As homeowners in Sapphire, North Carolina, we face a unique set of issues that we need to overcome while having a home in the mountains. This is not unique to Western North Carolina, but in any destination that is farther from a major metropolitan. While we made the conscious choice to purchase property “off the beaten path,” getting things done here in the Sapphire, North Carolina has it’s own set of unique challenges.
A growing amount of people now live, work and play here. Our kids go to school here. We shop local and eat local. As transplanted “locals,” we have conversations over dinner, at Bucks Coffee, while our kids are playing, when we are at the Community Center working out… and many of them revolve around a the same topics.
Ask yourself: What if the labor pool couldn’t afford to live in our communities any longer.
Maybe if we (you and I) looked at the community as a place we want to “invest in” we would be more selective on who we hire, where they are from and what impact it would have on the community at large. We would not simply choose the painter that drives his old beat up truck from Franklin because he gave us the lowest price. We would think twice before hiring the kid from Florida that comes up with his girlfriend when she takes care of the neighbors horses because he is cheep.
Actually this question on labor shortages and the value of establishing quality relationships with vendors is something we should have been asking ourselves already. It’s nice that workers and service providers are willing to drive from Brevard, NC., Sylva, NC., Ashville, NC., Clayton, GA., or Franklin, NC., but there are “Hidden Costs” that we should all consider.
Here is our two cents.
As we continue to do quality work, we are going to get introduced to more and more friends of our current trusted clients here in the Sapphire Valley community. Word of mouth advertising is important to any company, especially a service provider like CabinCare. While we have chosen to stay “local,” will have made the commitment to offer referral based services in our neighboring communities of Cashiers, Glenville, Lake Toxaway, and Highlands. We have chosen to take this path to help you as a current customer (or soon to be current customer) and us as a local provider of service. The goal with limiting our services is to focus on one of our core business goals; to work with people we like and trust locally. We don’t feel that entertaining jobs that we can not personally manage, drive by to “check in on” or be able to service immediately give us the “value added” service goal we desire. In our opinion, our time should be used effectively, and that just can not be done driving through the mountains unpaid to get to the next property.
The way we see it, to travel outside our immediate surrounding communities is a waste of our time and yours. We don’t feel it is advantageous to service an area that is not a “reasonable” drive from door to door, without charging for travel time or increasing our hourly rate, hiding the travel costs. To keep our services reasonably priced and lightning fast, we want to focus on our community.
We hope you see the value in our position and working with us here locally. To get started, send us a message by clicking this link.
