Entrepreneurial traits come to some at young age

Passion. Trust. Perspective. Ingenuity. For today’s young entrepreneurs, these qualities can mean the difference between success and failure for a new business. Known for its entrepreneurial program, the University of Colorado at Boulder has helped many students make a go of it in the business world. The process of turning their ideas into reality has been challenging, rewarding and an incredible learning experience.
Despite the lessons they’ve learned, these entrepreneurs agree that if they were to do it all again, there is very little they would do differently. For them, all their decisions, good or bad, were part of the learning process and brought them to where they are today.

Bootstrapping operation brings out ingenuity
Justin Armstrong
CU MBA, ’05
Cairn Magazine

With one issue of Cairn Magazine in circulation and another about to be put on press, publisher Justin Armstrong, 33, says it is hard to consider himself a business owner.

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Looking for a career change and armed with an idea for a new magazine, Armstrong laid down the groundwork for his business while he was in graduate school and felt he was way ahead of the game when he graduated. However, money, or the lack of it, has proven to be a hefty obstacle.

“The upside is that you find a lot of ways you can bootstrap something,” Armstrong said. “Finding ways to make things work has been exciting.”

He currently works with volunteers who work out of their homes. Funding comes from advertising sales as well as friends and family.

Armstrong is looking forward to taking the business to the next level with an actual office and paid employees. As he gets another couple of issues under his belt, he is hoping his ad sales and subscriber base will pick up and the magazine will take off.

According to Armstrong, you can’t be afraid to put yourself out there. “The more I talk about the magazine and the more I connect with people, the more good things happen,” he said. “I’ve been kind of shy about self-promotion, but you can’t underestimate it.”

Putting all your efforts in a gift basket
Blair Brown
CU MBA ’05
Panier Gifts Inc.

Drawn by the ability to translate an idea into an actual concept and business, Blair Brown, 30, began Panier Gifts, a custom gift-basket company, with his wife, Katarina. Brown had been looking for a business with a low barrier to entry that was based on an online customization model. When half the gift basket items the couple received during the holidays ended up in the trash, the idea for their company clicked.

Brown took the idea through his business classes in spring 2005 to research its viability. He said this experience and his other MBA courses prepared him well for starting a new business.

But he wasn’t quite prepared for the extent to which he had to be involved in all aspects of the business. “It’s not all glamorous,” Brown said. “When you are the business, you are responsible for everything from the day-to-day business to deliveries and pickups.” Brown said although he had anticipated this to an extent, it was a bit of an awakening.

In addition to learning the special considerations involved in shipping fine foods, Brown said one pitfall he faced was learning sales skills. With no sales experience coming into the business, he has had to learn the best approaches as he goes.

Amidst the challenges, Brown has learned to keep perspective. “From day to day, your business is going to have good and bad days,” he said. “You have to make sure you don’t lose sight of where you want to go with company because you can get bogged down in the small things.”

Once customers arrive reality sets in

Jarret Roberts
Double Major in Business and Advertising
Expecting to graduate ’07
Trep CafÇ

As president of the Trep CafÇ at the Leeds School of Business at CU, business and advertising major Jarret Roberts, 22, has gotten a glimpse of what running a business is really like.

“There are a lot of things in the classroom that you can do perfectly that just don’t go that way in real life,” Roberts said.

In running the cafÇ, Roberts has seen that balance sheets don’t always balance, projections can be wrong, and prices and vendors change. “It seems like it would be simple to run a business, but there are so many things you don’t think about,” Roberts said. “It’s a lot more work than you expect, and it’s not a job you leave behind.”
One lesson he will take with him is that you can’t always be a perfectionist. “It’s better for your business to do 100 things well than to do one thing perfect,” he said.

Delegating tasks helps develop trait of trust

Sarah Schupp
BS, Business Administration, ’04
University Parent

After single-handedly running University Parent for two years, delegating responsibility to others has proved an unexpected challenge for its publisher, 24-year-old Sarah Schupp. “It was really hard to not do everything, and wasteful to do everything,” she said.

As a student, Schupp said she had had no idea what it meant to manage an organization or employees. She has struggled with working with employees and being clear about what she wants – and doesn’t-when delegating tasks.

Although she felt well prepared by the entrepreneurial program regarding her business plan, she said the biggest thing she didn’t learn is patience. “In school you learn you do these things, take these steps, make sure this is going to happen and it will,” Schupp said. “I have continued to learn the progression of things doesn’t always happen as you want it to.”

Excited to make her own opportunity and hours, Schupp also didn’t realize some of the unique aspects that go along with running your own business, such as having an accountant, paying taxes and just the day-to-day relay of information. However, she says people have been incredibly supportive and willing to help.
“Being in school and starting your own business is about being flexible and asking people for help,” Schupp said. “I used their guidance in the day-to-day progression of the company.”

Passion can ease pain of time commitment

Stephanie Rinko
CU MBA, ’05
Splash Event Planning

Stephanie Rinko, 29, has discovered passion for your business is the key for success and happiness as an entrepreneur. After considering small business consulting while getting her MBA, Rinko chose to found Splash Event Planning with a friend after graduation. It turns out to have been a wise choice.

Rinko wanted to go into business for herself to set her own hours and have time for a family. However, although her professors warned her of the time commitment involved, she was surprised by the time she has had to invest. “The learning curve is huge,” she said.

She currently spends a lot of unbilled time researching new vendors and venues, working her way into the industry. “As long as I’m doing something I enjoy doing, I don’t see it as much of a burden,” Rinko said. She advises other would-be entrepreneurs to thoroughly research their business idea to be sure it is something they are willing to devote “a ton of time to.”