A Conversation With ... Rita Baron

Tell us about Baron Design Associates.

We opened in February 2003. We have four full time (employees) and one part time, and of those, two are architects. As a small firm, we never say no to work. We design renovations, completely new projects and new construction. We do buildings for banks, government, medical and retail. We don't do residential.

What's your role?

I get involved from the very beginning all the way to the end of a project. I get attached to the project. What's nice about small firms is that all of us tend to work on them. Everybody wants to be part of the project. We've got a great team - all detail-oriented. We all get greedy and want to be involved, which is good, because we catch each other making mistakes and we give each other a hard time. I'm not saying it's always perfect, because when you put designers in one room, you have a lot of egos, but we tend to kind of work through it.

What lessons can you share about starting a business?

I think you need to be hands-on with everything. Marketing is very important; getting yourself into the community. It was hard in the beginning when we'd go apply for a project and they'd turn us down. We'd ask why ... and they'd say, "Well, you don't have the experience." We did so much in presenting - and I think that's a key, too. In our presentations, we worked so hard to let (the presentations) speak and be as creative, to say, "Give us the opportunity. We can do this." That was hard, and it took us a while. The first year or two, we probably had two projects, but they were good-size projects, to keep us going. Also, keep your overhead low as can be.

How has the recession affected business?

Six months ago, I got a little bit scared, because we had few projects. I got worried. Serving on a bank board, you know how banks are right now ... and when you don't loan money to people, people stop construction. My concern was how long it was going to last. But I'm seeing it picking up. I'm not saying we have tons of projects, but it's OK. We're not in a panic mode. We didn't have to lay any people off. We got lucky.

What helped you avoid panic mode?

Part of what's helped us is staying small. I always think in the back of my mind, "OK, we're not going to spend everything we have just in case something happens, so that we're able to get through it and get back on track." When the day comes that you're doing so well and you're on top of the world, and you think things are going to stay like this, don't. Put the brakes on. Because the way I see it, is there's an end to every honeymoon. If we are so busy today, fantastic. Let's keep what we have and work a little bit of overtime so we don't have to go and hire more people. Because there's one thing I would hate to do, and I avoid it as much as I can. I don't want to let anybody go.

What goals do you have?

I don't want to grow too much, because I want to allow for time to spend with my family. And that's the same mentality as the people here with me, too. Yes, we want to make money, but we want to do more unique projects. We're trying to move away from (designs) where everybody else does the same thing. My goal is to have more diverse projects. We want some things different in each building.

You're Lebanese. How did you end up in Springfield?

I am one of eight children, and between my oldest brother and I, there are 19 years. My mother never left the country, but ... she wanted to come see her children in the U.S. every six months. I would come with her as the youngest, and finally, I begged so much (that) I came from here from Lebanon probably in 1985, as a teenager and finished high school in Las Vegas. I decided to stay (in the U.S.) because of the situation back home, with the war. That broke my mother's heart that I stayed with my brothers. I continued my education, and went to Europe for almost a year and studied architecture there, too. I came back, met my husband and he swept me off my feet. I married him and came to Springfield.

Tell us about your family.

My husband, Keesag, is a cardiologist. We have two daughters, Zomor, 6, and Zabelle, 5. They're 15 months apart. I have a sister ... in Kuwait (and) we're trying to get the one who stayed in Kuwait to come here. The Baron family loves to travel, and that's very important, mainly because of our family, none of them are here.

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