Business
AgLife
B
Thursday, May 5, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
GREG
SMITH
DOING BUSINESS
Surround
yourself
with a
good team
E
very successful business
owner and entrepreneur should
have a good team of people
surrounding them to provide valuable
insight. By good, I don’t mean the
group should be simply composed
of people who are like-minded and
think your business concept is great.
Naysayers can bring a unique per-
spective and cause you to think about
things you may not have considered.
Bring together people with dif-
ferent backgrounds, skill sets, and
ages. This can drive important con-
versations to make certain all of the
issues, potential barriers, challenges,
and opportunities are on the table.
But where do you fi nd such people
willing to spend time providing valu-
able input?
Start with an existing or likely
customer. What interests them about
your product or service? Or, in the
case of a startup, why would they be
willing to spend money with you?
How much are they willing to pay
and why would they choose you over
a competitor? In what ways could
your business improve or adjust to
better serve them? A change in hours,
product selection? Do you provide
quality customer service?
Bring in an accounting or book-
keeping professional. Yes, you may
very well have to pay for their time,
but let’s face it, it all boils down to
whether your business is, or can be,
profi table.
Find an experienced, savvy busi-
ness owner to be on your team. Learn
about best practices and pitfalls
common to any entrepreneur.
Speak with your local high school
FFA and Future Business Leaders of
America student advisers. Contact
career centers at colleges or univer-
sities in your community. These stu-
dents may be able to serve as interns
benefi tting your company in a variety
of ways. This may include the devel-
opment or expansion of social media
and digital marketing, for example.
Perhaps they could do valuable market
research. Simply having their unique
perspective could help you grow your
business clientele.
Find the most creative thinker you
can. Let them brainstorm and come
up with “crazy” ideas that just might
evolve into your next best revenue
stream.
In the case of an existing busi-
ness, bring your top employee(s) to
the table. Allow them to speak freely
about problems they see that might
be negatively impacting your bottom
line. Welcome suggestions, input,
and insight.
Receive feedback from the
director of your Chamber of Com-
merce about your business. How
might you expand the reach of your
company through your marketing
eff orts? Are you taking advantage
of every opportunity aff orded to you
with your membership?
Solicit the assistance of ad repre-
sentatives from your local newspaper
and radio station. While social media
and digital marketing have their
place, newspaper and radio adver-
tising remains extremely relevant in
Eastern Oregon and may be the very
best way to reach a particular seg-
ment of your desired customer base.
Learn how to write eff ective and cre-
ative press releases.
Familiarize yourself with and take
advantage of the services off ered by
organizations such as Small Business
Development Centers, SCORE, SBA,
and other business resource centers.
Most often, these services are off ered
at no charge and are staff ed with
highly trained business professionals.
These are just some of the ideas
that may help you develop your
concept or existing business into a
thriving enterprise. You may have to
grow a thick skin, but welcome ideas
and expand your horizons. This is
what successful entrepreneurs do.
█
Greg Smith is the director of the Eastern Oregon
University Small Business Development Center
in La Grande.
An evening
at the
movies
The Lodge at Hot Lake Springs expands
services to offer second-run film showings
The Lodge at Hot Lake Springs/Contributed Photo
The renovated movie theater at the Lodge at Hot Lake Springs now off ers second-run movie showings to the public in the evenings on Thursdays through Sundays.
The lodge owners have expanded public availability to Hot Lake through the movie theater, Thermal Pub and Eatery and day-use hot spring soaking.
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
L
A GRANDE — Moviegoers
now have a new local spot to
catch a flick.
The Lodge at Hot Lake
Springs recently opened up
public access to its fully func-
tional, 60-seat movie theater
for second-run showings. The
movie theater, in addition to
other added amenities, is part
of eff orts to utilize the space for
public use and create a commu-
nity hot spot.
“People wanted that day-use
access and we want this to be
a place where people can come
and hang out,” owner Michael
Rysavy said.
Michael and Tamarah
Rysavy purchased the Lodge at
Hot Lake Springs in 2020 and
reopened the hotel after renova-
tion work in February of 2021.
Since then, extensive work
has gone into the continued
revamp of the facilities to create
a destination for locals and
travelers alike.
After opening the hotel to
overnight guests in early 2021,
this past December marked
the beginning of a more pub-
lic-based approach. Around that
point in the year, the owners
opened the hot spring soaking
area for day use, Thermal Pub
and Eatery for alcoholic bev-
erages and food options and a
second-run theater for movie
showings. As work continues,
the owners plan to have mul-
tiple pubs, conference space,
a fully operational restaurant,
concert availability, spa and
added soaking space.
“To do anything here before
you had to be a guest,” Rysavy
said. “As soon as we got the
movie theater and pub done, we
were also able to open up the
soaking for day use. It all really
happened in December and
that’s when anyone could come
onto the property at that point.”
The movie theater at the
Lodge at Hot Lake seats 60
guests in a vintage-style
wooden seat theater setting —
movies are aired in the evenings
on Thursdays through Sundays.
Rysavy purchased the rights to
30 second-run fi lms, ranging
from classics like “Die Hard”
to cult favorites like “Napoleon
Dynamite.”
“For us to get the movie the-
ater done was just a matter of
bringing in the equipment and
getting the licensing done,”
he said.
Licensing is the key to
showing the fi lms, with the
owners currently in the process
of purchasing the rights to 30
more fi lms. This would allow
the movie theater at Hot Lake
to cycle through its movies
on a rotation lasting roughly
90 days.
The current setup includes a
13-foot screen and high-quality
sound system for an authentic
movie-viewing experience. The
previous owners of Hot Lake
operated the theater, but the
space was only for guests and
included a much more basic
screen and sound setup.
“I think that while we were
just open for hotel guests, there
were a number of people that
voiced their displeasure with
that and wanted it to be open to
the public,” Rysavy said.
The owners have not over-
pushed advertising of the movie
theater, but some nights have
seen large turnout. On the
fi rst night of publicly available
movies, about 45 guests showed
up for the screening.
Moving forward, Rysavy
stated that the theater could be
a key element in creating a pop-
ular hangout spot at Hot Lake.
He noted that the combina-
tion of day-use soaking, food
and beverage amenities and
the movie theater add up to a
quality location for a day trip.
“I don’t think people are
coming out because of the
movie that’s playing, it’s more
like coming down to drink a
beer, have a snack, watch a
movie and have a fun time,”
Rysavy said. “It doesn’t neces-
sarily rely on what the movie is.
We haven’t really seen a correla-
tion between what we’re playing
and how many people show up.”
As the Lodge at Hot Lake
Springs owners continue upping
the services off ered at the facili-
ties, publicly available opportu-
nities remain an emphasis. The
owners hope to include several
pubs, two restaurants, concert
space, and other opportunities
to create a community center in
years to come.
“You can make a whole
afternoon around it,” Rysavy
said. “Go for a soak, soon have
dinner, see a movie, grab a
drink and make a whole day out
of it.”
Oregon outpacing national increases
in health care costs, new study shows
Personal spending
for health care rose
by 34% from 2013
to 2019 in Oregon
By ALEX HASENSTAB
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — Oregon
health care costs are
growing faster than the
national average — and
are outpacing average
wage increases in the
state.
That’s according to
the fi rst annual report
from the Oregon Health
Authority’s Sustain-
able Health Care Cost
Growth Target Pro-
gram. The reports are
aimed at analyzing the
costs of health care in
Oregon, and fi nding
ways to keep those costs
under control.
Director of OHA’s
Health Policy and Ana-
lytics Division Jeremy
Vandehey says out-of-
pocket costs and rising
insurance premiums are
jeopardizing the fi nan-
cial stability of people in
Oregon.
Oregon’s personal
spending for health
care rose by 34% from
2013 to 2019, outpacing
national averages, the
study found.
“What we see is a
troubling trend that
health care costs con-
tinue to grow faster than
what we see nationally
and continue to eat up a
larger and larger share of
families’ budgets,” Van-
dehey said.
The data from the
survey stopped a year
before the pandemic
began.
“We know that there’s
some signifi cant work-
force challenges in the
health care system as a
result of the pandemic,
and nobody quite knows
exactly how that’s going
The Observer, File
A Life Flight Network helicopter lands at Grande Ronde Hospital on Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022.
to impact the prices of
health care services,”
Vandehey said.
However, the study
found that in 2019,
nearly a quarter of the
average Oregon fami-
ly’s spending was going
toward health care costs.
The study included both
employee and employer
contributions when fac-
toring insurance costs
into the overall cost of
health care.
The study found the
eff ects of these increasing
costs on families can
be devastating, and in
many cases, leads Orego-
nians to put off seeking
care. “If people can’t
access preventive care,
if they can’t get the care
they need to stay healthy
and out of the hospital,
that impacts the overall
health,” Vandehey said.
See, Costs/Page B6