PROGRESS EDITION 2020 W E D N E S D AY, S E PT E M B E R 9, 2 0 2 0
CHARTING PROGRESS THROUGH ROUGH WATER
2020 challenges business unlike any other year in modern history Renee Richardson Managing Editor In a year when challenges lined up like relentless waves on a rocky beach, businesses had to do what they’ve always done — adapt, evolve, innovate — but this time at an extraordinary speed and scale. At the start of the year, 2020 was just a new number on the calendar. But before spring officially began, normal day-to-day life would be over around the globe. It may take going back to World War II to find such an all encompassing event extending over a long period of time with an uncertain outcome. For businesses, revenue streams were severely altered or ended altogether as though with the flick of a light switch. In the ensuing weeks, ingenuity, creativity and adaptability would be paramount as companies had to rethink everything about their operations and how they could reach customers in the new reality of the coronavirus pandemic. For Poncho and Lefty’s
restaurant owner Rich Proctor, the challenges the business would face in just two months weren’t conceivable as 2020 rolled into its first cold month of winter. In a lakes area economy — fueled in large part by a seasonal and summer influx and spending by part-time residents, visitors and vacationers — the summer months provide the year’s sustaining revenue, while winter is a time for businesses to hold their own. After a long winter, a spring thaw signals more than warming temperatures, it heralds healthier revenues are just ahead. That annual pattern ended in 2020. For Proctor, who owns multiple restaurants and has been in the industry for 30 years, this challenge was far greater than anything the long-lasting Great Recession had to offer. “This is way worse than that,” he said. “This was like slamming on the brakes.” Business for many retail establishments, restau-
rants, fitness centers, entertainment venues ended abruptly. Some hair stylists were in the middle of a customer’s cut when they learned the governor’s emergency executive order closed them down. One restaurant owner likened it to taking a punch. Others thought it would last a couple of weeks and things would return to normal. More than six months later, when Zoom has become a household name and Zooming a new verb, normal may still be a long ways away and not everyone thinks normal is coming back. “I’ve been in the restaurant business for 30 years now and I would have never guessed something like this would have happened,” Proctor said of the pandemic.
Being nimble, finding opportunities
history of working with companies in Asia. Zernov operates his Dragon Hunter business in Brainerd. For the past 12 years he’s worked mainly to design and source products coming out of China. Two years ago he started moving most of his business from China to Vietnam. In January, one of the main garment companies he works with said they started a production line of face masks. “And I really didn’t have a need for that,” Zernov said. “And then a month later, I had a customer in the United States ask me if I have a source for face masks. So you know, we put together a new supply chain and we’ve imported about 2 million KN95 masks.” Zernov just filed a patent for a consumer face mask that includes a breathing tube to sell in the
U.S. Face masks are something Zernov sees as being around for many years. Redirecting, refocusing and being nimble are keys in this challenging time, he said. For Zernov, it’s also about not having a “Woe is me” attitude but looking at diversity as an opportunity. Zernov has been working with medical products for more than 30 years going back to his Zercom Corp. There he manufactured
Gallery & Video BD Photo brainerddispatch.com
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Entrepreneur Jeff Zernov, Renee Richardson / Brainerd Dispatch inventor of the Aqua-Vu underwater fishing cam- Jeff Zernov, inventor, entrepreneur and multiple-business owner in Brainerd, imported era, has started multiple millions of face masks at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and now has patent companies and has a long on his own KN95 face masks with color and a breathing tube.
A YEAR LIKE NO OTHER 2020 may go down in the history books as being the year the world stopped. To say it’s been challenging for everyone is an understatement. To say it’s been challenging for the business community, doesn’t really touch the surface. For many businesses, it’s an ongoing struggle to survive. Expectations for any return to a semblance of what was normal may be hanging on a vaccine for COVID-19. January started out simply enough with anticipation for all of what an election year can bring for a divided nation. Businesses were working through a milder winter than the previous year,
which produced 40 degree below zero temperatures. Life continued in a steady, predictable pattern, albeit with common concerns for a possible recession in the new year. In January, an article in Forbes listed a 20% chance for recession in 2020. That was long before a pandemic took hold. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported between Jan. 21 through Feb. 23, 2020, public health agencies detected 14 U.S. cases of coronavirus disease 2019, now known by one and all as COVID-19, all related to travel from China. The CDC reported the first confirmed case in the United States that wasn’t travel
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related came on Feb. 26 in a California resident who became ill Feb. 13. Two days later, Feb. 28, a second non-travel case was confirmed in Washington state. By August, the pandemic had killed 162,000 Americans with as many as 1,000 per day adding to that statistic. But that is skipping ahead. It was still March when the world changed. On March 11, the World Health Organization characterized the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. At the time, the WHO listed more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries and 4,291 deaths, adding thousands more people were fighting
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Overview of a year like no other.................................................................................. H1 Downtown Brainerd welcomes new faces................................................................... H2 Biking boom builds........................................................................................................ H3 Wine and cats — a trip to Scandia Valley Vineyards .............................................. H11 Working from home, challenges and benefits.......................................................... H12 Awnings to boat covers and more at Canvas Tech.................................................. H13 Inventive, irreverent and flourishing: Zaiser’s in Nisswa ...................................... H21 What’s for dinner? Meat markets feed increased demand..................................... H22
Kelly Humphrey / Brainerd Dispatch
PleasureLand RV has a sign along Highway 371 announcing, "We Sell Toilet Paper and RVs" as seen April 2.
Catering cascade: Chef Mike delivers ...................................................................... H23 Ownership shift at Positive Realty builds on tradition............................................ H26 Cragun’s Resort reaches milestone............................................................................ H31 Grateful for the outdoors, fishing guides hook into summer surge..................... H31 Holst Acres blossoms as year-round event center................................................... H33 Hiring: Blackline Conversions among those adding employees............................ H35 For companion videos and photo galleries to go with the stories profiled in the annual Progress Labor Day edition go to the Dispatch homepage www.brainerddispatch.com where readers, viewers and listeners will find links to videos, photos and the Dispatch podcast — DispatchCast.