Homegrown Help
The best employees for your business might already be in your own backyard.
Homegrown is the word for New Ravenna, a company that creates custom
mosaics. Sara Baldwin, the president and founder, hired all 105
employees--from the mosaicists to the CEO--from Virginia's
Eastern Shore, the remote rural area where she grew up and where
New Ravenna is based.
Prior to working for New Ravenna, not one of Baldwin's
employees had experience with mosaics. That didn't faze
Baldwin. "I'm a self-taught mosaicist," she says.
"I figured if I learned to do it, so could they." And New
Ravenna reports a near 100 percent employee retention rate.
"We have lots of opportunities for growth," says Baldwin.
"I have supervisors who started on the production
floor."
Hiring locals has paid off. New Ravenna's mosaics are
regarded as being among the best in the industry, and its client
list includes high-profile customers like Tom Hanks and James Earl
Jones. Sales for 2006 are expected to hit $8 million.
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