Old-fashioned Yankee ingenuity may mean survival for many small Geauga County businesses trying to navigate through the COVID-19 crisis.
Old-fashioned Yankee ingenuity may mean survival for many small Geauga County businesses trying to navigate through the COVID-19 crisis.
Lost business, frantic employees, unpredictable supply chains and new safety rules may still be keeping owners and managers awake at night.
Running a small business – or three – didn’t leave Lisa LaBanc much time to network with economic development organizations such as Geauga Growth Partnership.
GGP’s offices are in Newbury Business Park and LaBanc’s three operations are in Chester Township.
But when her businesses were categorized as nonessential and became a casualty of the state-wide shutdown, LaBanc knew she needed advice and contacted Kimm Leininger, GGP executive director.
“Honestly, I didn’t even know GGP was there,” LaBanc said in a telephone interview June 8.
She owns PSI Product Specialties Inc., Elements Fitness Studio and a property management company located on Chillicothe Road in three buildings on one parcel.
LaBanc built PSI there 15 years ago and has six full-time employees who have been turning out telecommunications equipment repair materials and neon safety vests and jackets.
Specialty items included making about 80,000 hardhats designed for AT&T, she said.
None of which the governor considered essential during the state stay-at-home order.
“Everything was pretty much shut down,” she said.
Her challenge was to begin producing something that would be considered essential and Leininger was able to help.
“It’s been great. Kimm’s been very positive,” LaBanc said.
Loaded with ideas on what the world needed in the age of the coronavirus, she pivoted to retool and repurpose her equipment to make personal protective equipment, plastic shields for schools and hand and surface sanitizer.
“We have a lot of customers who are focused on PPE supplies to get their workers back on the line,” LaBanc said.
While that was going on, her property management client businesses started to open up again so her staff could go back to work, but she said she would wait a couple more months before reopening her fitness center.
Her enthusiasm for the success of her realigned business was tangible over the phone.
“It was great! I just hope everybody stays safe and we’ll get through the rest of it,” LaBanc said.
Joe Zulandt, vice president of sales and marketing for Ten 10 Design in Chardon, said the company shifted its custom apparel and design business to making PPE for the duration.
The company filled out the survey and was contacted by Leininger, he said in a phone interview June 8. They went from making and selling lanyards and Cleveland Indians’ T-shirts to gloves and masks.
Regulations regarding the governor’s efforts to quell COVID-19 in Ohio motivated Casey Zulandt, his wife and owner of the operation.
“We watched it happen and decided to hop on (the opportunity),” he said. “We’ve taken a legitimate PPE-related (product) and offered it to GGP members.”
Owners of some local businesses that had been shut down were caught a little off guard when word came down they could reopen to the public and they rushed their orders to Ten 10.
“People weren’t even thinking about (reopening,)” he said, adding his employees are working to meet those orders.
“We’re just trying to stay relevant,” Zulandt said.
