Oregon CPR

Katrina Purdy grew up listening to her stepfather tell interesting stories from his thirty-year career in the health care industry. Born fifty miles outside of New York City, Katrina always wanted to work for herself. Moving to Maryland in 2000 she owned a catering business, taxi company and cleaning service. It wasn’t until her brother went into cardiac arrest at the age of thirty-two while playing rugby in New York, that Katrina knew she had found her calling. After visiting her younger brother in Eugene, she knew she had found her home, and a business she really felt passionate about. “I flew home, packed up my car and drove back (to Oregon), and I’ve been very happy here” says Katrina.

Katrina’s business, Oregon CPR, provides customizable CPR classes to Eugene/Springfield and the surrounding areas. Oregon CPR is certified by the American Heart Association, American Red Cross and American Health & Safety Institute. They provide CPR/AED/First Aid and Basic Life Support for Healthcare Providers (BLS) classes, as well as parenting and even pet CPR classes. The opportunity for businesses to customize their CPR classes makes Oregon CPR unique in the industry.

When asked what impact the Lane Small Business Development Center had on Katrina’s business, she says, “I’ve learned so much from the marketing classes with Gary Smith.” In addition, Katrina says the Small Business Management Program helped her to set goals, manage her time, understand cash flow and overall be a better business owner and boss.

Katrina is a busy business owner and has no plans of slowing down. “My CPR business has been growing more and more every year to a point where we have recently had to move to a larger location and purchase a lot more equipment” she says. She hopes in the next five years to add more staff, as well as travel outside Lane County to teach CPR classes. Katrina has advice for others thinking about starting a small business, “It takes a lot of time and energy to learn all the different parts of owning your own business. If there is something you are not good at such as marketing, creating a website or accounting, hire someone to do it. The time it takes for you to learn those tasks would be wasted on your area of expertise.” If you need help juggling all the tasks of a small business owner, come see us at the Lane SBDC and we will help you get it all done!