October 1, 2021

10/1/2021

BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL…On October 12^th, there will be an election for an important school bond that will help Ponca City Public Schools update, maintain and improve their facilities, something all of us do to our house from time to time. PCDA is not allowed to take a position in the election but we can tell you that the facilities are much needed. Why? With over 2,000 open jobs to fill in Ponca City, we need to attract people. People have options. One of the biggest single factors people use when deciding whether or not they will move to any given community to take an open job is the quality of the schools. Today that means STEM facilities, competitive music and athletic facilities, attractive and safe school campuses and then the ever popular, but critical, good bathrooms in schools. It is not enough to say that back in the day education was “X” and that it’s all about the reading, writing and arithmetic. How is that working out for you?

In the real world, one of the foundational building blocks are strong schools with modern facilities that attract people. What we all learned in kindergarten was it was better to take your nap in a nice place. Not much has really changed. Since the proposed bond will not raise taxes, the question seems pretty straight forward. Do we want and value good, modern, updated schools? Since PCDA cannot take a position, however, we are limited to encouraging you to get out and vote and asking your friends to vote as well. There has been a lot of talk about elections in recent time so don’t take your right to vote, or the outcome of any apparently straight forward election, for granted.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS.....for the next (and last for 2021) Business on the Balcony Tuesday, October 12th.

7 to 8:30 am.

Grab a little breakfast and meet a few business people from the Ponca City community. You might get a few minutes with Chamber staff, PCDA staff, Pioneer Tech people or any number of other businesses in our community. If you have business questions or are looking for an introduction, this is the place to be. And there's avocado toast!

THE NOVEMBER PITCH-OFF.... is just around the corner for those with a great business idea or an existing business ready to get to the next level. Maybe you are an inventor or product developer ready to launch the next big thing. We want YOU to write that business plan and pitch your idea to our group of judges on Friday, November 12. Business Plans need to be submitted by Monday, November 1st to be considered for this Pitch-off. Not ready? There will be another PItch-off in June of 2022.

Call Kat at 580.761.3028 or Ben Evans at 580.718.4262 to get started on your business plan writing. You will have access to a great online resource called LIvePlan to help you write and refine your plan. What are you waiting for? Your future is just a PITCH away!

LOCAL INDUSTRY

Guilty By Association Truck Show (GBATS) is a bi-annual truck show held by Chrome Shop Mafia & 4 State Trucks in Joplin, Missouri. This three day event is where the trucking industry comes together to enjoy all aspects of trucking and the super cool things that come with it. Two Ponca City companies, Bowers Trucking and Bunkr Trailer found themselves in booths right next to each other at the show. This is a transportation industry place to be seen, network and see all things transportation. Pictured are Brad Fredericks, Bunkr and Garrett Bowers, Bowers Trucking. Bring home those drivers and new accounts boys. Good Job!

Bowers Trucking also participated in a Tribute to the Troops & Veterans Parade Convoy: 800 trucks, including the Bowers Legacy wrapped truck, made up the parade. We will have pictures of that next week. Maybe even a little video footage. Stay tuned!

AWARDS

PCDA was honored that the Oklahoma Main Street Center chose us (who, me!?) as the winner of the state wide Best Business Practices. Ponca City Main Street is one of our besties and we love having them right down the hallways for all our collaborative efforts. Thanks for nominating us, and for all you do!

As Fall finally hits us with these cooler temperatures, staff are cozying up for some good brainstorming sessions in the office. Conversations we’ve had with employers (You!) is the need for employees but you’re too busy and overwhelmed with the day to day performance metrics and fires to put out that revamping your hiring process or finding ways to fill your pipeline of future employees is not possible. It’s often large corporations who are good at this because, let’s face it, they have an entire recruiting department and extra staff to set up processes.

How can you, the hometown employer, take some of these processes and adapt them to work for you? It’s by doing the little things:

See if your employee(s) who may retire in two years can have an apprentice or intern position to train.
Utilize the internships offered at local schools: PCPS, PTC and NOC all offer internship programs which give students class credit.
Have your employees be a part of mentoring programs at elementary schools.
Train your current employees to take over for more advanced jobs by slowly adding to their skill sets.
Keep your current employees satisfied by offering some depth of care about them as a whole person including opportunities to better themselves, and be creative with benefits for their work/life balance.

If any of these sound like you could accomplish them, but need a little direction – call us! We’d be happy to share our info and connections to help you get started.