Riding the entrepreneurial roller coaster

Editor’s note: Michelle Stockman is an independent consultant with her company, Fort Smith-based Msaada Group. Stockman earned a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University-Chicago in communications and fine arts, and earned a master’s in entrepreneurship from Western Carolina University. Her thoughts on business success appear each week on The City Wire.

Entrepreneurs understand something no one else can fathom. It’s a moment, like a mother giving birth to a beautiful baby, that is so euphoric and personal no one else can share the feelings inside. This mountaintop feeling may be the result of seeing an idea work or the day the business makes a profit for the first time. Regardless of the reason, these moments make business ownership feel wonderful.

Likewise, the days where problems seep into the business often cost the entrepreneur time, money and stress. To the entrepreneur, bad days are as hard as completing the Ironman without a wetsuit to stay warm in the water, using an old Schwinn bike for the 112 mile ride and finishing with old worn down shoes for the marathon. The entrepreneur feels beaten and broken in many ways.

The life cycle of emotions in business will reach great heights and great depths in a matter of quarters, months, weeks, days or minutes. In one minute, a business owner can feel great joy in their accomplishments followed by despair, frustration or more when a critical challenge arises. To illustrate the roller coaster of business ownership, follow a journey with Jeremy.

Jeremy began his company developing and manufacturing new pet products. Once the business graduated out of his garage, the next business step was to lease a space in order to expand Jeremy’s business. While the pet products business had as many good start-up business days as it had bad, progress continued to move the business forward.

One day, Jeremy had signed the deal of his dreams with a large pet product distributor. This opportunity could expose his products to several major retailers that would result in enough revenue to expand his business to the next level. The challenge that resulted from the “major deal” was to push his manufacturing production to its limits to reach their first delivery deadline.

The very next day, Jeremy receives a phone call while in his office. The call was to inform Jeremy that his lease is being terminated due to the sale of the property and facility. Jeremy was given to the end of the month to vacate the property before any of his business property within the building would be seized by the new owner. The end of the month was in seven days.

Panic filled Jeremy’s head and he felt like he just lost his best friend. Jeremy’s mind raced like a Nascar qualifier as he wondered what he was going to do, where could he move his business to and what he should do about the contract he just landed. Not fulfilling the order would end his business while canceling the order would also end his business.

Not wasting one second of the day, Jeremy quickly began driving around town looking for a new business location. By the end of an unsuccessful day, Jeremy swam in an ocean of “what if” scenarios and despair. Logic and reality were very present in Jeremy’s thinking; however the hope and dream of seeing this business thrive fiercely burned within his soul.

A few days later, the first truck arrived to begin the business move. As the last order of pet products were boxed and carried off by the courier, Jeremy and a small crew began breaking equipment down and loading on the truck. The phone rang for Jeremy and a business miracle occurred. Within a few short hours, the pet business had a new home. Relief that the business has a chance to survive, Jeremy is hopeful for the future as the new space had everything Jeremy hoped for one day in the future.

In the end, after the highs and lows of moving a business, the drama of fulfilling the order of a lifetime on time and teetering on the brink of total exhaustion, Jeremy has experienced every possible emotion along with all the demands of a business within a month.

Running a business requires a thick skin, devoted ambition and quite a bit of stubbornness (or sleeplessness). There is a lot more risk involved beyond money; however we all know the higher the risk the greater the reward. Likewise, the greater the internal reward for knowing you didn’t quit despite all logic saying that you should.

Like Jeremy, in times of challenge, the greater the desire for success the more persistence and perseverance exists to push past the barriers.

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Stockman can be reached at [email protected]