Opinion

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The Business Times Contributors THE BUSINESS TIMES December 22, 2022-January 11, 2023JANUARY 15-28, 2015 Opinion Opinion Business BriefsA new year affords Business Peoplea new opportunity to meet local needs Almanac

A new year almost always brings an opportunity for a fresh start and renewed ambition to do things better.

In business, that usually boils down to providing customers better products and services faster and at lower cost than competitors. Part of the process must include listening to customers to determine what they actually need and then meeting that need. After all, it does little good to offer the latest and greatest if nobody actually wants what you’re selling.

Just like the businesses that belong to the group, the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce invariably starts out the new year with a reassessment of the services and resources it provides and how well they match with members needs. Jeff Franklin, the new chairman of the chamber board of directors, personifies this approach in describing what he considers his role for the coming year: listen to members, determine their needs and then meet those needs. It’s a role with which Franklin is familiar as market president of Bank of Colorado.

The process will take on a more structured approach in what the chamber plans as the resumption of a program aptly called Listening to Business. Under the program, business owners participate in in-depth interviews to identify barriers to growth and other problems they encounter.

The new year offers a good time to join the proverbial club.

As an advertiser or reader, what do you need from the Business Times?

While business journals traditionally gather and report the relevant news to readers, communication isn’t necessarily a one-way street. That’s especially true as Web sites and e-mail make the dialogue more convenient than ever.

Good publications don’t exist in a vacuum. They respond to the needs of advertisers and readers. They provide what’s needed.

So what do you need?

Is there additional news coverage that would help keep you informed about local business developments? Are there features that would be interesting or useful? Is there advice that would make your jobs a little easier?

It’s equally important to ask what you don’t need. With limited time to produce content and limited space in which to publish it, would time and space be better devoted to something else?

What’s good? What isn’t? What’s needed? What isn’t?

Let us know. Send us an e-mail. Comment online on the Business Times Web site at www.thebusinesstimes.com. You could even write an old-fashioned letter to the editor if you’d like. Your feedback, both positive and negative, is valued and will be carefully considered.

Good publications are the result of not only the efforts of their staffs, but also collaborative efforts involving advertisers and readers.

Like any other good business, we want to listen to our customers, find out what they need and then meet those needs.

It’s a new year. Please help us to do so. ✦ THE BUSINESSTIMES 609 North Ave., Suite 2, Grand Junction, CO 81501

TEL (970) 424-5133 • FAX (970) 424-5134

Publisher/Owner: Craig R. Hall Editor: Phil Castle Reach advertising at: publisher@thebusinesstimes.com Reach the editor at: phil@thebusinesstimes.com.

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The Grand Valley Business Times, a subsidiary of Hall Media Group LLC, is published twice monthly and distributed throughout Grand Junction, Fruita and Palisade. Advertising rates and deadlines are available upon request. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, editor, staff or advertisers.

Copyright © 2015 — All rights reserved.

It’s that time of year when resolutions and prognostications abound. My favorite saying applied to New Year’s resolutions is in saying they’re basically a bunch of promises to break the first week of January. And while I won’t predict a whole lot, I can pretty much accurately nail a few things that without question will make the news. You will see these are pretty, well, predictable: ■ Prediction one: There will be some sort of weather event, natural disaster or heinous occurrence where someone will be interviewed and say the following: “I’ve never seen anything like that in my lifetime.” It’s as if this person is a required attendee at every news reporting event. While I understand most people’s perspective can indeed be limited by, or contained within, their own personal experiences, it is too much to ask to consult some historical perspective before saying such a thing? Yes, this response can apply to some events. But when it comes to weather and natural disasters, I’m pretty sure this is simply history repeating itself. Same as it has for millions and millions of years. More important, the planet made it! What didn’t were certain species. How’s that for perspective? ■ Prediction two: When it comes to a crime or something that occurs between humans, the other required attendee at all news reporting events is the person who says this: “They we’re just the nicest people, and in no way did I see something like this coming.” Exactly. No one does most of the time when it comes to neighbors and acquaintances. People should be surprised at what goes on from time to time in their neighborhoods, towns and with people they know because people are good. And for the times that they shouldn’t be shocked — like with politicians, repeat offenders and terrorists — where’s the interview that says, “This doesn’t surprise me in the least.” ■ Prediction three: Something good will happen economically, and the government will take credit for it. The most recent example is gas prices, where people ask me why I won’t credit the president for low gas prices. My answer is simple: Government never makes the price of something go down and simply takes credit for good news. Gas pricing is subject to many global factors. Now there are government answers to addressing some of them to keep prices stable for Americans, but our government has none of them in place. The only things it has in place in the

Bold predictions for 2015 more like not-so-bold repeats long run always hurt consumers. Another fact is that unemployment reaches a certain level based on the economy. And while the government might brag the number is low, it’s more than likely the government did something to cause that number being low — and not in a good way. Conversely, when business picks up, it’s because the people who need to buy widgets who were not buying widgets because the economy was contracting due to natural (or unnatural, government caused) reasons, decided we better buy some widgets. The government had nothing to do with this. ■ Prediction four: In keeping with things the government does, I predict the government will manipulate the numbers to make the claim the economy is getting better because of how hard it is working to help all of us “working Americans.” Now Craig Hall you might say, “Craig, you always say this about President Obama because you don’t like him.” You’re right in a sense. I don’t know the man, but what I know of him and his thinking, I don’t like it or him one iota. Before you go off, however, I didn’t like President Bush and his bailouts, stimulus and his abandoning the free market to save the free market. And I don’t know him either. What the government does, and the only thing it can do, is hurt the economy. Unless it does nothing or put criminals in jail instead of partnering with them, nothing the government does will help. Always look at it this way, whatever the government says it is doing, whatever the name of the law it is passing, or whatever the name or goal of the bureaucracy it is presenting to the people, expect the polar opposite to occur. I guess what I’m saying is that perhaps it’s time to get out of our own perspective. There’s plenty of history books and historical research out there to begin to understand that all of this has happened before. And it will again, whether the topic is people or government. The best recommendation is to find some books or try that whole Google thing. There’s a lot of information on the Great Depression. The truth is it wasn’t even a good one until the government got involved. There’s also plenty of research on the medieval warm period when the planet was much warmer than today with a whole lot less people (and warmer well before man was here at all). And yep, people have been killing other surprised people since history was first written. Maybe some research will help stop all of these trends. Otherwise, we’ll be saying we’ve never seen anything like it in our lives. And not in a good way. Craig Hall is owner and publisher of the Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 Copyright © 2022 — All rights reserved. or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com. F ✦

Nothing like a year-end column, which kind of writes itself. And I’ve been doing it now for the 23rd time.

I could leave the rest of the column blank and just say this is what I wish for our readers and advertisers. But there’re reasons for those feelings today.

First off, let’s address the 23 years thing, which is more than three times longer than any other job I’ve ever had. It’s a job I have no formal education or training for or to accomplish it in any way. The ONLY experience I brought to my new “profession” was I loved to read my subscription to The Detroit News/Free Press. I also liked Crain’s Business Detroit because it was a good-looking, full-color newspaper delivered to the high-end men’s clothing store where I worked.

So yeah, in those senses, I was a newspaper guy. But that’s not why I took a job six states away way. Nor does it give any credence to my story. I took the job after losing my two, older, identical twin brothers — Kurt and Karl — to heart attacks earlier that year. What’s more, I was in transition in my life. A fresh start seemed like a good idea at the time. Some of you might recall Karl was publisher of the Business Times before me. Kurt was his business partner, and I consulted with him before making the decision to move to Grand Junction — right before his passing as it turned out. After the shock of those events, being near my parents was indeed the best life choice I could have made.

So I arrived in the summer of 2000 with no experience, the love of newspapers, a high-end retail background, the tragic passing of my brothers and little to no clue what I was doing in the newspaper business. So I did the simplest of things: I didn’t try to fix what wasn’t broken. Coming from a retail background where I served folks in giving them what they wanted, not what they needed, I created a paper in the image of what people wanted. Most important, I wanted to do it in a quality, attractive way.

That’s about the only place my background in retail came into play in my new job. I just knew the paper had to be the highest quality and look its best every time we printed. The story end of the business was already taken care of in having Phil Castle (the best writer in Western Colorado) at the helm along with my immediately discovering the people of the Grand Valley have a wealth of great stories to tell. It was just a matter of putting it together. That’s why we were the first

In delivering the news, every day’s a holiday Gratitude, joy and hope: My 23rd edition ...

Christmas comes early. full-color paper in Western Colorado and

Almost every day, in fact, for a newspaper editor eager to report on Grand continue to this day to use the best quality Valley business. Even more so given the things I get to do and the people with newsprint you can use to tell all those great whom I’m privileged to work. stories. Consider the last two weeks, for example. I would say over 23 years of “putting I attended an annual economc outlook luncheon and a paper together” like Phil is doing today listened with interest to Rich Wobbekind’s latest forecast. while waiting for my contribution to the Call me a nerd, but I’m a big fan of economics and an even opinion page has gone pretty well. But it bigger fan of economists like Wobbekind. He’s one of the best. wasn’t always so. I interviewed Andrew Golike, manager at the CoorsTek A little over a year into the business plant in Grand Junction and incoming chairman of the Grand and just as we were getting our footing, Junction Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. we experienced 9/11 and the recession He talked about chamber efforts to help businesses, his career that followed. I had luckily travelled home and growing operations at the facility he oversees. Then he on 9/10. Otherwise, I would have learned Phil Castle was gracious enough to show me around. I was impressed by everything I heard and saw. “sleepless in Seattle” literally. The test came back positive and we were expecting I talked over the phone with Frances Padilla, director of the my oldest in May the following year. If U.S. Small Business Administration Colorado District, about the latest numbers for SBA-backed lending as well as other programs and services in the state. Craig Hall I had to guess, I’d say those two events happening simultaneously pushed both the

But wait, as entrepreneur and pitchman Ron Popeil used to exhort. There’s more. attention to, and success of, the paper in its A lot more. I interact more regularly with a remarkable group of people to produce early days. print journalism with real print — and, I’d contend — real journalism. During the time which followed the

That starts with my boss, Craig Hall. He ably handles advertising to keep me joy of my 9/10 and tragedy of 9/11, I tried walled off from that part of business. He also affords me nearly unbridled freedom many other avenues of publishing — some to pursue my part of the business. successfully, some not — which came and

I’m giddy anew with each issue the opportunity to share the advice and went. But we made our way through the expertise of columnists who so generously share their time and talents. They ups and downs. During that time we also include Janet Arrowood, Sarah Gray, Tim Haggerty, Dean Harris, Phyllis bought the first home I ever owned — and Hunsinger, Paula Reece, Marcus Straub, Ashley Thurow and Tim Whitney. That’s which I live in to this day. Ironically, after not to mention contributors with Bray & Co.; Dalby, Wendland & Co.; Lighthouse deciding while pulling up old carpet to wait HR Support; and Western Colorado Human Resource Association. to have a second child, the test was positive

Kitty Nicholason builds many of the ads that appear in the Business Times. on our youngest. That’s OK, I had to work Rob Sperry and the team at Colorado Mountain News Media print the paper. Alowetta even harder with a mortgage to pay. And of and Marc Terrien conjure the Business Times website out of Thin Air. course, that mortgage came into being right

None of it would be possible, though, were it not for the businesses and before the housing crisis of 2008. Just another organizations that advertise in the Business Times. Their support has never been difficult time to survive. And we did. more important — or, for that matter, more appreciated. And it was done by always going back

The most important people of all involved in this process? Readers, of course. to the basics. Which for me was removing Those who carve time out of busy schedules to read what appears on pages and everything I was doing in publishing the website. You’re the reason I do what I do. except the one product that matched my

Journalism remains a grind, of course. One with unrelenting deadlines. But I abilities: the Business Times. Luckily, I believe the way we think affects the way we perceive. So I look for good with the put that into place before single dad life expectation I’ll find it. Most of the time I do. And Christmas comes early. and the passing of my mom and dad. And

Happy Christmas to you all. God bless us, every one. of course, I’d be remiss to not mention COVID and the insanity that ensues to this Phil Castle is editor of the Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or day. phil@thebusinesstimes.com. Through it all, there’s been this F mighty, little, local paper making its way and growing in its quality and popularity. That’s not because of me. It’s because of you — our readers, advertisers and all the great folks we get to write stories about. So I’m thankful for you, no matter how you’ve interacted with the paper. My experiences with all of you over the years continue to give me hope for the future. And I cherish the joys in my life living in Grand Junction through the good and the bad. None of that happens over 23 years without you. Have a blessed Christmas and all the best in the new year. Craig Hall is owner and publisher of the Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com.