Cascade Business News has initiated a new column in this issue called Central Oregon RESET whereby we will tell the stories of local businesses that have survived and are thriving during particularly challenging economic times. By PAMELA HULSE ANDREWS
Steve Curley, the economic gardening business advisor for the Small Business Development Center at COCC and founder of Blue Space Markets, will be coordinating this column where business owners share their stories on how they have reinvented their operations and what changes helped them to be successful.
In this first column (see CBN issue July 18, 2012) we profile an engineering firm, Hickman Williams & Associates, that is not only celebrating 25 years in Central Oregon but shares how they have been able to making changes in their organization despite downsizing staff by nearly forty percent.
The other RESET column comes from Kelly Walker of Intrepid who talks about his journey over the turbulent waters of a tempestuous economy to new marketing frontiers. He explains that they have learned to offset leaner budgets with intense creativity and resourcefulness that use a down economy to his clients’ advantage.
Nearly every single entity in Central Oregon has had to made difficult decisions during the recession in order to stay in business from laying off employees, delaying equipment purchases and working longer hours to drastically reining in expenses. Some of the largest companies in the region have filed bankruptcy in some form or another in order to survive. Many haven’t survived at all and their doors are now closed for good.
But the good news is that lots have survived and are here to tell their story and the decisions they made to keep their companies afloat.
The scale and the efficiency of these strategies is something we can all learn by. Every company strives to be innovative and during these times innovation has taken on a whole new meaning. How do you grow and explore new ideas while just making ends meet? Savvy business leaders have learned how to combine existing concepts differently and remain competitive and efficient.
As a publishing company we know first hand what the economy can do to a family-owned business. We struggled with the decision to layoff employees (the worst thing we had to do). We found that we could each do several jobs by working more hours and we learned to manage with less income. At times it wasn’t pretty, but if there was one caveat, we knew we were not alone as every day someone shared the same narrative.
So soon you will read some of these stories in print. Many lives have been changed and numerous people have basically reset their lifestyles. Creating a mindset that helps you realign the culture of your company will be the reward that drives future growth.
What are you doing to transform your business culture, your staffing requirements, your innovative ideas with no money to fund them? How have you reset your priorities?
Let us know if we can help tell your story.
If you would like to share your story please contact me directly at pamela@cacadebusnews.com or Steve Curley at steve@bluespacemarkets.com.
