In the world of romance and marriage, many people love “How We Met” stories. When people ask me, I tell them my wife-to-be picked me up in a beer tent, and it’s mostly a true story.
In the world of business, “How We Started” stories are just about as popular. While some people grow up wanting to own a company, it seems most of us are not born with entrepreneur genes. We go to school with the aim to “get a job,” never thinking we could ever be the one doing the hiring.
Then something happens and our outlook changes. The triggering events and the key motivations vary greatly. Not all motivations are healthy, and some businesses fail as a result. In the end it’s not the motivation that matters but the execution. Still, the stories are worth hearing.
Getting even
One fellow I know started a book publishing company after the publisher he was working for laid him off. He did it for vengeance – he became his old employer’s direct competitor. Unfortunately, the poverty of his motive was exceeded only by his lack of capital, and he failed horribly.
Another friend talked often about having been born to be a “good soldier” – he could never run a business, he said. But then his employer of many years laid him off, and he got to thinking: “Why exactly was it that I couldn’t run a company?”
He found no good reason why not, went into business, and has been happily self-employed for 13 years.
Still another friend worked for steel distributing companies for about 15 years and did very well as an inside and later outside salesman. The trouble was that the market went up and down, and his companies kept laying him off, or his branch office would close, at which point he would hire on somewhere else.
After this happened for the third time, he and an associate said, “Enough of this.” They formed a steel sales outlet as partners and, with all their experience in the industry, were well on their way in no time.
One more acquaintance went into business simply because he “got tired of making other people rich.” He started a distributorship with large-format computer printers at about age 40, did exceedingly well, sold out 15 years later, and retired comfortably at 55.
Many motives
The two businesses profiled in this issue of Cleaner started quite differently. Subterrain Technologies in Palmetto, Fla., was founded by five brothers with a vision of what trenchless technology could do for customers. Central Iowa Televising founder Kevin Jacobson launched the business with his son while also working full-time for a city in water and wastewater treatment.
Sometimes money is the driving force. Other times it’s the desire just to “be one’s own boss.” Sometimes it’s about having lifestyle flexibility (though the demands of customers can get in the way of that goal).
As interesting as startup stories can be, what I call “thin soup” stories can be even better. Many businesses start out in extremely humble settings. Two former bosses in an ad agency where I worked started their own venture and worked out of one partner’s basement on desks made of doors laid across sawhorses.
Sometimes it takes quite a while before the entrepreneur can draw a salary – people I know have cut every conceivable personal expense, right down to newspaper and magazine subscriptions, just to get through the first year or two, after which the business rewarded them.
Cleaner would like to hear stories about your startup – why you took the leap and how you made it work through the early months and years. Send a note to editor@cleaner.com and briefly describe your experience. I promise to respond, and we’ll report on some of the contributions in a future issue.
