Strength in Collaboration

A community that collaborates together, stays together. The strength and success of our business community lies in the collaboration of our business owners who support one another.

Last week, a great example of this happened with the Absaroka Auto Glass Birthday Bash celebrating their 2nd year in business, but first year being full time! After Zach Smith (owner) got out of the Army in 2012, he changed his pursuit from welding school to the auto glass industry. When his family moved to Cody, he knew he had to open his own auto glass shop. “The actual name Absaroka auto glass comes from the “Proposed State of Absaroka”, which is a really neat piece of history that you can look up”, Zach explained.

At their Birthday Bash celebration, the Smith family featured a variety of local small businesses that joined in putting on one heck of a party. The best part – it was free to the first several guests! There was already a line when I pulled up to the party. The Pig & The Hog, The Box, and Cody Craft Brewing were busy giving guests their orders. The owners were excited and engaged with everyone that visited. They even purchased many raffle items from a variety of local businesses including Sunlight Sports, Cody Coffee, Cedar Mountain CrossFit, The Thistle, Blanca Tatonka, and Legends Bookstore.

When asked about what he loves about the Cody business community, he shared “…the loyalty that the customers have toward Cody establishments and how they want to work hard to keep their money local and support local companies and businesses.”

The collaborative effort not only allowed Absaroka Auto Glass more exposure through linking with other brands and social media pages, but it also showed just how supportive our businesses and community can be. Local establishments donated their time on a Saturday evening and shared delicious food and beer to a community that showed up to support a local family business. THAT’S Cody.

The businesses involved in this celebration helped increase their overall reputation in our small, tight knit town without the need for ads, sponsorships, and criticizing others. Just good ol’ friendly handshakes and neighborly help.

Zach shared some valuable advice for new and growing businesses, “… think about giving a good customer experience. Customer experience can include the presentation of the facility, friendliness of your staff, the seamlessness of whatever product or service you’re offering, excellent communication, competitive pricing, and so on.”

He expands on this advice by encouraging businesses to ask “…what can I do better to make sure that my customer has the best possible experience at my facility.” That is what will encourage your customers to want to come back and refer you to their friends and family.

I (Missy) have been in the business world for a good amount of time, and although I’m not a Cody native, the businesses here could benefit just as equally as anywhere else with a strong, collaborative business community.

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.”
                                                                                                      – Coretta Scott King

Cody, Wyoming offers a plethora of talent, skills, and resources. There is room, rather a need for collaboration especially as we near the slow Winter season. I see the potential for great success through working together and supporting one another. How could you benefit from collaboration with your local businesses?

This article is proudly sponsored by Cody Calendar advertisers