How does a family company that started in 1950 keep pace with changes in its industry and adapt the way it does business to serve a nationwide market? Ask Neal Magaziner and Stephen Polin, who today run Hughes Enterprises, the company their uncle and founder Max Polin started more than five decades ago. Hughes Enterprises is a wholesale supplier of packaging materials, equipment and systems to businesses across the country. That wasn’t always the case, though. Before the firm adopted new technologies, they were more limited in their ability to reach distant clients.

It is no secret that franchise operations can be a very expensive proposition for the franchisee; it can be hard to decide if the benefits outweigh the costs. Still, many consumers are most comfortable in the world of brand names and they make their purchasing decisions based on branding alone. So what can a small, independent hotel operator do to attract guests without breaking the bank? Tom Magnuson, founder and chief executive officer of Magnuson Hotels, Inc.

The anime industry is not one that traditionally relies on a slick web presence to attract hits and make its point with fans. In fact, a quick web survey turns up a huge collection of very basic, static sites. Infinity Studios, an American company that publishes anime, wanted to break out of that mold and offer customers a more engaging online experience.

It is all too common for modern couples to have a hard time making time for each other and their relationships, so Paul and Debbie Lamb are using technology to provide a new way to help couples reconnect. They founded Lambs on Love, Inc., the company that launched Be A Better Partner online.

You might wonder how a refrigerator repair business would be linked to the world of high tech. The relationship is no mystery to John Jowers, creator and operator of AntiqueAppliances.com. A line of work that started almost as a lark grew so quickly by word of mouth in his local area that Jowers realized he had a winner and sought some way to go national with it. High tech was his answer.

The business of insurance has a long history – for many years, businesses have paid a premium to ensure they won’t be wiped out in the event of a property loss. Naturally, the party providing insurance does not want to pay out more than they must, so they avoid unnecessarily risky propositions and we tend to think of the industry as being pretty conservative. Today, one successful insurance man has embraced technology to reach out to other entrepreneurs who make their livelihood with technology and help them meet their insurance needs.

A number of Lextech team members will be attending the San Francisco iPhoneDevCamp event and the Chicago satelite gathering this weekend. Our goal for the event is to continue building knowledge of the iPhone platform, meet some great people and have an app or two we can release to the world when it’s all wrapped up.

We’re proud to say that Lextech Labs (our sister company) has submitted the release version of the iRa video surveillance control system for the iPhone and iPod touch to Apple for inclusion in the App Store so it will be available soon.

For more details on iRa check out the Lextech Labs site at lextechlabs.com/ira.

Tech-savvy startups have the potential for rapid growth with relatively little investment of capital or labor. Identifying a niche market to focus on rather than a broad “everyone is a prospect” approach and applying that technology to address it can yield serious revenue rewards.

Continuing the now annual tradition we started last year, a group of us enjoyed the early morning air and rain sprinkles to stake out our spot in the iPhone line insanity of last week (granted last year was a bit more intense with much more time in line). Our spots started at 46th in line and that worked out to score us the initial batch of phones we needed to continue our development and testing of iPhone related technologies, especially over 3G.