Challenged by economy, businesses find varied routes to success

Inside the old brick building manual sewing machines – once the heart of the company’s operations – are rarely used. The machines sit next to the shelves of crafting supplies that now fill the 20,000-square-foot warehouse.

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Ryco owners Pat and Donald Ryan first moved their company, which at the time was a trim manufacturer, to Rhode Island in the early 1980s.

But what was supposed to be a time of growth and expansion wasn’t. Soon after moving, the company faced a $7,000 increase in workers’ compensation and growing competition from overseas competitors that were making the same products at a lower cost.

To keep up the Ryans opened a small corner of the building to retail – selling products out of cardboard boxes.

Today, those boxes have been replaced by metal shelves, and those employees that used to run the sewing machines have been trained in customer service and merchandising. It’s transition, Pat Ryan said, that was necessary for the success of the company and the security of its workforce.

“I think that any small business owner will tell you that you are dealt a hand of cards and you have to play them to the best of your ability,” she said. “Playing the cards to the best of our ability meant changing our focus and that’s what has happened.”

The company and is twenty year history paint a vivid picture that many of the state’s small businesses can relate to. Over the past year the Providence Business News has shared many of these stories, including both triumphs and challenges, on the Main Street Page.

From an ice carver trying to find the right size freezer to store his work, to the rug manufacturer working to develop the perfect production system, to the second generation coffee roaster trying to successfully continue a family tradition, each business has faced and shared their own set of challenges.

But as different as the businesses may appear on the pages from week to week there are some common threads woven among them.

”My biggest fear is failure,” said Jason Thompson, owner of Rag & Bone Bindery, a hand-bound book manufacturer located in Providence. “I fear that one day this ride is going to stop, that people are going to lose interest, and I won’t let that happen. I am constantly trying to learn, and improve.”

David Ferro, owner of Crosswinds Gallery, a weathervane manufacturing company in Bristol, knows how important it is not to give up. The first time he tried to carve his own weathervane, he failed miserably. After putting it aside for one year, he tried this time with more success. Today, his company has surpassed the $1 million mark in annual revenue.

For many business owners success has come through balancing tradition with advancing technology. Donald Scarlata, owner of Colonial Mills Inc., a Providence-based braided rug manufacturer, says it’s his biggest challenge. In fact, he has even changed his company’s name to CMI to give the business a more updated feel.

”Most people think of the braided rug as a simple oval pattern that they can get in different colors,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be that way. In today’s market you have to think color and design. I don’t think of us as part of the rug business, I think of us as a home-furnishing business.”

Understanding the business climate could be important for small business owners in the coming year. With the nation currently in a recession and consumer confidence coming back at a slow pace, many expect the year to be a tough one.

”We know that the statements they will be seeing in the coming months won’t be a pretty picture,” said Mark Hayward, district director for the Rhode Island office of the U.S. Small Business Administration. “And I know that the state is facing a cash crunch but this is the time that these businesses need some help. This is the time when the state can have some impact. Small businesses pay a lot of taxes and generate a lot of jobs in this state, we need to do all we can to support that.”