by Alexa StillwellOriginally appeared in South Carolina Business, September 2008
The reliability of a steady paycheck and someone else to worry about sales, costs, income statements and taxes was comfortable for Ron Chatham, but once he got a taste of juggling it all serving as founding director of NESA, an economic development nonprofit, he learned a lot about what is required to start and grow a business. Did it take planning, courage and extreme nerve? It took all of these!
Now Chatham is his own boss in the growing Pee Dee hub of Florence, S.C. and president of The Edisto Group, a thriving recruiting and placement firm. In his more than 25 years of human resources and management experience, Chatham has developed an extensive network throughout the entire Southeast business community.
Chatham says his philosophy is, “The most important ingredients to running your own business are integrity and honesty. We must embrace our client’s needs and become part of the process and not just a way point.”
During his career, Chatham has worked for a fast growing leverage buy-out company and was engaged in the start-up of a greenfield site for an existing company. Roche Carolina Inc. was the greenfield start-up and a new concept in pharmaceutical bulk active ingredient plants, pilot plant and process development laboratories. Chatham was instrumental in the transfer of 57-plus employees and in the hiring of approximately 100 technical and professional employees while training another 100 local workers.
Now Chatham runs his own business and enjoys not being a part of a corporation.
“I love what I do! The biggest challenge in running your own business is focusing on the business and not the what ifs’. It is very important to enjoy the challenge rather than running away from it. Anyone can maintain, but you need to excel. Average just doesn’t work,” said Chatham.
Today, after more than three years consulting, Chatham enjoys recruiting assignments the most. He admits it is sometimes a challenge to find recruiting partners to work with who are honest and have high integrity.
Chatham believes it is crucial to understand that relationships are much more important than commissions, and Florence is full of budding business relationships as more and more companies choose to locate there.
The Pee Dee has seen some good economic news over the past decade, and there have been a number of major companies that have recently opened plants, distribution centers and call centers. A few examples are the QVC Distribution Center, Johnson Controls, Monster.Com and H.J. Hines. The Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMT) is the premiere technical service provider and training facility in the Southeast. In addition, the Darlington Raceway held its fourth consecutive sellout in May, a rarity in NASCAR these days. Francis Marion University continues to grow and has recently made major additions to its campus, including a new multi-story building that houses an innovative nurse training center. The area has two major hospitals, McLeod Regional Medical Center and Carolina’s Hospital System.
Both are major employers and have made Florence the medical center of the Pee Dee.
It seems companies are using smaller firms more and more, which good news for Chatham. “We are in an age of the resume mill going the way of the hula hoop,” he said. “The trend is client companies relying more on firms that focus in particular areas, or firms that focus on a few clients versus volume clients.”
Chatham credits the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce in the success of The Edisto Group, and his association with the South Carolina Chamber goes back to 1992 when he joined the start-up team with Roche Carolina. He served on the Chamber’s Executive Committee for four years and led the Human Resources Committee for four years.
“The Chamber has provided me with the opportunity to establish solid business relationships with top companies throughout South Carolina,” Chatham added. “I have found that people prefer to do business with people they know and respect when they have the option. I consider the Chamber an important partner in my business.”
Alexa Stillwell is a programs and events coordinator at the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce.