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Welcome back to The Bend!
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The Bend follows a simple rhythm each week. The Eddy Line opens with a one-line thought or
observation, something short enough to remember but worth thinking
about. What the Current Pulled Toward dives a
little deeper into where the previous week’s energy went, whether that’s
a project, a partnership, or a personal lesson learned. Signal Fire highlights a person, place, or initiative
that deserves some attention. From the
Field, shares a small anecdote about the broader outdoor
recreation economy from Oxbow’s non-profit arm, the VA
MTNS Outdoor Collective. And One Thought Worth
Sitting With closes things out with a brief reflection or quote
that will hopefully help guide you through whatever you may be dealing
with.
It’s part journal, part field note, and hopefully
something that makes you pause for a moment before diving back into the
current.
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“Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass
one thing.”
-Ron
Swanson, Parks and Recreation
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What the Current Pulled Toward
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This week the current pulled toward
knowing when to pull back.
I started in earnest with Franklin County this week and
anyone who has worked with me knows I have very
little patience for C+ work, especially when my name is attached to it.
I would rather do one thing well than spread myself across several
responsibilities and give each of them whatever attention happens to be
left. Ron Swanson put it a lot more
colorfully.
The Assistant County
Administrator position is one I take seriously and I recognize that I
have a great deal to learn. There are relationships to build and work
already underway that deserves my full attention. The residents of
Franklin County should expect that from me and so should the employees
and department heads I am there to support.
What that means is something else is going to have to give.
That said, I’ll be scaling back my work through
Oxbow, which includes
The Bend. I expect
the newsletter to move to every other week or perhaps once a month,
depending on the demands of the new role.
This decision doesn’t come easily. Oxbow has given me the
chance to work with some really good people and explore ideas that
interested me. Most importantly, it’s allowed me to build something of
my own. Writing The
Bend has also created a rhythm I’ve really come to value. It’s given
me a place to think through leadership, public service, parks, community
development and the outdoor economy, often in real time.
I would rather publish it less often than begin
filling space simply because another Tuesday arrived. There is a tendency to treat a full calendar as evidence
that things are going well.
I’ve
certainly been guilty of it. An open block of time can feel like
something that needs to be claimed and a new opportunity can be
difficult to decline even when there is no reasonable place to put it.
Eventually, something absorbs the cost.
The work then gets thinner and your attention
becomes fragmented. The people closest to us start to receive whatever
energy is left over.
Knowing when to pull back requires a different kind of
discipline than taking on something new. There’s no big announcement, no
project launch, and no rush of momentum. It’s just an acknowledgment
that time has limits and good intentions don’t create more of
it.
Oxbow isn’t going away and neither
is The Bend. Both
will continue in a form that fits the season I’m entering. For now, though, Franklin County deserves my best work and
I intend to give it exactly that.
- Mike.
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Starting a business often means learning several
unfamiliar jobs at once. The person with the idea also becomes the
bookkeeper, marketer, salesperson, operations manager, and strategic
planner, sometimes before the first customer ever arrives.
The Roanoke Regional Small Business
Development Center helps entrepreneurs sort through that complexity.
It provides confidential business advising, training and resources for
people at every stage, from those still testing an idea to established
owners working through growth, financing or operational challenges.
Those services are available at no cost to the business
owner.
Its reach includes the Roanoke
Valley, Franklin County, the New River Valley, and the Alleghany
Highlands. In 2024, the center reported serving 1,048 small businesses,
welcoming 1,307 training participants and helping clients secure a
self-reported $9.27 million in financing.
The value of an organization like this is not limited to
answering questions. Oftentimes an entrepreneur
needs someone who can help identify the right question before time and
money are committed to the wrong answer.
The Roanoke Regional SBDC gives business owners a place to
do that.
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Entrepreneurship is often celebrated as an individual
pursuit. The image is usually one person with
an idea, a willingness to take a risk, and enough determination to keep
going when things get really, really difficult. All of that may be true,
but very few healthy businesses are built entirely alone.
The Roanoke Regional SBDC offers advising and
practical training on topics such as business planning, finance,
bookkeeping, marketing, contracting and access to capital.
In Western North Carolina, MADE X MTNS connects
outdoor entrepreneurs with training, funding, mentors and peer networks
as part of its work to grow outdoor businesses and strengthen the
region’s outdoor economy. The partnership brings together Mountain
BizWorks, the Outdoor Business Alliance of Western North Carolina and
the state’s Outdoor Recreation Industry Office.
Organizations like these can’t remove the uncertainty that
comes with owning a business. They can keep
entrepreneurs from navigating every part of it by themselves.
A good idea still needs sound financial
decisions and honest feedback, not to mention useful connections and
people who understand the road ahead. Seeking that help is not an
admission that the entrepreneur lacks something. Rather, it’s
one of the better decisions they will
make.
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One Thought Worth Sitting With
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This week’s theme: Pulling Back.
“Far and away the best prize that life offers is
the
chance to work hard at work
worth doing.“
-Theodore Roosevelt
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