Thursday, February 26, 1998

Starting a company takes discipline, drive

By Jan Norman / The Orange County Register

I have heard it a thousand times interviewing small-business owners: "I went into business for myself because I wanted to be the boss."

Contrary to pessimists' depiction of late 20th-century America in retreat from personal responsibility, thousands launch new businesses each year.

Some leave corporate life voluntarily; some are pushed out. Even those most eager to seize the reins of management say the transition is elating and daunting.

"It takes a lot of guts just to get started, but then they have to develop business management skills. It isn't easy," said management consultant Jack Mixner, owner of Strategic Business Group in Fullerton, Calif.

Many entrepreneurs leap into business ventures on the strength of their technical expertise, Mixner observes. "They have the vision but they don't know how to turn it into results."

That's when they must learn to manage their cash, market their products and services, take advice from pros, focus on the customer and install professional managers, he adds.

ÔMy best clients never stop asking questions," Mixner added.

Many new business owners have a false sense of management, agrees Patricia Velasquez, partner in Continental Financial Services and Advance Realty in Santa Ana, Calif.

"You think, ÔHow difficult can this be? I've done this before,' " said Velasquez, who worked at a large bank before starting her company in 1989. "But in a big corporation, you have a very defined role. On your own, it's a whole different ball game. You do everything."

Not every corporate manager moves into business ownership, said Seal Beach, Calif., consultant Vance Caesar.

"They must have four characteristics plus a shock in their life, a shot to the head," he said. "Maybe it's a boss who treats them so badly they have to leave. They're fired. The company is sold."

The four characteristics shown by the overwhelming majority of entrepreneurs Caesar studied for his doctorate include enormous drive, high confidence in their learning ability and self-responsibility -- but low respect for their accomplishments.

Caesar notes people have different skills, and "some have more drive, and it's measurable even at the age of 6."

The ability to motivate and organize oneself is the key factor that distinguishes the person who leaves corporate life for self-employment, said Dick Seaholm, who quit the air-conditioning industry after 40 years to start Rich Mar Transfers, a Costa Mesa, Calif., screen printer.

Many screen printers have technical skills but fail to organize their business life and prioritize the work.

"They do the busywork that is easy to do instead of the important, fundamental things," he said. "It's easy to procrastinate. You have to motivate yourself every day to work toward your goal."

Roy Robbins was so eager to be his own boss that he volunteered for layoffs from Hughes Aircraft in 1992. He started Bad Moon Books, a mail order and Internet bookseller specializing in collectable editions of horror and mystery.

"You have to be driven. I work harder now than I did at Hughes," he said. "I get up at 5 a.m. because I have a lot of business in the United Kingdom."

Velasquez's biggest adjustment to business ownership was the need to do everything.

"The bank had layers of management; here my partner and I are the only layer," she said.

Velasquez used to turn employee issues over to the bank's human resources department with its personnel manuals and experts. At Continental, she has had to learn to manage personnel problems herself.

"In college I hated accounting," she said, "but as a business owner I'm forced to do it."

A business owner accepts a level of uncertainty that corporate dwellers don't have, Robbins said.

"I don't consider myself much of a risk-taker, but (as a business owner) I have to live in the unknown," he said.

Seaholm compares this uncertainty with a sales job he once had in which he lived strictly on commissions.

"The security was gone," he said. "At first it scared me. What if I failed? But you don't. You just get out and do it."

Robbins notes a major difference in his attitude as a business owner than he had as a Hughes manager.

"I enjoy this," he said.

"Fourteen hours here seems less than (working) eight hours at Hughes. You have to like what you're doing or you're going to fail because of the hours you put in," Robbins said.

Seaholm agrees, adding the familiar entrepreneurial oath that he'd never go back to corporate America.

"My worst nightmare is waking up with a job again," Seaholm said.

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(c) 1998, The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.).

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