Each year, The Evening Sun tries to gauge how area businesses are doing. How is Chenango County progressing and what does the future hold for us?

No two businesses are the same, but after speaking with many of the business owners on my list this year, I got used to hearing a lot of familiar answers, and some of them left me truly surprised.

Going into this year’s Progress interviews, I knew that many business owners were apprehensive about this year’s publication. After a difficult year, the idea of speaking with the press about all of the year’s ups and downs wasn’t something that many business executives were looking forward to. Especially when the downs seemed to outnumber the ups. To be honest, I was a little nervous about what I would discover in the interviews too. I don’t know how those individuals felt after our interviews were complete, but I know I left with a new found feeling of hope for the future of our county.

I don’t want to give away any of the particulars about our coming publication, but I can say I heard a lot of individuals say they were reluctant to talk about 2008. The year was difficult for businesses across the board. Some were forced to decrease the size of their staff. Others faced lower profits, increased prices and other issues that made their markets difficult to overcome this year.