Decision Not To Start A Business
Back to Lynn Harris, the Wapinitia resident who had been working as a bookkeeper for Oregon Log Homes in Maupin. Losing her position when the housing market collapsed, Lynn wondered “Now what? I knew there were no jobs in South County, I figured it was time to get creative and follow my passions.”
Turns out that Lynn‟s passion (which her five sisters share as well) is bicycle touring. Late in 2008 she and her sisters started brainstorming the creation of a bed and breakfast centered on cycling. Wapini-tia, about 15 miles west of Maupin, has an old grange hall the sisters felt might work as a hostel.
Problem was Lynn had no idea where to begin. “I didn‟t have a clue about how to go forward with the idea” said Harris. Rob Miles, owner of the Imperial River Company and a resource board member, heard about Lynn‟s idea and immediately put her in touch with Greg Hohensee, the enterprise facilator. The five sisters met with Greg and Mary Merrill, Director of the Small Business Development Center, many times over the course of two months.
“Greg never told me what to do, he drew me through thinking about the idea, we must have talked about 10 times in those 2 months. It became pretty clear to us what we needed to do,” said Harris.
Matt Fox, Owner, Deschutes Pizza Company
The sisters realized their business plan would not work. “They realized that they really weren‟t that interested in housing and feeding people, they just wanted to be involved with and support cycling. That‟s the beauty of enterprise facilitation – it fleshes-out entrepreneurial ideas through the filter of experienced local professionals,” said Rob Miles. Harris and her sisters, as a result of the enterprise facilitation process, saved themselves a lot of work, money, and frustration.
Enterprise facilitation succeeded in helping them avoid a costly mistake. It also redirected their cycling passion through the utilization of existing community resources. Rob Miles‟ Imperial River Company had the location, the lodging, a restaurant, and river access that met the needs of cycle tourists.
“We started planning cycling/rafting/touring events in January 2009 for the summer season with Im-perial. Rob‟s marketing director helped tremendously with all the marketing aspects of attracting bicy-cle tourists. Unfortunately we didn‟t get a lot of response that summer because the economy got so bad,” said Harris.
Harris is thankful for having gone through the enterprise facilitation process. “I liked the process a lot. It was very helpful having Greg available to bounce ideas off, even though we stopped the project,” said Harris.