When did I know that I was an entrepreneur?

I knew as early as grade school that I had inherited that leadership gene from my dad. I definitely learned and emulated what I observed. In grade school, I was a treasurer in the Girl Scouts and as I entered middle school, I ran for president of the student council in the seventh grade (and won!).

When I was in my first semester of college, I wrote a paper on the value of experience versus education. At Thanksgiving, I went home and convinced my parents to let me quit school at the end of the semester. I jumped right into corporate America, at that point, working for Miller Brewing Company in their accounting department.

Throughout my more than twenty-year corporate career I saw all kinds of signs of my entrepreneurial bent, but didn’t recognize it then for what it was.

I was always more comfortable thinking outside of the box than my corporate peers were, which is why I was singled out for nearly every special project. Normally they began with a concept and a blank sheet of paper. I was in my element! I also felt tremendously stifled by having to make decisions by committee, particularly when I knew that I was capable of weighing the pros and cons independently and arriving at the same answer in a fraction of the time.

Thirteen years ago, I moved out of corporate life and formed my own consulting firm. I knew that I enjoyed project work and it was great to find out what I did quite naturally (and really without a lot of effort) was valuable to other people. It was a perfect first venture, as it did not require any up-front capital. While I spread my entrepreneurial wings, my husband took a safe sales job with a good salary, upside commissions, and health benefits, which gave me the room to grow the business slowly without pressure. One of the shows that I host weekly is titled “Corporate Escape Artists”. That show is a joint venture with Pamela Skillings, the author of Escape from Corporate America and having an exit plan to make the transition from corporate life to your own business is a common theme on our show.

Later, we moved from Atlanta to Tampa and my husband began to work with me, providing all of the administrative support for the company. I didn’t realize it, but when he came to work for me, we moved into Stage Two Entrepreneurialism—no safety net (formerly provided by the spouse’s salary and benefits)!

Three years ago, following ten very successful years in consulting, we had our biggest year ever—forty projects for twenty-five clients. And for the first time ever, we lost money due to the increase in overhead needed as we grew. I was totally burned out, physically and mentally, and ended up having to take three months off to recover from major surgery. While I was off, I realized that I had a lot of great business under my belt and amazing experience but no retirement plan or a way to sell what I had built. It is amazing the reflection that is possible during times like these.

What happened next was the realization that it was time to build something that was lasting so we could sell it, whether it was five or ten years down the road. That was going to take the “I” word—investment. What I really learned was that Stage Three Entrepreneurialism is when you have to master bootstrapping. That is, if you are going to build enough value to get to the end game and retain enough value before you have to take in outside investment. While I thought I had been an entrepreneur for thirteen years, now I say that until you have paid payroll with MasterCard or Visa you can’t really call yourself an entrepreneur.

excerpt from Bootstrap Business, published by Insight Publishing