PROGRESS 2017
January 2017
East Oregonian/Hermiston Herald
Page 3
By PHIL WRIGHT
EO Media Group
Katie
Jones
moved
her Speakeasy Salon and
Boutique from her home to
215 S.W. 10th St., Pendleton,
and pushed for growth from
day one.
“We are currently bursting
out of the seams and already
planning for building a bigger
salon in the future,” she said.
Growing a small business
isn’t easy. According to a
study by the U.S. Small
Business
Administration,
four out of five businesses
that started in 2014 survived
until 2015, the best rate since
2005. About half of all small
businesses survive five years
or longer, and one in three
survive 10 years or longer.
Jones moved to the Pend-
leton area five years ago from
Seattle after marrying Keegan
Jones of Helix. She said her
husband was not so enthusiastic
about an outsider’s chances
of making a small business
successful in the local market.
But she did not back off.
“I’m that kind of person,”
she said.
She advised would-be
entrepreneurs to “just be all
in, to know your hand and to
be all-in and go for it.” But
also said they need to work
on making the business work.
“It is all about marketing,
100
percent
about
marketing,” Jones said.
“You cannot rely on word
of mouth. I think that’s the
biggest misconception in a
small town.”
In addition to basic
marketing principles, she
said, small business owners
cannot stop working, whether
that’s at the shop or at home.
About half of all small
businesses are home-based,
as the Speakeasy started out,
and about 60 percent without
any employees are based in
the home. The Speakeasy
now employs six people.
Jones said her hours at the
salon vary week to week, but
she constantly thinks about
developing her business,
researching products and
looking for the next idea or
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Stylists Katie Jones, owner of the Speakeasy Salon and Boutique, and Melissa Braniff blow dry client Sara Reyburn’s hair at Jones’ shop in
December in Pendleton.
thing. The Speakeasy this
week is getting a state-of-art
tanning bed, she said, unlike
anything else in Pendleton.
Embracing customers and
not taking them for granted
is another basic tenant the
Speakeasy follows.
“Our customers are our
friends,” she said.
November
was
the
Speakeasy’s best month as
its customers readied for
Christmas, Jones said, and
the recent wave of winter
storms has not put a dent in
work. Jones said that was a
big difference coming from
Seattle.
“In Eastern Oregon,” she
said, “people do not cancel
their hair appointments.”
EO Media Group
Building permits increased in
both Hermiston and Pendleton in
2016 over the previous year, though
single-family housing permits grew
slightly in Hermiston while being
cut in half in Pendleton.
As a whole, Pendleton’s building
department issued 159 permits in
2016, five more than the previous
year. In Hermiston, the city issued
205 permits in 2016, seven more
than in 2015.
Permits are issued by the city for
everything from installing flag poles
and handrails to building new schools
and hotels.
Jutta Haliewicz of the Pend-
leton public works office said
many of the permits for 2016 were
for remodels from folks expanding
their homes. The city issued 10
permits for single-family dwell-
ings with a valuation of about
$2.46 million, according to the
city’s report, while in 2015 there
were 21 permits for homes worth
about $4.21 million.
Permits overall saw a valuation
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EVERYWHERE
THESE DAYS.
SO IS YOUR
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boost in 2015 to $42 million, thanks
to construction of big-ticket items
including new elementary schools
and an expansion at Hill Meat, but
decreased from about $42 million
in 2015 to $15.4 million in 2016.
Commercial
permits
also
dropped in Pendleton from seven in
2015 worth more than $28.6 million
to four in 2016 worth $4.65 million.
In Hermiston, permits were
issued for 46 new single-family
homes in 2016 with a valuation of
$31.8 million, up from 43 valued at
$29.4 million in 2015.
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