago, what we think of it today, and how to protect yourself from getting scammed.

Boiler Room was directed by Ben Younger and is available wherever you like to rent movie streaming (iTunes, Google, Amazon). 

Do you have a business movie you'd like us to chat about? Let us know.

In times like these, where small businesses must overcome the biggest challenge in our lifetime; where their only source of income has been shut off; where the future is filled with questions of not only when the country will reopen, but how quickly we can return to normalcy, they flock together as they have when times were good, connecting and networking with each other, learning from each other, exchanging information, and together,  continuing to support their local business community. Many do this through their local Chamber of Commerce.

The Encyclopedia Britannica defines a Chamber of Commerce as:

“any of various voluntary organizations of business firms, public officials, professional people, and public-spirited citizens. They are primarily interested in publicizing, promoting, and developing commercial and industrial opportunities in their areas; they also seek to improve community schools, streets, housing, public works, fire and police protection, parks, playgrounds, and recreational and tourist facilities.” 

One thing that pops out from that definition is "public-spirited citizens."

Here on central long island where the miller business center is based, we are fortunate to have a number of local business owners who match that description. And one of them who truly represents this, in not only spirit, but drive and commitment to making the community better, supporting local business owners, and facilitating business networking to bring small businesses   success, is the newly elected president of the Greater Middle Country Chamber of Commerce, Lenore Paprocky…and she has plans.

Join us for a discussion on the concerns of small business owners in the time of coronavirus, the importance of networking, and the future of the Middle Country Chamber of Commerce. 

Lenore Paprocky is the president of the Greater Middle Country Chamber of Commerce and the Director of Business Development for Synergy Wealth Strategies in Smithtown, NY.

To find out the benefits of being a member of the chamber of commerce, see a member directory and learn of upcoming events, visit their website at http://middlecountrychamber.com

Centered on Business is a production of the Miller Business Center at Middle Country Public Library, an initiative of the Middle Country Library Foundation. For more information, visit our website at http://millerbusinesscenter.org

We had a whole other plan for the first episode of Centered on Business...then things changed. But we've adapted and come up with something for our first episode that we think you'll enjoy.

The Miller Business Center is a regional business center on Long Island whose mission is to support local businesses, entrepreneurs, non-profits, job seekers, and more...and we do this in several ways. As part of the Middle Country Public Library, research is an important aspect of what we do. We have a wide variety of business resources that can help find data for business or marketing plans, gather competitive intelligence, and even find potential customers. 

The Miller Business Center also offers educational programs based on the needs of the business community. The topics of these programs range from social media to branding to Excel to web design. And each program starts with time for attendees to network with each other. Through experience we know that meeting new people and networking with other professionals is a great way to spread the word about you and your business. Networking before programs is just one way we help the community to do this.

We also offer two trade shows a year: Strictly Business is a business-to-business event which features over 90 local business and over 800 attendees. We feature more than 80 Long Island women entrepreneurs at the Women's EXPO every fall welcoming more than 2,500 attendees to shop their beautiful products.

We encourage you to reach out if you would like to learn more about what we do for Long Island business. Visit our website at www.millerbusinesscenter.org!

For this episode, we remotely recorded our first business book discussion highlighting the best-seller, The Energy Bus by Jon Gordon. We hope you enjoy the talk!

Elizabeth Malafi is the Coordinator of the Miller Business Center. Alex Blend and Sal DiVincenzo are Business Librarians at the Center.

The Miller Business Center is an initiative of the Middle Country Library Foundation.