Welcome to our Meeting

Why are you here?

"Why do you want to be an entrepreneur in the first place?"

Paul was asking the question because he was getting tired of Larry's rambling complaints: nothing was going as planned; he was not having any fun and still not making any money.

But it was a good question. Most of us ask it of ourselves occasionally and we all have different answers. Larry had probably asked himself the question recently too, but now we were all wondering the same thing.

"If it's that bad, why would you ever quit your day job? Maybe it's time to get back to work on your corporate career."

"Hell no," said Larry. "This business may not always be fun or profitable, but it will always be better than that."

We all agreed.

"Right," said Stan, "I may be a lousy manager, but I'm still the best boss I ever had. It sure beats working for somebody else."

"And it's so satisfying to make your own decisions and live with the results, good or bad," added Vivian.

"OK, so let's talk today about how we got started in business and why we did," I said, "It will help Larry's thinking and give us all a healthy reminder of why we are entrepreneurs. A good start to the day - unless we decide someone made a mistake and shouldn't be here!"

So we adjusted the day's agenda based on the discussion already started. (Not the first time we had done that.)

Welcome to the e2eForum

We are a group of entrepreneurs that meet regularly - every third Thursday of the month over breakfast from 7:30 to 9:00AM, missing rush-hour traffic, but before missing any of the work day.

I had started this group about six months ago with Paul, the owner of a machine shop who had done well for over twenty years and was now thinking of his retirement plan. We both valued the opportunity to share ideas and experiences with other entrepreneurs, especially in a quiet, confidential environment without any conflicting or competing interests and I had organized similar peer advisory groups in the past.

In the first few weeks, we had added other members and now there were seven of us, including me and Paul. The others all come from different businesses and are at different stages in their business life cycle. You will get to know them better in the next few meetings.

The newest entrepreneur is Larry, a young software engineer planning to leave his day job soon to launch a mobile app for monitoring personal health and fitness. He has developed an initial version and is test marketing it with free downloads. He is still drafting his business plan while starting to develop connections with potential strategic partners and sources of financing. He is at the very early-stage of starting his own business.

Vivian is a veterinarian and pet store owner. She has run her own pet store and clinic for about six years and is very dedicated to healthy, natural and personalized pet care. She is now trying to develop and expand her single suburban location into a franchised business.

Brian is also a young entrepreneur, but has been running a Web development and e-commerce business since leaving university four years ago. He had discovered his aptitude for computer science in high school when he started designing his own computer games. Since then he has learned that he also has an aptitude for business and often impresses us with his ability to manage the technology and the operational requirements of his business while maintaining strategic focus on his long-term plan.

Stan is the second generation owner of a small commercial service business. Typical of service businesses, his father started the business as an independent contractor. He was installing heating and air conditioning equipment in residential construction projects and eventually grew his business to eight employees specializing in commercial heating and ventilation equipment. Stan started working with his father after high school and acquired all the necessary industry training and certifications, but struggles with managing the business since his father passed away two years ago and he had to take over.

Dave is a forty-something engineer, MBA and former corporate executive, now running an import/distribution business for high performance bicycles. He made the leap when his career plan needed a jolt and his employer offered only more of the same. He was introduced by a fellow cyclist to a new high performance bicycle from Italy that needed marketing and distribution in North America. The opportunity fit with his management experience and it got him excited enough to put in a big chunk of his own money and sign personal guarantees for a line of credit to get started. Now in his third year, he faces challenges to manage both the manufacturer and the bank to keep up with his rapid sales growth.

We were all here this morning and had now agreed on the following agenda.

Discussion points: How to succeed

• When to leap?

• What do you need before you start?

• Who will succeed and who will not?

• Why and why not?

All very philosophical questions, but necessary to think about - before, during and after any entrepreneurial adventure.

Larry started with the first question, "So how did you get started as an entrepreneur, Uncle Ralph?"

"Well," I replied, "I often say that starting your own business is a lot like sky-diving - it seems like an exciting idea, but you're not likely to do it until you're pushed out the door."

"In my case, I had literally been pushed out the door of a technology company (AES Data) that was winding down and my number came up. Not a surprise, since I had spent the previous nine months closing facilities and letting people go, but it was a painful experience, nonetheless. I quickly had two other corporate job offers from Nortel and Rolls Royce, both with similar job descriptions and compensation packages, but I decided it was time to take care of my own career plan and not let someone else decide whether I had a job and what I was doing next. Besides, with an MBA and lots of experience, I was ready to prove that I was at least as good a manager and businessman as the people I had been working for. So I went back to consulting on my own and started to explore opportunities to start in business for myself."

"That's when I met the owners of...