Class of '77 We aren't the only business that's taking a look back at its first quarter-century.
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If today's entrepreneurs could travel back in time and starta business in 1977, they would hardly recognize Stephen B.Holben's world.
Sure, some of what they'd find would feel familiar-the newStar Wars movie coming out, and, hey, this is the year Elvisdies?-but what would seem strange is starting your company the wayHolben, now 57, did. You would be without the aid of e-mail, a cellphone or a fax machine. There's no Staples or Office Depot.FedEx delivers to only a handful of cities. There aren't even adozen business incubators in the country (today, there are over900). With the exception of your fresh copy of the debut issue ofEntrepreneur, you'll have to go through this mostlyalone.
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Today, Holben Building Corp. is, in many ways, typical ofentrepreneurial businesses. It is prosperous, if not a phenom. Thecommercial and residential construction company averages about $3million a year, way up from the less than $200,000 it brought in in1977. He once had several employees, but Holben is now on his own,overseeing about 50 contractors, and on some projects as many as400.
Decked out in his bell-bottoms and large shirt collars, Holbenstarted Holben Building Corp. in his native Denver in June 1977,one month after Entrepreneur debuted and more than a year after hewas laid off from the corporate world. Although he was full ofadmiration for his father, who owned a public accounting practice,the way Holben felt about entrepreneurship back then pretty muchsums up the attitude of his generation: "I thought, 'Yeah,I'd like to do this, but one has to first develop theconfidence-or desperation-to start a company.' "
By 1977, Holben was just desperate enough. His cousin, BillHolben, an accountant, suggested they go into business constructinghouses, and Steve agreed. Bill soon lost interest and left, butSteve was hooked. "I loved, and still love, the independenceand flexibility that being an entrepreneur provides."
Not that he's been living in Opportunity City. Holben'sbusiness was clobbered by soaring interest rates in the early1980s, blasted by the fallout from the Savings and Loan crash andbruised in the oil bust that crippled Denver. He has watched thehousing market plummet and climb through the dotcom debacle and thepost-September 11 world.
His darkest moments, however, came in his company's dawn.Just two years after Holben Building Corp. launched, interest ratesskyrocketed, and the housing market became extremely depressed. Sodid Holben. "I wasn't sure what would happen," hesays. "It put a great deal of pressure on me, my marriage andmy self-esteem, and created a great deal of uncertainty. And thenout of the blue, my former partner [who had gone back toaccounting] was moving offices and asked if I would build officesfor him."
Would he? Does a starving man refuse a beef hoagie justbecause he's a vegetarian? Holben and his crew went to work,and for the next 15 years or so, he concentrated on buildingcommercially, constructing everything from restaurants and banks toa post office and a nuclear weapons plant. "What started as mydarkest hour turned into an opportunity, and I attribute thatsolely to my flexibility," says Holben, who recently returnedto building custom homes.
Holben's flexibility allowed him to adapt to ever-changingtechnology, which he sees as the biggest change any industry hashad to face. "That's pervaded every bit of mybusiness," says Holben, who used to employ a bookkeeper, a jobsuperintendent and several others. As employees exited, he found hecould replace them with computer software. "During the early1990s, it developed to the point where I could keep all of my jobcosting and tax planning and scheduling on a computer, and it'sgotten better since then."
Better is the key word. Holben enjoys his work more than ever,and even carries his competitive entrepreneurial spirit over intohis free time-running 10Ks and bicycling. To his delight, hischildren have been following their entrepreneurial instincts: Hisdaughter writes for magazines, and his 31-year-old son has producedSpanish/English phrase guides for restaurants and landscapingbusinesses.
But Holben has no plans to cede the entrepreneurial stage to thenext generation. He expects Holben Building Corp. to flourish foryears to come. Says Holben: "I'm in very good health, andI don't like the idea of not working, so I anticipate stayingin business for the next 10 or 15 years." Maybe even the next25.
| Add 25 years to 1977, shake, bake, and you'llprobably get a tale somewhat similar to Kim Reed's. Once upon atime, Reed, 25, worked at Xdrive Technologies, an Internethard-drive business. When the company laid off 70 percent of itswork force, Reed managed to escape with some serious savings. Shemoved from California to Kaneohe, Hawaii, last April and foundedFrontline Direct Marketing LLC with $30,000 of her own cash. Herpartner, Steve Pearman, 23, who worked for her at Xdrive, lives ahalf-mile away. Now the pair operates the company out of theirhomes, bringing in an estimated $650,000 in their firstyear. But while thedotcom experience was good for Reed, she and her peers are pushingthemselves as hard as any entrepreneur did 25 years ago-arguably,they're pushing harder. "I'll be working at 2 a.m.,talking to people on the East Coast," says Reed, whodoesn't seem to mind the long hours. "They're justgetting up, and I haven't gone to bed." Now that she hasexperienced entrepreneurship, Reed vows that she's anentrepreneur for life. "No, definitely not, never," shesays, when asked if she could return to working for somebody else."Having your own business means you're in control of yourown destiny." |
Contact Sources
- Frontline Direct Marketing LLC
(310) 849-0845, www.frontlinedm.com - Holben Building Corp.
(303) 758-4272, sbhdenver@qwest.net
