More Focus on Business

• Try six tips to improve your customer service skills

Customer service may be the ultimate key to business longevity in the rural, close-knit cities of La Plata County.

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  The nature of nurturing

The Mathers family cares for customers as carefully as they tend their plants.

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  Keep ‘one-of-a-kind’ in mind

You see the familiar cairn in storefront windows, on the stickers around town, and in the popular Be Local coupon book. The cairn is a marker of a locally-owned independent...

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  Mirror of the community

This year marks the 60th year of the Ballantine family’s ownership of The Durango Herald, which was established in 1881. It’s one of the rare newspapers in the nation that has not...

• Teens learn to earn

The real world is full of unlimited opportunities and choices. We are exposed to good and bad, and we need to choose our own path, including how to find that first summer job.

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  Love seeped in chile

Julie Quintana started in the restaurant business at the tender age of 13. She would finish her studies, clean the school from 3 to 5 p.m., and then work at a restaurant in...