Feel the Beat: Central Oregon Business Pulse

A pleasure jaunt with my boyfriend and the mutual friend who introduced us led me to Bend yesterday ~ one of my favorite destinations in Oregon.

While the men were doing "men things," my dog and I hiked through Shevlin Park*, shopped in the Old Mill District, and trolled around Wall and Bond Streets downtown. With some hot cocoa at Thump Coffee, I picked up a copy of Cascade Business News and rested my feet for a bit in the pre-autumn afternoon chill.

I've been saturating myself with the business resources available here in Portland (The Portland Business Journal, Oregon Business, Oregon Entrepreneurs Network). To have a glimpse into the world of small business in Bend ~ a rapidly growing small-town-cum-small-city ~ was a treat worth sharing.

What I liked the most about the array of articles in CBN was how practically helpful for small businesses they are. In addition to the expected business profiles and plentiful columns of business announcements and "Who's Who" updates, CBN included several short articles with hands-on information that can help every small business owner.

In "Exit Planning: How to Make the Business More Valuable," for instance, Bruce Juhola explains how to retain or attract a management team for your business that will help fetch you the premium price you want when you sell.

In another brief but useful article, Jim Kress, who teaches marketing at Central Oregon Community College, writes about the "ingredients" for small business marketing plans.

Both articles indicate they are parts of a larger series of articles about business valuation and marketing, true nuts-and-bolts information that every business owner needs. (Sorry, neither article was available online.)

Editorial, community involvement articles, and legislative updates also round out CBN, presenting an integrated perspective of how government, media, and social services intersect with businesses. I applaud the newspaper's refreshing effort at highlighting the community's influence on business ~ and vice-versa.

Wherever you are, I think you'll find a visit to CBN's web site ~ and their "Business Tips" section ~ a useful way to spend a cup of hot cocoa, too.

* To give credit where credit is due, I grabbed the photo of Shevlin Park from a housing development's web site.