I just decided to do it," says Rochelle Balch, 47,
explaining the decision to launch her own computer consulting firm
four years ago. "[I figured] if it worked, great. If it
didn't, I'd be no worse off."
Turns out, Balch ended up a whole lot better than merely
"no worse off." The transformation from downsized
employee to founder of Glendale, Arizona-based RB Balch &
Associates Inc. lifted the homebased entrepreneur into an entirely
new stratosphere. Last year, she recorded sales in excess of $2
million. This year, she expects to download $2.5 million.
Not that it happened easily for our Entrepreneurial Woman SOHO
Business Owner of the Year. Indeed, Balch pulled many an
all-nighter during her business's first few years. Sure,
she'd heard how important it was for homebased entrepreneurs to
set up boundaries for themselves to keep from burning out--but to
Balch's way of thinking, that just wasn't realistic.
"When you start off, you're [working] 24 hours a
day," she says. "I don't care what anybody
says--that's just what you do."
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And that's just what she did. Although it was difficult
landing those first few accounts, Balch's computer consultancy
went into overdrive once U-Haul agreed to give her a shot in the
summer of 1993. "I told [the manager] I was new and really
wanted him to give me a chance," she says. "He could have
said no and hung up like all the rest of them, but he said, `All
right, let me see what you've got.' "
Since that pivotal moment, Balch and the 30 independent
contractors who work for her have gone on to consult with other
big-name companies such as American Express and Circle K. As if
running a thriving business and raising a 12-year-old daughter
weren't enough, Balch also finds the time to participate in a
variety of community volunteer efforts, including teaching classes
to homebased entrepreneurs.
Any advice for women entrepreneurs hoping to follow in her
footsteps? "The main thing is you have to be extremely
confident," Balch urges. "You have to exude
confidence--it has to be dripping out of your pores."
And whatever you do, Balch stresses, don't sell either
yourself or your business short--especially if yours is a homebased
operation. "You can either be an itsy-bitsy homebased business
and treat yourself as somebody who works at home," she says,
"or you can treat yourself as a business owner who happens to
be based out of your house and portray [a professional]
image."
Clearly, Balch made the right choice--and she knows it. Far from
eager to run her business out of a commercial office, Balch is
instead planning to move her family and company into a two-story
house later this year. The move makes sense: With a booming
business and a soon-to-be-teenage daughter besides, Balch needs the
extra space.
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