While the national and regional economies putter along, businesses on Bainbridge Island are doing well, thank you. That’s the consensus of a handful of key businesses interviewed by Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal.

“My business has been awesome,” says Carolyn Frame, CEO of CFA Mortgage Professionals, which is headquartered on Bainbridge, and has an office in Silverdale. The firm also recently opened an office in Gig Harbor. “With rates the lowest ever, we are blessed with hundreds of returning clients and referrals coming in from them. We are positioned to handle the volume, due to very experienced cross-trained professionals and advanced technology.”

“We are actually closing many refinances from start to finish within five working days,” adds Frame. “We are the only lender that I know of that has their own underwriter on staff in Kitsap County.”

“How are things going so far this year in the wake of September 11 and the economic slowdown?” Sheri Watson, who runs GB Properties on the island and manages much of the Day Road Business Park, answers, “Business had been brisk last year before 9-11, then it ended. Since then, the momentum has turned any many (businesses) that we’ve seen are now growing and doing well.”

In fact, Watson, current president of the Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce, says several client businesses have doubled in size and have moved into larger offices.

“They are Pacific Rim related companies; selling home and personal related goods, she adds.

Harry Field, president of The Field Co., a market research firm based on the island, says business has been exceptional.

“Last year was the best year in our company’s 22-year history,” Field says. “Fortunately for us everything was in place before 9-11.”

Field noticed clients were somewhat tentative about considering market research and survey work just after September 11, 2001, but that attitude began to change this past spring.

“Just lately I’ve seen a major change in attitude,” he says. “Clients are interested in the future again. They’re positive about what will happen. I‘m quite encouraged.”

Not every business on the island, however, is quite as optimistic. Ross Thomas, manager of the Washington Mutual Savings Bank branch, has witnessed a different trend.

“Since Sept ember 11th it is definitely not business as usual,” he says. “In the bank, what we’re seeing is an increased anxiety level across the board.”

He says customers are dissatisfied with their stock portfolios, and they’re not at all happy about the increased of debt load some of them are taking on due to “the new economy tanking,”

“More people are overdrawn,” Thomas laments. “Elderly people who save are very disgusted with CD rates and folks are not happy about the new identification and security measures due to the overall increase in fraud and identity theft.”

Jeanne Soulier, who operates a A Foot in the Door, a employee consulting service, says her business has slowed of late but there are still a number of unemployed people on the island who formerly worked in the dot.com and technology sectors in Seattle.

“There are a fair number of people who have been unemployed for six months to a year” especially in high-tech sectors, Soulier says. “Beginning in March 2001, I started working with a lot of people who were doing really, really well and then they lost their jobs.”

Eventually, debt piled on some of these people and they were forced to downsize homes and look for other employment opportunities. Many of these people, especially those with sales and marketing skills, have found jobs, Soulier says.
“After six months or so, people say “I’ve had to take some kind of retail job for some income and to be involved in some sort of work, which is important,” Soulier notes.

“Things are beginning to stabilize. She says some laid off professionals have more than likely started their own businesses or switched professions in order to get back in the work place. Others — some retired or semi-retired — have had to return to the work place because their stock portfolios or other investments have dwindled significantly since September 11.

Despite the optimism of most people interviewed for this story, challenges do remain.

“Our biggest challenge is getting the word out to everyone that there is no better time than now to refinance, buy up or down, invest in investment properties, consolidate debts and work towards being debt free,” says Frame of CFA Northwest Mortgage Professionals. Like other companies, CFA is “always looking for experienced dynamic employees in our field, and many times it is difficult to find the talent.”

Watson says her biggest challenge is “finding healthy, larger companies to fill in larger spaces at the business park. If you break up larger spaces and then people grow, you lose the opportunity for them to expand. It’s a commercial real estate challenge.”

“The biggest challenges we face are interest rates, unemployment and fraud issues,” says Thomas of Washington Mutual.

Field notes that finding qualified people to do telephone survey work continues to be his bugaboo issue. “I run an ad and I don’t get much response,” he says. “I need college educated people but not necessarily someone with a college degree.”

Most of those interviewed believe the worst economic times are behind us and that the economy — especially on Bainbridge Island — will continue to blossom.

“We believe the next year will be one of our best years ever,” says Frame. “This will happen based on the relationships we have with our clients and our affinity partners. We have developed great referral sources with other professionals in our county.

“We’re cautious, but optimistic,” Watson adds. “There are many entrepreneurs in this area. We work well with finding companies needs and what they are comfortable with in growth plans. Our quality of life, close proximity to freight, airports, connectivity and work force supply (in Seattle and the rest of Kitsap County) will always be a positive. Being a proactive landlord, gives the business owner time to focus on their business and us to manage their facilities.”

Thomas of Washington Mutual throw a note of caution into the picture: “Our view of the year ahead is uncertain due to interest rate fluctuation, not to mention the meltdown in the stock market. Our earnings push is also huge. It’s a crazy time to be in the banking business.”

Adds Field, “I find people being more optimistic and not holding back now. I sense a greater interest (from customers) in going out and doing surveys.”

(Editor’s Note: Kevin Dwyer is a Bainbridge Island free-lance writer)..