Thriving Against the Odds: The COVID Journey Five Years Later

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, businesses across the country faced a harsh reality: shut down, adapt, or face closure. Our company wasn’t deemed “essential” by the government or local authorities, but we knew staying open was vital to our survival—not just for our business, but for our employees, customers, and community. While many businesses closed their doors and never reopened, we made the choice to persevere. Today, we’re stronger than ever. In fact, this marks our 25th year in business, and we’ve just signed a record number of contracts for work over the next two years. COVID was just one of the many storms we’ve had to endure.

High Stakes
Closing down wasn’t an option for us. It wasn’t an easy decision, and it was certainly risky, but we believed it was more important to keep working through the crisis, even if we had to adapt and innovate to make it happen. We were in the office every day, and we were on airplanes when no one else was. We were doing installations in otherwise empty buildings.
While the government may not have considered us “essential,” the bank certainly considered it essential that I make payments on time. Our clients, who had signed multi-million-dollar contracts, still expected us to deliver. We had delivery trucks backing up to the dock all day long, delivering equipment for projects. Financial obligations didn’t pause for the pandemic.

Teams Coming Together
The human element of business was never clearer than during these times. Our people stepped up in huge ways, doing whatever they needed to do to keep things moving forward. Despite the fear and uncertainty, our employees showed incredible dedication, keeping operations running while adhering to changing safety measures. Their commitment to the company and to each other made all the difference during this critical moment in the company’s history. I’ll be forever grateful for their influence on our success.

Decisions With Devastating Impacts
In the first few weeks of the pandemic, we heard the talking heads promise that this shutdown would only last a couple of weeks. In our war room meetings, we knew better. If you shut the world down, it’s going to take years to turn it around—and it did.
The mandates led to other serious challenges, such as supply chain disruptions, massive labor shortages, and eventually inflation caused by the trillions in COVID relief pumped into the economy. Our projects started dragging out for years instead of months, causing widespread financial issues that have taken us years to recover from. Labor became a major issue, as some people didn’t want to return to work or couldn’t return to work. We had to work hard to recruit employees, and we had to be creative. Almost 100% of the live-event production workers, who we often relied on for extra labor, were greatly affected during this time as live events came to a halt. Many of them had to find other careers because they couldn’t wait it out. Part of our solution was to put many of them to work for over a year, bridging the gap until they could get back to doing live events.

The Reward of Perseverance
It’s been a long road, but the rewards of our perseverance are undeniable. Five years after the start of the pandemic, we are thriving again. We’ve learned the value of resilience, creativity, and staying the course—even when the world seemed determined to make it difficult.
Looking back, across-the-board shutdowns may not have been the answer. While the health concerns were very real, the blanket policies made by people not directly affected by their decisions destroyed small businesses unnecessarily. With the right approach, precautions, and flexibility, many businesses could have continued operating, kept people employed, and kept contributing to the economy. The COVID-19 pandemic taught us many lessons, but perhaps the most important is that businesses need the freedom to adapt, pivot, and survive on their own terms. Our story proves that with resilience, adaptability, and faith in the people who make a business thrive, survival was—and still is—possible.

Donnie Brawner, Partner, Colligo Holdings

CEO/Owner, Paragon 360 & Paragon Fabrication

Originally Featured in Springfield Business Journal: Thriving Against the Odds: The COVID Journey 5 Years Later