Admit it--you're curious. Like the irresistible urge to gawk
at tabloid TV or read a gossipy celebrity story in People
magazine, you can't get enough intimate details of what other
people have gone through. As an entrepreneur, you've wondered,
What would it be like to expand internationally or surpass your
competition? You've dreamed about fighting back against
government regulation or seeing your product appear on the
Today show. And though you have no desire to experience it,
you want to know how an entrepreneur survived an embezzlement
scandal that cost him over $250,000. You even want to learn the
heartbreaking details of the small-business owner who failed, but
then dusted himself off and built another business.
Face it, you want to hear how other entrepreneurs have weathered
storms, overcome obstacles or surpassed all expectations to
catapult their businesses to the next level. Read on to share some
once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
What It's Really Like to... Get a
Product Into Target
"You can't get a better feeling than when you get your
first customer," says Joe Heron, 43, CEO of the
Minneapolis-based Ardea Beverage Co., which manufactures airforce
NutriSoda, a
healthy soda pop packed with amino acids and B vitamins and lacking
the usual ingredients like sugar, aspartame, sodium and caffeine.
In Heron's case, the feeling he had after landing his first
customer was pure euphoria-because his first client was Target.
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Heron had his eye on Target early on. He found a qualified and
well-connected food broker, FMN Moscoe, which started negotiations
with Target in May 2003, just months after Heron started his
business. In April 2004, Target agreed to a slow roll-out, selling
the sodas in 100 stores around the country. Today, they're in
365 stores and counting.
During negotiations, Heron attended meetings, filled out
countless forms, found and bought product insurance, and built an
infrastructure so that if Target said yes, Ardea could accommodate
the retail giant. "To get into that scale of a company, the
elation is so high because it means you can conquer anything,"
says Heron, whose sodas are also sold in specialty stores and 21
airports and are expected to capture over $3 million in sales in
2005. "There's nothing more exciting than watching
somebody go to a shelf and buy your product."
So Heron really went into stores and waited around to see a
customer pick up his soda? "I still do."--Geoff
Williams
... Lose a Business
Partner
When a business partner dies, it can be as devastating as losing a
family member. It's doubly painful when your partner is a
family member.
Kirsten Judd was 33 when her husband, Dr. Richard Irons, died in
2002 at age 52. On Valentine's Day of 2000, they had founded
their for-profit professional association, Professional Renewal
Center, which offers behavioral health services and
consultations for professionals trying to conquer work-related
challenges such as career burnout, substance abuse and sexual
misconduct. They also created PRC Management Co. LLC, which
provided the management and operations to the clinic. Irons worked
on all things medical, while Judd took care of management.
When Irons died unexpectedly, Judd had little time to grieve.
She had two young sons and 10 employees depending on her. But
burying herself in her work was difficult because, as Judd recalls,
"There was a definite void in the organization, and in looking
back at the stages of what an organization goes through in response
to a disaster or a major trauma like a death, it's very similar
to the stages of grief that a person goes through."
Still, Judd did lose herself in her work, trying to keep things
together and finding a new clinical director, Dr. Scott Stacy, to
replace her husband. "I had a job to do, and what that did was
prolong my reaction or grief, while I quote-unquote
'crashed,'" says Judd. "It was probably a year
after he passed away before I realized I also needed to start
taking care of myself."
Judd's company lost revenue for a while, but in 2005
it's projected to bring in $1.25 million, the same level
reached the year Irons died. "We're at a stage now of an
acceptance of change and a realization that a fusion has taken
place," says Judd. "I use the term 'fusion' for a
reason. If a fracture heals properly, that point of fusion is even
stronger than the rest of the bone."--G.W.
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