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The following article was published in the Charleston Post & Courier's Business Major, a featured monthly column in the Business Review Section on June 7, 1999. Success reached by many routesBy DOROTHY P. MOORE Special to the Post and Courier Over the past four years I have interviewed some 300 women entrepreneurs. Some are America's most successful women business owners. Their origins as entrepreneurs and their businesses differ markedly, but their stories have some important common elements. Rebecca represents the Intentional Entrepreneur. From childhood she knew she wanted to own her own building company. She earned an AB in architecture and an MS in building construction and then went to work for a construction firm to learn the practical side of the business. A Class "A" certified general contractor today, she operates one of the largest women-owned construction firms in the Southeastern United States. Suzy was majoring in art and working her way through college by selling whimsical drawings of animals and animal characters on the street when a vacationing couple stopped by one day and wondered if she would be interested in going into business selling illustrated note cards. The product lines of her business have expanded from boxed notes to cards for all occasions, stationery, and children's books. She has more than 900 designs on the market and export and licensing arrangements worldwide. Suzy exemplifies the Talent-Based Business Owner. After receiving her Ph.D. in a medical specialty, Gail intended to pursue a career as a medical researcher. But she recognized the potential from one of her bio-technical research products, co-founded a business to produce it, and took a temporary sabbatical to act as chief research scientist. With over 40 patents, her company has become an industry pioneer. Gail represents the Knowledge-Based Business Owner. Tricia fell ill and had to leave college before completing her degree, and a subsequent failed marriage left her with the necessity of supporting a small child. Recognizing that the income from her blue-collar job would not be enough, she took a friend's advice to capitalize on her selling skills and looked for a product to market. After a couple of false starts, she developed her own home product line and soon had more than 200 women selling it in the Northeast. From there she has branched out into consulting. She is an example of the Skill-Based Business Owner. Iris married, stayed home, raised children, and became interested in entrepreneurial ventures only as her children grew. She began her multi-faceted business career after receiving her securities license. She had followed the family-work pattern typical of the Delayed Entrepreneur. Many entrepreneurs began work in corporations with no thought of going into business for themselves, intending instead to climb the career ladders in their firms. But organizational value sets, pay inequities, limited access to training programs and mentoring, and infrequent opportunities for advancement led them to chart private courses. These entrepreneurs emerged from Blocked Careers. Carol is one. After more than 20 years with a major corporation for whom she had done a significant market research study, she found that not only were her bosses and peers rejecting her finding that the company needed to adjust radically to a changing market for technology, she was no longer considered a team player. Clear-eyed in the land of the blind, Carol quickly moved on to found a successful consulting firm that filled the very market gap she had identified. Diane practiced Parallel Career Pathing. Concluding she could rise no higher in management in the large corporation where she worked, Diane founded a company that provided needed services in her industry, then negotiated a golden parachute. Her former employer is now one of her clients. Maria exemplifies a Corporate Graduate. A Ph.D in biochemistry, with additional training in business and patent law, economics, and general and project management, she rose in her company to found one of her employer's most important subsidiaries. After doing this with spectacular success, she concluded that managing her own company could not be more difficult, and certainly would be more profitable. So she established her own business. Carole is a Boundary Spanner. Her career developed through a series of transitions that mixed corporate advancement and business ownership. A dean's list student in college, she acquired a top-10 MBA as she moved from architectural design to purchasing to chief corporate designer in the large company in which she worked. After a career block, she jumped to independent design work with her own business, liked that less than she had thought, and was recruited back to corporate life with another firm. She stayed there nine years and ultimately headed the company's planning and the facilities department. Observing that smaller companies could not afford their own planning and facilities department but badly needed the services one could provide when they got involved in major renovation, relocation or construction work, she started a company to fill the niche. Clair's work life is an example of The Managed Career Spiral. She began in a major bank in what is now the corporate finance department and moved across five companies over a span of 22 years doing mergers and acquisitions. Her work involved detailed study and analysis of firms and important business judgments. One day a headhunter called and said, "We've got this new job. We need somebody who can talk with bankers, talk to companies, talk with attorneys, who knows what a deal looks like, how it's put together and can supervise a team of 18 researchers." Claire moved on to this in the deal-making 1980s. When the field collapsed in the recession, with years of senior management and business experience in the investigations field, she moved from Wall Street to police investigations. A licensed private investigator, her all-female firm does corporate investigative work for major corporations, investment banks, and attorneys. What are the common factors in these business careers? Each of these entrepreneurs had trained and educated themselves to a high level before starting their businesses, even those whose businesses would be built on natural talent. Most acquired a skill or obtained knowledge well beyond their contemporaries. Most also spent enough time in a particular industry or field, usually working for someone else, to thoroughly understand it. All worked hard, but understood, or learned, that in today's world hard work is not always rewarded. These entrepreneurs were always ready to expect the unexpected; quick to spot and seize an opportunity, capable of dealing with a career setback when the downsizing, merger, or whatever occurred. They let their minds range freely beyond the limits of the positions they held at any one time. They anticipated change, planned ahead, and could move on if need be, to another company, or even to a distantly related field. Faced with a choice, they trusted their own judgment or the judgment of professionals and friends whose worth had been proved over the opinions of their employers. Their professional life can be summed up in the word researchers are beginning to use to describe a new phenomena that goes beyond career management. It is called "careerbanding." For Questions/Comments about this site, contact dot.moore@comcast.net. Site designed by Jackye Cocoros. |