Insights

From Brick and Mortar to HaaS: Reinventing Local Commerce

Steele Waters In our rapidly digitizing world, where e-commerce behemoths reign supreme, the iconic Main Street, a living emblem of local commerce, communal bonds, and collective identities, grapples with existential threats. Main Street has always epitomized more than just a trading center. It’s a testament to community spirit, local enterprise, and shared stories. But as commerce swells with its digital leanings and the expenses associated with physical establishments continue to soar, the traditional charm and functionality of Main Street are undoubtedly at risk. The meteoric rise of Amazon and its e-commerce contemporaries has recalibrated consumer expectations. They’ve introduced a world replete with vast product assortments, swift logistics, and intuitive user experiences. Set against this backdrop, our local businesses, often operating with constrained resources, are faced with the monumental challenge of do-or-die evolution. It is this climate that Steele Waters presents a pioneering approach: introducing HaaS to the realm of hyperlocal

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Project Managers: Boone or Bain of Developer Success

As with any venture, execution is key. The consistent responsibility of a Project Manager (PM) is to ensure an on-time and on-budget end result. While this is a simple concept, the ability for the PM to deliver on this parallel objective is often multi-faceted, highly complex, and relies heavily on several critical factors. We begin with the assumption that the credentialing (licensure, insurance, etc.) of the prospective candidate, or the prospective candidate’s firm, has already undergone a thorough review process. Demographic Experience When selecting your PM, it is critical to understand the history of their local involvement in previous projects. Local government representatives will often give permitting preference to planned projects featuring a PM with local experience, stellar local reputation, and other related factors. This one value-add can meaningfully shorten the permitting timeline from application to actual ground-breaking. Another key advantage of demographic experience is the General Contractor (GC) component.

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