Homegrown Help The best employees for your business might already be in your own backyard.
By Andrea C. Poe •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Homegrown is the word for New Ravenna, a company that creates custommosaics. Sara Baldwin, the president and founder, hired all 105employees--from the mosaicists to the CEO--from Virginia'sEastern Shore, the remote rural area where she grew up and whereNew Ravenna is based.
Prior to working for New Ravenna, not one of Baldwin'semployees had experience with mosaics. That didn't fazeBaldwin. "I'm a self-taught mosaicist," she says."I figured if I learned to do it, so could they." And NewRavenna reports a near 100 percent employee retention rate."We have lots of opportunities for growth," says Baldwin."I have supervisors who started on the productionfloor."
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