What is your title at your business?
Tracey Baker
Sales/Design (and assorted other roles)
What service did you or your business perform to help acclimate PS Solutions to its new locations?
At McCartney’s, our mission is to make each customer’s workplace a better place to be. Whether that means a worry-free copier & service agreement, next day delivery of supplies, or a unique and customized office layout and furniture. We met with Joe and some of his employees to discuss their vision for their new space and what kind of workplace they wanted to create. We discussed their needs for the space and their workplace culture, as well as their plans for future growth. We visited their existing space and their new space and we took inventory of their current furniture and worked closely with them to determine what items that needed to be moved.
Armed with this information, we created a plan for their new space that maximized their space usage, worked around existing architectural challenges, and worked within the customers desired budget. We accommodated spaces not only for heads-down work, but also for employees to meet and collaborate, socialize, and rejuvenate. We created a move management plan and worked hard to meet all of the customer’s move-day goals. This was a particular challenge due to the ongoing supply chain shortages. We had to closely monitor the situation with our manufacturers to ensure that we could get product in in time for this project. In the end, PS Solutions has a wonderful, open and friendly space that provides a great workplace for the staff.
Why is it important for local businesses to work together and support one another?
In the modern world, it is easy to forget the impact of working locally. When it’s so easy to just click around and buy from a large online retailer, it’s easy to dismiss your neighbor down the street. When you keep your dollars local, the taxes stay local, the income stays local, and many of the charitable donations stay local –Contributions to build community assistance organizations, youth sports, clubs, parks, musical organizations, arts, all the things that create a better community. Buying local keeps more businesses in business and buying locally. The cycle continues and the snowball builds and bolsters our local economy. Better economy, more jobs – more jobs, more money – more money, more business.
There is also a misconception that buying locally costs more. This is not always the case. There are many instances where you can save money, directly or indirectly, but keeping your dollars local.
Finally, when you buy local, you are buying from someone who better understands where you’re coming from. We better understand the challenges of our local community and economy. We better understand our customs, traditions, and aesthetic preferences. As a result, this makes us, local businesses, better able to serve you.
How can the Chamber be more effective in helping the “Buy Here Thrive Here” message to resonate more emphatically?
Community awareness and buy in are key to a solid buy local movement. How can we work together to lift everyone up and not only make the public aware of the benefits of buying local, but also of the products and services available to them. Additionally, we all need to do better to practice what we preach. Let’s take a good hard look at our own habits and buying practices. How can we do better as individuals? How can we do better as businesses? And how can we do better as a team?
