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WHEN Jiwon Chong graduated from UCLA, he decided to start a business to pay for law school.

He is now running his fourth business at age 29, and he’s given up his legal ambitions because he enjoys being his own boss.

He and his high school sweetheart, Leila Lee, have an exclusive deal to run Southern California franchises of Japanese-based Dashing Diva nail salons. The company has several East Coast franchises, but Chong and Lee made the company’s debut on the West Coast with their Pasadena shop.

Chong had long watched the Asian stronghold on the value-priced nail salons, but wanted something a step up. His business sells manicures and pedicures for $40 to $60 with a three-day, no-chip guarantee. That’s more than the $20 places that dot the L.A. area but less posh than the four-star hotel spas which charge $150 and more for the combined treatment.

He found Dashing Diva online one night in late 2005, completed his application at midnight, and had an e-mail from corporate headquarters by the time he awoke. Two weeks later, he and Lee were flying to New York for meetings with Dashing Diva executives.

The Old Town Pasadena location opened last November, and was profitable by the end of March. They’re already plotting the next location, but they’re starting to think smaller, to keep a tight hold on things.

“This salon was such a labor of love,” said Lee, whose mother sewed the pillows for the pedicure seating location. “We’ve been very hands on, and we want to do that in the future.”

The shop is designed to promote camaraderie and conversation among patrons with a circular pedicure area, but there’s a secluded VIP room where clients can watch movies on flat screen monitors. There’s a menu of green and black Asian teas and free mocktails (fruity cocktails sans alcohol) on Wednesday and Thursday nights with a manicure or pedicure.

Starting a business was not a new experience for Chong. After school, be sold Korean Razor scooters to Americans and American snowboards to Koreans. They were firsts in both countries.

Then he bought a Cold Stone Creamery license and he said his Calabasas location became the franchise’s fourth-highest grossing. After that, he got caught up in a magazine idea with his brother. They have published several issues of the resulting Fugue, geared at young professionals, and are now exploring deals with major publishers interested in taking over the title.

Finding the money to start Dashing Divas wasn’t the biggest problem. Understanding the staff has been.

Chong and Lee have a 90 percent Vietnamese staff. Both grew up in Korean families, although Lee lived in Brazil until age 12.

“We spent so much time just focusing on the customers,” Lee said. “But we also have to understand the staff and their culture.”

Although they currently have 10 employees, Chong said they’re understaffed and they’d like to make that number at least 15, if not 20 in the near future.

Both say they now can’t imagine working for someone else, and they plan to open more locations.

BRUSSELS, Belgium — De Post-La Poste, the national postal company of Belgium, and Oxygen, an Italian manufacturer of light electric vehicles, have signed a two-year contract for the supply of electric scooters. The first set of 50 Oxygen scooters will be tested by the Belgian post operator over the next six months, after which La Poste will decide on the further integration of the “Postscooter” within the La Poste fleet.

The Postscooter will enable the fleet of La Poste to deliver mail door-to-door on a daily basis (currently about a 5,000-scooter fleet). E[acute accent]The European bid was awarded to Oxygen after testing the scooters in a rigorous working environment. The “Postscooter” has been specifically designed to perform heavy duties and to make frequent stops. The scooters can perform the same tasks as traditional scooters without polluting the environment or making noise and at considerable cost savings over fuel. In addition to the environmental and cost benefits the scooter requires minimal maintenance. The Oxygen scooters offer a comfortable ride and excellent handling, a cargo box that can be custom designed to store a variety of commodities, such as parcels, and travel a range of up to 150 kilometers (approximately 100 miles). E[acute accent]The Oxygen scooters are the only electric scooters in the market featuring the latest technologies, such as Valence Technology’s (Nasdaq:VLNC) Saphion(R) Lithium-Ion rechargeable batteries, brushless motor, electronic engine control and regenerative braking system to recharge the battery. Oxygen’s technology is leading the postal industry effort to reduce pollution and global warming. Other European postal companies are in the process of purchasing or testing the Oxygen Postscooter. E[acute accent]”Selecting Oxygen as our electric scooter for our mail delivery is consistent with the commitment of De Post-La Poste to reduce pollution emissions and to respect the community,” said Johnny Thijs, CEO of De Post-La Poste. E[acute accent]”We are excited and proud to become a strategic partner of De Post-La Poste which is demonstrating to be an innovator and a market leader,” said Michele Hausmann, co-Founder and President of Oxygen S.p.A. “Going forward, postal and parcel delivery companies, police organizations and food delivery chains will enjoy an efficient, cost-effective, silent, safe and green transportation solution that requires minimal maintenance.” E[acute accent]”Oxygen electric-powered Postscooters offer benefits to both the bottom and the top-line of postal and courier delivery service companies helping our clients save money, increase their revenues and improve their corporate image,” said Tommaso Stefani, Vice-President of Oxygen S.p.A. “In fact, by using a fleet of electric scooters, delivery companies can save up to 90 percent of energy costs, minimize maintenance expenses and optimize their efficiency rates, while enjoying faster delivery, higher productivity and driver safety. These benefits also have a positive impact on a company’s corporate image and corporate social responsibility rating.”

A modified hybrid vehicle recently broke the 100-miles-per-gallon barrier in the 2005 National Tour de Sol held in Albany, N.Y., while a student team from West Philadelphia (Pa.) High School took top honors with its purpose-built hybrid vehicle, which uses biodiesel instead of gasoline and produces 77% less climate-change emissions compared to a conventional gas car.

During this 17th annual sustainable-energy and transportation festival and competition, over 60 hybrid, electric, and biofueled vehicles from throughout the United States and Canada demonstrated that the technology exists to power transportation systems with zero oil consumption and climate-change emissions. Each vehicle showed new ways to reduce dependence on foreign oil while reducing harmful pollutants.

The E-Bike and NEV Competition attracted over a dozen vehicles, ranging from recumbent electric tricycles to stand-up scooters, electric bicycles, and bur-wheeled/four-passenger NEVs (neighborhood electric vehicles). All run on electricity and are designed to meet the need for local “around town” trips. OptiBike of Boulder, Colo., took first place with a pedal-assisted electric bicycle.

Strong sales in most hard-lines categories, led by large gains in the home improvement market, buoyed up this retailing segment last year for both broadliners and specialists with the sole exception of toys, a category that continued its pattern of sales decline.

While consumers weren’t spending as much on toys, they did shell out more money for discretionary items such as sports apparel, automotive accessories, tools and paint. In home improvement, all do-it-yourself categories experienced growth while the sporting goods sector reversed last year’s flat sales to show its strongest improvement since 1997.

Hardware categories were standout performers once again, with most of the spoils enjoyed by specialists The Home Depot, Lowe’s and Menards. But mass retailers including Wal-Mart, Sears. Target and Costco also benefited from the public’s fix-up fascination, reporting strong growth in categories such as outdoor living, power tools and paint.

Except for Sears, sales gains for the top five home improvement volume retailers were all up by double digits, with the largest gain reported by Lowe’s at nearly 18%. In Sears’ case, while tools and outdoor power equipment were strong segments, weaker hardware categories had been scaled back in recent years, impacting sales. In addition. Kmart’s ongoing sales declines affected total home improvement revenue for the new Sears.

Revenue growth for the home centers came from both store expansion and comparable-store sales gains. Meanwhile, the specialists continue to test new formats, territories and services to grow their share of the larger worldwide home improvement retailing market. Experimentation with urban formats was one trend this past year, with Home Depot opening stores in Manhattan with unique assortments targeting specific neighborhoods and Menards opening its first two-level urban format store in St. Paul, Minn.

In automotives, a modest growth rate of 5.2% in do-it-yourself categories and tires followed a predictable pattern. A growing pool of older vehicles is starting to benefit retailers, with these cars requiring more maintenance after seven years. Sales performance of the specialists was inconsistent, however, with CSK Automotive reporting a decline and gains ranging from 3.3% at AutoZone to nearly 14% for O’Reilly Automotive.

Hot trends in automotives this past year related mainly to growth of impulse discretionary categories such as performance parts, truck accessories and products for vehicle personalization. Many of the specialists were successful at expanding beyond the traditional auto categories this past year by testing new product segments such as scooters, workshop tools and vehicle entertainment products such as on-board DVD players.

Toys, meanwhile, stayed mired in a prolonged slump in 2004. with sales falling 3% to $20.1 billion compared to $20.7 billion in 2003. And while everyone has been hoping for a rebound, industry experts aren’t expecting much of a bounce in 2005.

“I wish I could say that sales will improve this year but it doesn’t look that way so far.” said Reyne Rice. toy trend specialist for the Toy Industry Association. “But action figures based on movies should drive sales during the summer and there are other categories that should be strong this fall.”

Retailers are optimistic that sales of “Star Wars” toys will generate improved second-quarter sales that will carry through the summer and into the fall. By then, Rice said retailers can expect a flood of strong product in several categories, including preschool electronic toys, special-feature plush dolls and role-play games and toys.

On the retail side, Wal-Mart retained its runaway lead with about 25% of the market followed by Toys “R” Us and Target. Toys “R” Us will probably drop into the No. 3 position after it closes some of its 680 U.S. toy stores following its $6.6 billion sale to a group of investors led by Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co., a deal that should be complete by August.

“Toys “R” Us and Target could switch positions by this time next year, depending on how many stores Toys “R” Us closes,” said Sean McGowan, an analyst with Harris Nesbitt. Nobody is sure at this point how many under-performing stores will be dosed but the estimates have ranged from 50 to 150.

The top five is rounded out by Kmart with about 5% of the market and KB Toys with about 2%. KB now has only 650 stores–half the number it had when it filed for bankruptcy in January 2004–and faces an uncertain future as it plans to emerge from bankruptcy before the holidays.

Exclusives remain a strong trend at retail, with the Big Three retailers vying for exclusive rights to new product, but sharp price cuts seem to be a thing of past. Both Wal-Mart and Target have shown little interest in repeating their 2003 holiday season price war that drove sales but hurt margins.

As opposed to the dismal toy sector, sporting goods enjoyed a revival. Flat for several years, wholesale sales to retailers grew 3.98%, the largest gain for this segment since 1997, according to Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association International, a trade association for the industry.

SGMA reported an improved economy as a factor, especially good news given that participation in most sports and outdoor activities had been stable or in decline for years. Sales of sports apparel grew 5.5%, while fitness equipment noted 4% growth, most of which related to home exercise. Golf, hiking and camping equipment all noted modest sales gains, while tennis product sales grew 7%, reversing a long downward trend in sales.

Performance of the specialists echoed industry sales. Dick’s Sporting Goods noted the largest sales gain, 43.4%, due in part to its acquisition of Galyans in mid-2004. Others with significant double-digit gains included The Sports Authority, Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, Gander Mountain, Modell’s Sporting Goods and Hibbett Sporting Goods, while those reporting single-digit growth were Academy Sports & Outdoors and Big 5 Sporting Goods.

In office supplies, Staples, Office Depot and OfficeMax reported revenue growth of 11.42%, 9.76% and 60.95%, respectively. The large gain at OfficeMax related mainly to its acquisition by Boise Cascade in December 2003, with the company in fact reporting weaker-than-expected retail sales in 2004. In contrast, Staples and Office Depot both reported gains in comps.

Rather than product-related, the biggest news in the office sector this past year has been executive upheaval, with Office Depot earlier naming new ceo Steve Odland and OfficeMax hiring Sam Duncan as its new chief.

GUYS WHO PREFER TWO WHEELS TO FOUR can finally bid farewell to radio envy. Now bikers can hit the road with more than 100 channels of entertainment, thanks to a new satellite radio mount made specifically for motorcycles, scooters and quads. Designed and distributed by Kuryakyn USA, the device allows riders to tune in to Sirius Satellite Radio via an XACT Streamjockey Plug + Play receiver.