Feb. 20, 2006
EDITORIAL: Entrepreneurship: West Virginia’s Only Way Out
 |
| The Greers
|
Certainly, many of those small businesses depended in large part on servicing the big ones, whether they were supplying the needs of the coal, timber, or chemical industries, or now public sector entities like state government or our state's colleges and universities.
However, even in a business climate that has left much to be desired over the years, some entrepreneurs have started small businesses who haven't depended on anyone other than other small businesses or simply individual consumers for their survival.
A perfect example of this would be the rural West Virginia farmers, who have sold their produce to consumers since before we broke with Virginia. While today's West Virginia farmers use more sophisticated marketing and agricultural techniques, they're still at it in a big way, with agriculture among our leading industries.
Many farmers may farm on the side now instead of full-time, but their productivity oftentimes remains superior. Nowadays, we see West Virginia farmers going into whole new lines of business, including deer farms, vineyards, and canned goods sold at boutique stores like Tamarack.
From small efforts a large family farm business can grow over the years. Just ask Bob Evans over in Ohio.
Similarly, even big businesses today once had humble beginnings and, farmers, have grown beyond their original bounds. These entrepreneurs had to start somewhere, and it's instructive for new entrepreneurs to educate themselves as to how others before them succeeded.
For example, much is made of U.S. Senate candidate John Raese's corporate strength, with Greer Industries' companies in limestone, steel, broadcasting, and West Virginia tourism. What few know is how it all began for the Greers and the Raeses. Some in the Morgantown area know some of the story, but it's one that should inspire both young entrepreneurs and especially young women.
Greer Industries was launched in Morgantown in 1917 by Colonel H.C. and Agnes Reeves Greer. To launch a business in the middle of World War I certainly showed a certain amount of pluck and optimism in the future of the country, and the Greers had plenty of that.
From the beginning, the Greers worked as a team, with Mrs. Greer showing a business savvy all her own. So much was her influence with the company that they named their first Morgantown radio station's call letters for her maiden name initials: Agnes Jane Reeves.
From a few limestone quarries and WAJR, this entrepreneurial couple carved out a niche that has been unrivalled in theirs two main industries of limestone mining and radio broadcasting, branching out later to steel and tourism as their businesses grew.
Who benefited from the Greers' drive to create a new business in the rugged mountains of West Virginia? Certainly, the Greers did, but so have the thousands of people who have worked for them and their children over the years. As a billboard of Greer Industries proudly notes outside their limestone plant on the border of Mon and Preston Counties off Route 7: "Greer Industries: Proudly Creating Jobs for West Virginians for 79 Years."
Who else benefits from the Greers and now the Raeses, in addition to the family itself and its 1,200 employees? The State of West Virginia, that's who, which has received millions of tax revenue from just this one hip couple's entrepreneurial spark back in 1917.
Corporations, while having some knocks in the Age of Enron, have a sunnier side, too. If they are successful and known for their sound business practices and fair labor dealings, they can outlive the founders and continue on into the future, providing the means of support for thousands of families.
In a state like West Virginia, whose government lately has seen fit to overburden its citizens and corporate citizens with too many regulations and taxes, those jobs are increasingly prized.
But it doesn't have to be that way. Such "prized private sector jobs" could be much more commonplace if our state's leaders recognized and lifted up the value of the individual entrepreneur, the young couple like the Greers once were, who start with an idea, blow some hard work and steam into that idea, and then watch the workers of West Virginia make it happen for everyone's benefit.
This is a model that has worked before--and with some visionary leaders at the state level could work again. Looking around these days, isn't it worth a try?
