Nashville businesses watch, wait

  • September 29, 2008

Credit: Getahn Ward from the Tennessean

Wall Street uncertainty has operators hoping for upturn, bracing for worse

Nashville-area small-business leaders remain wary of the week ahead on Wall Street — keeping a tight lid on hiring and a watchful eye on the Dow Jones stock ticker as a sign of whether consumer confidence bounces back.

Over the past year, Stewart Building Supply has had to let go about 40 percent of its work force, said Bill Stewart, president of the company, reflecting weaker demand for products such as windows, roofing, siding and lumber that it sells to homebuilders across Middle Tennessee. That’s because construction of single-family homes in the Nashville area is limping along at less than half the pace of a year ago.

“They’ve got to get the financial problems worked out first before they start building homes,” Stewart said, referring to banks and other commercial lenders who deal with builders.

Longtime real estate agent Shirley Zeitlin said business is slower than last year. But she has still managed to add offices and agents and update her company’s advertising materials and brand. “You can’t stick your head in the sand,” she said. “You have to take a slowdown as an opportunity to position yourself for the future.”

Uncertainty in the credit markets and overall U.S. economy has made Pamela Little’s task of developing next year’s marketing plans and budget for her company more difficult. She’s director of sales and marketing for Cooper Hotel Properties, which operates five Doubletree hotels in the state.

Little said she’s been hoping politicians in Washington take steps to cure the ailing U.S. economy. The hotel industry has already felt the ill effects of rising fuel costs, and it’s bracing for more flight cutbacks by financially strapped airlines that could keep potential guests grounded in the months to come.

“We have to have some type of (financial) plan because people currently are in a state of panic,” Little said, referring to efforts by the Bush administration and Congress to solve the latest Wall Street crisis. “They have to take decisive action. Until that time, we’re going to be in a state of flux and people are going to be very conservative in their spending.”

Jim Tracy, owner of an insurance agency that bears his name in Shelbyville and Murfreesboro, worries about the ripple effects if Congress doesn’t manage to salve the wounds of the nation’s financial markets.

He sees the impact of consumers taking a wait-and-see approach rather than making big purchases. “If people don’t buy houses, it affects how much insurance we sell,” said Tracy, a Republican state senator in Shelbyville.

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