Articles

Celebrating Business Resources

Jana M. Kemp

The Idaho Small Business Development Center has just celebrated its 20th anniversary of providing services and consulting. As a part of the celebration event, six businesses from around the state were honored for their business growth and achievements. From Post Falls, Gary and Jill Trefz were honored for their work with the elderly and the services provided in their 14-bed assisted living facility called Living Sprints. Peggy Foster’s childhood dream has come true, she owns Headmasters School of Hair Design in Lewiston and was recognized for successfully living her dream.

From here in the Treasure Valley area, Slone Fencing was honored for their growth, solid service delivery over a 25 year period. The four Sloan brothers operate the firm and have helped it grow from 3 to 30 employees and from $25,000 in sales to over $4 million. Another growing company is Powerhouse Coach which originated when Doug Tolbert couldn’t find the recreational motor home that he wanted and so he designed his own. When others saw his first “coach” in 1998 others starting wanting their own and so Doug’s company was born.

Each of the companies recognized credited their successful business growth to the Idaho Small Business Development Center’s help. The State Office is in Boise and serves Region III. Call 208-426-3875 or visit www.idahosbdc.org to explore the resources available to help your business grow.

Another resource to celebrate is the Idaho Association of Soil Conservation Districts. Idaho has a great resource in Wayne Newbill, the OnePlan Coordinator for the state. OnePlan is an online tool that includes GIS maps of your farm/ranch and access to soils and climatic data. OnePlan has technical information and guides for conservation practices, links to resources such as pesticide information. Idaho OnePlan helps you plan your own conservation practices on a field-by-field basis. It provides a review of federal and state guidelines that impact your farm or ranch. For more information, call 208-338-4321 or visit www.oneplan.org.

Building on the column of two weeks ago, here’s a quote for Action. “Procedures are not Punishment,” Dr. Susan Williamson, Principal of Taft Elementary School. What it means is that putting systems and procedures in place helps students, and adults, achieve their best selves and their best abilities.

Action Item: Find one new resource this week that can help you or your business gain new skills and insights for action. Write down one procedure that your business is using to be successful and keep doing it well.
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Reprint Permission: The author is willing to grant reprint permissions. Please contact Jana Kemp: jana@janakemp.com or call 208-367-1701.