The Courage to Act: The Entrepreneurial Spirit

Theresa Sgrignoli was good at her job — too good. For years her boss complained that she was selling outside her territory, even though satisfied customers had referred the new clients to her.

David Marsolais, after working hard for an advanced business degree, discovered his current job offered no promotion potential. On the contrary, his employer was in the midst of cutting positions.

Michael Nelson saw the chance of a lifetime. He knew he would soon burn out of his current job as a schoolteacher. If he didn’t go for this opportunity, he would always wonder if he could have succeeded.

Instead of waiting for things to happen to them, the three above took charge of their lives: they started their own businesses. They, along with other successful small business owners, share the entrepreneurial spirit, the force that allows them to succeed despite the many obstacles and pitfalls of business ownership. Often the entrepreneurial spirit remains hidden until triggered by the right circumstances such as job frustration, a layoff, or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Sgrignoli hadn’t planned to start a business, but one day she and her boss had a disagreement. She thought, “Why don’t I just do this for myself?” Quitting her job, she opened her business, Elite Business Forms and Printing.

Rather than stay in a position where he couldn’t grow, Marsolais took an early retirement. After helping a business-owner friend set up a safety program, Marsolais realized many other business owners could use his help. His company, Marcomm Consulting, helps businesses comply with OSHA safety regulations.

For Nelson and his company, SacWeb, the opportunity was the World Wide Web’s rapid growth. “The timing was right; everything fell into place at just the right time. And I was financially in a position that I could afford to take a risk.”

Entrepreneurs share many characteristics besides the ability to take risks. A key entrepreneurial trait is a love for their professions and belief in the value of their services. As Sgrignoli said, “If you love the industry you’re in, you’re going to have more dreams than if you don’t.”

Nelson certainly enjoys his work building websites. “I love my job, I absolutely love it," he said.

Marsolais not only enjoys what he does but also believes the services provided by his business, Marcomm Consulting, help his clients concentrate on their core business. “There’s a lot of joy and satisfaction in what we do. We know that a lot of business owners just don’t have time [to set up a safety training program],” said Marsolais.

Ann Thacker of The Thacker Group public relations agency feels the same way. “I love to sell our services, because I feel like it’s not really selling. We offer a very important service for food companies and commodity boards in terms of exposing their products.”

Thacker started The Thacker Group after relocating from Texas to California. After doing some successful independent contract work, she and her husband-partner Tom Vortmann had thought, “Do we really have something here that we can offer that people need and want?” And the business grew.

The willingness to work as hard as necessary to make their businesses grow is a primary ingredient of the entrepreneurial spirit. Most entrepreneurs find themselves working longer and harder than they ever have in their lives. Yet knowing they’re working for themselves, not someone else, allows them to put in those 14-hour, or longer, days.

“We want to control our own lives, we want to control our destiny, work less hours ultimately — and we all work double the hours we did at our previous job,” commented Nelson.

Chuck Rovenstine, ExecuChef Caterers, said, “Employers complain nobody wants to work any more. What they’re saying in reality is, ‘Nobody wants to work as hard as I’m forced to because I own my own small business.’ And they’re right — most people don’t want to work that hard; that’s why they don’t have their own small business.”

Besides working hard, successful entrepreneurs also provide great customer service. They want their customers to be satisfied, and sometimes that means educating the client on how best to use the entrepreneur’s services. That effort to provide quality service and products enables entrepreneurs to grow through repeat business.

“When you get the work in the door and you take care of your customer’s need, give them an experience that they remember, go above and beyond their expectations, and deliver more than they expected, they continue to come back and they refer other people,” said Carle Griffith of Ad FX.

Griffith had managed an advertising art department until the entire department was laid off. Knowing a layoff was possible, he had talked about opening a business with one of his coworkers just the week before the notice came out. Faced with the reality of the layoff, he and his partner, Neil Riehle, put words into action.

Having the courage to act on their dreams is one trademark of the entrepreneur. Refusing to give up even when the business seems to be failing or the work required of the entrepreneur appears unending marks the successful entrepreneur.

“There have been times in this business, when logically . . . there was no reason at all for us to go down to the store and unlock the door," Rovenstine said. "But there is a magic thing about people who have guts to try to start their own business.”

Part of that magic is the belief that starting a business is the right and only thing to do. This conviction supports entrepreneurs through the tough times.

“The faith that I was in the right business, that I was doing the right kinds of things” buoyed Nelson, for instance, while Sgrignoli “believed in what I was doing. I knew I had no choice; I had to make this [business] work.”

Serious entrepreneurs also pursue knowledge on all aspects of running a business; they realize operating a successful business requires more than knowing a trade. Learning becomes a constant part of the entrepreneur’s life.

“Anybody who stops learning is never going to make it. You have to keep reeducating yourself all the time, I don’t care where you are or what you’re doing,” Rovenstine said.

Sgrignoli also emphasized the importance of learning how to run a business. “I’ve seen a lot of companies fail . . . because you’re good at your trade doesn’t mean you’re going to have a successful business,” Sgrignoli said.

Aware of that danger, Griffith “spent a lot of time educating myself on the business of business. I realized I need to know how to market, I need to know how to do sales, I need to know customer relations — all those kinds of things.”

Entrepreneurs, then, want control of their work, love what they do, enjoy providing a service or product that helps their customers, are willing to work nearly all their waking hours, constantly educate themselves, and believe in themselves and their products. Or, as summed up by Sgrignoli, the entrepreneurial spirit is “that dream of wanting to put the whole world on their shoulders.”

Published in The Business Resource

“There is a magic thing about people who have guts to try to start their own business.” — Chuck Rovenstine