Chamber celebrates business
SLIPPERY ROCK — The Butler County Chamber of Commerce Wednesday night honored a Butler business owner, an educational institution and graduates of the Leadership Butler County Class of 2016 at the annual Celebrate Business dinner.
Lisa Guard, Specialized Staffing president, accepted this year's William A. Morgan Entrepreneur of the Year Award, while Slippery Rock University claimed the 2016 Chamber Champion Award.
The event, held at the Robert M. Smith Student Center at SRU, also reflected on the chamber's accomplishments during the past year and recognized the 2016 graduates of Leadership Butler County.
The William A. Morgan Entrepreneur of the Year Award is presented to a business owner. The chamber's Past President's Advisory Council and past award recipients recommend a business owner for the award, which is named after William A. Morgan Jr., the late Butler businessman.
The entrepreneur award was started in 2005 and has been given to 12 business people since then.
Guard said she was honored by the award but had to admit that her first job out of college as a temporary staffer for a real estate company didn't work out well and she was asked not to come back the next day. The following day she got a temporary job with a human resources company, which is where she stayed and fell in love with the hiring process.
She opened Specialized Staffing in 1997, but said she had no concerns about starting her own business.
“It wasn't very scary to think about starting my own business but that's only because I'm not very detail-oriented, so I didn't know to be afraid,” she said. “When I look back I think, wow, maybe I should have been a little afraid. But it worked out.”
Last year's entrepreneur of the year award winner, Nadine Tripodi, owner of Butler Technologies in downtown Butler, presented Guard with a large congratulations sign from her staff. Guard said surrounding your business with employees with a variety of talents is the key to a successful business.
“I think a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners have to get out of their own way,” she said. “I recognized that early on and I hired people that balanced those areas where I was deficient.”
Guard said she was proud of her company's success but that she gets more joy out of seeing the success of others.
“I really enjoyed the hiring process and making that match. Hiring people and seeing them become successful in the company and also seeing the company become more successful because of them,” she said.The Chamber Business Champion Award acknowledges an organization that displays vision, ingenuity, commitment and determination.SRU was founded in 1889 as Slippery Rock State Normal School with the primary purpose of training teachers. In 1926, the institution was purchased by the Commonwealth, renamed Slippery Rock State Teachers College, and became a four-year teachers college.Slippery Rock State College was established in 1960 and for the first time, could award undergraduate and graduate degrees in the liberal arts and in the professions. In 1983, the college was given university status.Today, SRU has more than 8,500 students in both undergraduate and graduate programs.Cheryl Norton, SRU president, accepted the award and recognized SRU's evolution from a small, teachers' college to specializing in health care education and health care business.“We continue to be a public institution that works for the good of the public and health is one of the best ways we can do that,” she said. “What we have found is it's not just the health professions. It is the business of health.“We are partnering with local health care providers to ensure that we don't just provide information about being healthy but we understand the business of being healthy as well.”
