Successful Inauguration of the State of Business Breakfast
Tuesday, June 4th, the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce held its first ever State of Business Breakfast sponsored by IEQ Techonology. The more than 130 attendees were joined by three experts in Oregon’s small business ecosystem; Caroline Cummings, Executive Director of Oregon RAIN, Mark Gregory, State Director of Oregon Small Business Development Center (SBDC), and Joshua Lehner, an Economist with the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis.
Caroline Cummings explored several community-based approaches to building a region’s entrepreneurial economy. In addition to her Executive Director role at Oregon RAIN, Caroline is also the Founder of Varo Ventures, a consulting firm who helps businesses and communities launch new initiatives. She shared several success stories from rural communities around the state, with the message that building your entrepreneurship ecosystem is imperative to any city’s economic development strategy.
Mark Gregory discussed the resources available to small businesses through the SBDC and their resource partners. With nearly 60% of businesses in Oregon employing between 1-9 people, providing training and resources is extremely important for them to succeed. Gregory noted that the best small businesses are fueled by passion for a trade, a product, or the community. However, these passionate business owners don’t necessarily have all the marketing, bookkeeping, permitting, or HR skills they need to make their small business successful. That’s where the SBDC comes in. The SBDC has 19 centers in Oregon, providing no-cost advising services in over 45 locations.
Our final speaker, Josh Lehner, presented the State’s economic outlook, touching on jobs, types of jobs, wages, and housing availability in Oregon. According to Lehner, Lane County has seen job growth double, with some sectors well above the U.S. average. Our county has 10 times the amount of timber industry, and a 2.5 times larger beverage sector than the national average. Sectors with low local concentration are professional and technical services, finance, and construction. Trends in housing show that home ownership is rebounding, but Lane County is still well under capacity for the estimated 1,400 units we would need to build each year.
Our speakers gave us a better understanding of what it means to do business in Oregon today. Thank you to IEQ Technology for generously sponsoring our inaugural State of Business Breakfast. IEQ is a local Springfield small business doing big things in a global market.
