Financial Champion: ORMS

Industry: Business Services Top Executive: Derek Ezovski, President Headquarters: West Hartford Website: www.ORMS.com Q&A talks to Derek Ezovski, president of West Hartford-based ORMS. Can you describe your business? ORMS helps lenders and other real estate professionals to order, understand and manage environmental issues on commercial real estate loans. As an outsourced firm, we allow lenders that don’t have the volume or expertise to hire internal staff to have a dedicated environmental department. How did you get into this business? What motivated you? My godfather, Gary Ezovski, was my mentor and got me interested in the environmental field. After college, my career has always been in the area of explaining environmental risk to non-technical people.  How many employees do you have? Five full-time employees and up to 10 to 12 part-time employees and contractors. What has been your biggest accomplishment? Our biggest accomplishment has been having a small but hugely talented team. The best part is that our clients really respect and genuinely like and appreciate what ORMS does. So many of our clients are now friends as well.  What advice would you give to other small businesses, especially during this difficult time? Patience, hard work, network with as many people as you can, be nice and get involved with industry trade groups (and maybe a little luck helps as well).  We started the Small Business Administration part of our business from a random meeting with the Community Investment Corporation at a trade show. It is now the largest part of our business. What strengths have you discovered about yourself and your employees during this past year? After the initial shock of the COVID shutdown, the real estate market blew up and really put a lot of pressure on our team. However, when you have the right people on board, they will do whatever they need to do to get the job done, including working long hours and helping clients.