Anyone running a store knows that there is a lot more to it than selling merchandise stocked on shelves. Just to operate day to day, business owners have to buy pens, toner and paper clips. They need coffee cups for the break room, toilet paper for the bathrooms and tape for the cash registers. Some businesses need uniforms and janitorial services.

Beanie Babies. Cabbage Patch Kids. Tickle Me Elmo. The names may conjure up visions of people standing in line, begging and cajoling sales clerks in the hopes of getting their hands on one of these hard-to-find treasures. “There is a certain portion of the population that likes to have what other people can’t have,“ says Stu Neal, president of GearMax USA Ltd., a Hanover County-based maker of backpacks and bags.

Whoever came up with the concept of the RSVP didn’t account for the people who lose their mail and are so busy they don’t know what’s going on from day to day. Let alone months in advance. While there are self-help books to get these peoples’ lives in order, there’s not much relief for the person who needs a head count for an event. Casey Burke is trying to broker a peace between the two.

There are certain things in life you don’t expect to see—Red Sox and Yankees fans celebrating together; dogs and cats frolicking in the sun; auto repair shops and antique dealers sharing space. Once in a while, though, you get surprised, like when chocolate and peanut butter joined forces. Another unexpected mishmash is happening on U.S. 60 in Powhatan County.

Peter Kaufman and Heidi Workman decided not to head to St. Louis when Wachovia Securities started moving its offices there this year. Instead, the two decided to leave Wachovia’s marketing department and start The Hoople Group, an advertising agency aimed at financial advisers. It opened in late July, a week before Kaufman’s wife had a baby.

As fun as it might seem to some, the life of an accountant isn’t the most exciting. At least that’s what Connie Johnson thinks. Johnson, left the accounting profession this year and now owns The Pink Pig Boutique in Richmond’s Fan District. “I wanted to do something that was fun after too many tax seasons,“ she said. At 425 Strawberry St., two doors down from Strawberry Street Café, the Pink Pig is a gift shop and a furniture reseller. The space previously housed The Black Rabbit.