Caster Connection Featured In Smart Business Columbus Magazine

Smart Business Columbus:

Sally Hughes revitalized Caster Connection by making tough choices

No one ever said running a successful business is easy. Sally Hughes, president and CEO of Caster Connection, has stretched herself to the limit time and again, making difficult decisions along the way to bring her company to its present-day prosperity.

Today, Caster Connection employs a stellar team and is on track for continuous, sustainable growth. But that wasn’t always the case.

Several years ago, Hughes began to recognize stagnant growth and a blasé attitude among her employees that she knew had to be adjusted for her company to survive and thrive.

The tipping point

Hughes launched Caster Connection in 1987 in Chardon, Ohio, near Cleveland. Nine years later, she married her husband, who lived in Columbus, and moved there to be with him and raise their family.

Hughes traveled between Columbus and Chardon, keeping a general manager to run day-to-day operations.

In 2001, she opened a location near Detroit to be close to the Big Three automakers and serve Caster Connection’s clients better. But the business wasn’t growing.

“The nature of the business was very complacent,” she says. “But I believed the company had a lot more potential.”

By 2008, Hughes knew she either had to move the company to Columbus, or move back to Chardon to refocus the business and spur growth.

During one of the least stable economic years in recent U.S. history, Hughes made the first of a series of difficult decisions: She would consolidate the company back under one roof — in Columbus.

Read the rest of the article here.