Trained for Battle, Now Operating a Small Business

In November 2004, during Justin Bajema’s second tour of duty in Iraq, his LAV-25 infantry fighting vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device. Surrounded by heavy machine-gun fire, he was pinned under 28,000 pounds in a drained canal for 40 minutes. “It threw my vehicle in the air like a toy,” he recalled. “I almost lost my leg, almost bled out and died.

Back from Iraq, Justin Bajema started a property leasing business in Grand Rapids, Mich. 

 ”Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times

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Entrepreneurs find office alternatives to coffee shops

CULVER CITY, Calif. — Alissa White runs a small dot-com, Matcha Source, from her house that imports Japanese tea, but sometimes the noise from nearby gardeners drives her batty.

That's why she began working from a new shared work space called NextSpace, whose opening aims at small businesses and those tired of meeting at a Starbucks. NextSpace this week opened its Los Angeles location. Customers can rent a desk, an office or a conference room.

"It's like a library for people with smartphones and laptops," White says. "Coffee shops are too rowdy and there's too much activity, but coming here there's a real working mind-set."

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'Made in America': Nordic Ware's Success Is a Piece of Cake

As part of ABC's "Made in America: All-Stars" series, we traveled to Minneapolis, where the factory is seeing green far beyond the freshly painted green Bundt pans rapidly coming down the conveyor belt.

In this tough economy, Americans are staying home and eating in more. Thanks to that, Nordic Ware's sales are up 30 percent from last year. The company has added to its staff for five years straight. In the past six months, Nordic Ware has hired 21 people.

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