Business View Magazine | January 2021

168 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JANUARY 2021 aggressively over the last three years, a trend that Probst hopes to resume once the post- pandemic economy rebounds. He notes, “We were very fortunate to have had a good amount of engineering work in-house when the pandemic hit. We haven’t had to cut staff, and we’ve been working at being more efficient and targeting other types of work that can benefit from our expertise.” While the company saw some larger projects put on hold, a realignment of internal resources and a focus on other service lines within the industry has helped buoy the company’s prospects. “We are not abandoning what we have historically done,” Probst explains, “but branching out and letting the market know that our expertise can serve other needs too.” To tap into these new opportunities, the company has been touching base with past and potential clients to discuss what other challenges they may face concerning their wastewater systems. They discovered one surprising need that was common among most of the companies they spoke to. “A lot of the discussions revolved around contingency planning,” shares Probst. “The companies we spoke to were concerned about what would happen if they lost some or all of the staff running their wastewater management plants.” This concern stems from the fact that most wastewater operations are run by a handful of highly skilled engineers and wastewater operators, making it a significant challenge to replace even one team member who becomes indisposed. The Probst Group sees this as an opportunity. “We are reaching out to some potential clients and sharing the offerings of our operations