The Last 20 Years

Twenty years ago, running a business in Texarkana was largely about execution. You opened the doors, did good work, treated people fairly, and relied on reputation to carry you forward. Operations were often informal, decisions lived in the owner’s head, and growth happened when demand showed up.

That model doesn’t work anymore.

Over the last two decades, Texas businesses have become more system-driven. The shift hasn’t been about chasing trends. It’s been about survival, scale, and sustainability in a more complex operating environment.

In the early 2000s, many businesses ran on paper files, manual accounting, and local media marketing. If something broke, the owner fixed it. If someone quit, you hired another person and kept moving.

Today, businesses are expected to operate with:

This didn’t happen because business owners wanted more software. It happened because changes in technology pushed the agenda forward. You either adapted or were left behind.

Hiring used to be reactive. Now it’s ongoing.

As Texas grew — particularly through population, energy cycles, and corporate relocations — competition for talent increased. Businesses in Texarkana that once hired locally and informally now partner with schools, training programs, and workforce initiatives to ensure long-term stability.

Retention, culture, and career paths became operational concerns. Businesses that ignored this found themselves stuck in a revolving door of turnover that chipped away at their bottom line.

As more large companies relocated or expanded into Texas, expectations changed across the board. Vendor requirements became stricter. Compliance mattered more. Reporting timelines tightened. Insurance, safety, and documentation moved from “best practice” to “baseline.”

Small and mid-sized businesses lost ground, but not because they weren’t good at what they did. They struggled because the rules of engagement changed. Even small lawn maintenance companies are now required to fill out complex bidding forms, submit vendor documents, and show proof of commercial insurance coverage like liability and worker’s compensation if they want to compete.

Formalization impacted businesses of all sizes, forcing even the mom-and-pop shops into standardizing business processes.

COVID didn’t create operational change. It sped it up.

Remote work, cloud systems, automation, and digital communication moved from optional to essential almost overnight. Businesses that already had systems in place adapted faster. Those that didn’t were forced to build them under pressure.

Many of those changes never rolled back. The expectation now is flexibility, transparency, and continuity, even during disruption.

Today, visibility is operational. Not to say that marketing wasn’t important in the past. It was. But it was more about the message.

Customer discovery has moved online. Reviews, websites, search presence, and reputation now affect day-to-day revenue just as much as pricing or staffing. Businesses that treat visibility as “extra” often feel like growth is unpredictable — because it is.

Consumers are inundated with marketing messages- some say thousands per day. With this over-exposure, business viability now depends on trust, not the message. When researching their purchase, things like ratings, reviews, and consistency online has influence on buying decisions.

Modern operations account for how customers find you and whether they want to do business with you, not just how you serve them.

The biggest shift over the last 20 years isn’t necessarily technology or policy — it’s mindset. Successful businesses are still asking, “How do I keep up?” but have added, “How do I build something that can run, scale, and withstand change?” to the conversation.

In today’s business scene, opening the doors to your new business involves more than your physical storefront. And while there will always be a longing for the simplicity of the past, the future of Texarkana depends on the decisions we all make today.