Glasses went up to the myriad of businesses nominated and selected to win awards at the 25th annual Powell River Chamber of Commerce Business Awards this past weekend. Many new and established business people filled the historic Dwight Hall on Saturday, February 8, to celebrate each other’s many efforts and successes of the previous year.
Nomination forms began flooding the chamber office in early December and right through into the new year. Letters of nomination were sent out to the businesses that had been chosen by customers, friends, family, neighbours, or anyone who had a good experience with them.
Those letters alone are enough to fill hearts and solidify that one’s hard work is not going unnoticed, and for some that is certainly enough. To be voted a winner or finalist in any of the 15 categories is mindblowing and sometimes left those on stage speechless, and extremely grateful.
Congratulations to all, nominees, finalists and winners. Customers make these businesses possible.
Shopping local, whether in-store or online, with those moving in the digital direction, is important to our city’s economic health. Businesses supporting other businesses is equally important.
Keeping our eyes and ears open to learn what each of us has to offer so we can be sure to order those items from a fellow business instead of going outside the community to find them is imperative.
Educating our community about our products and services can be a daunting task with all the different avenues now available. Social media and the internet, in general, can be our biggest competitor, or they can be our best asset if we learn to use them to our advantage. We all need to adapt, change and evolve with the times.
Fewer than 20 years ago, in our own business, we were using utility knives, paper and wax to get our newspaper pages finalized and shipped off to the printer on a Pacific Coastal Airlines flight; today it is a quick as a five-second upload from our server.
We have the team, tools and technology to not only continue to grow our own brands and services, but also to help our fellow businesses in our community to grow their own.
Nobody is alone in this change; we can help.
We have evolved. We have kept up with technology and we have adapted in the face of change year after year after year, and we will continue to do so.
Will you?
