entrepreneurial spirit
By Wade See
o. w u
d,-*— C
fr-i 3
5 ^ r- '— 1
.© a> oj . S . .
-S •
: SN0 -CONES
Photo by Mike Mu/uey
J.D. Joyce, a senior political science major, formed his
own snow cone business five years ago.
Many people dream of
owning their own business —of
being their own boss. From
Henry Ford, to Sam Walton, to
the tired old man who shuffles
to his family store everyday
only to listen to the dull ring of
an empty cash register, men
and women have risked their
life’s savings, and sometimes
their lives, in order to make it
big, or to just eke by in the
world of business.
Texas A&M University
students are not immune to the
entrepreneurial bug. With
every new event and trend
comes another T-shirt There
are always sunglasses, posters,
key rings and flowers on sale in
the MSC, and the number of
businesses jammed into the
confines of Northgate increases
every year. Each business
competes viciously for the
students’ loose dollars. Some
win, most lose.
Students can leam more
about the entrepreneurial spirit
through a campus club, the
Society for Entrepreneurship
and New Ventures (ENVE),
says Jeff Prevost, ENVE
president. ENVE was created
to give students advice about
going into business and
assuming the risks and gains
associated with it.
“We’re not there to baby the
kids,” he says. “It’s their show.
We’re there to provide them
with information as needed. ”
ENVE also acts as a club
sponsor for members wanting
to sell on campus. In order to
sell anything on campus, it
must be associated with a
campus club.
Vicki Greene, conference
coordinator, says the first step
to selling anything on campus
is to come to the scheduling
office in Rudder Tower to fill
out a concessions permit. She
says they also need to see a
sample of what the student
plans to sell. It must be in good
taste, she says.
Prevost says selling on
campus takes more than just
getting a permit. Sellers need to
know their market and predict
trends.
“Many people go out of
business because they didn’t
foresee the environment, ’’ he
says. “A&M is a very particular
environment. ”
He says students pay close
attention to detail. Sometimes
sellers forget to dot their i’s and
cross their t’s on their T-shirts,
and they have a hard time
selling them.
Most of the ventures that
ENVE members undertake
begin small. Prevost says they
usually start with $50 to $60
worth of merchandise and then
re-invest profits back into the
business. T-shirts are the most
cost-consuming ventures, he
says.
“The spirit of what we’re
doing is that there are a lot of
ways of going into business
without going to a bank and
asking for a major loan, ” he
says.
Prevost describes two types
of entrepreneurs — those who
have money and those who
don’t. The “don’ts” have to be
more creative to get it, he says.
It’s harder to start ventures with
little money, but that makes it
more challenging, he says.
What distinguishes an
entrepreneur from everyone
else?
“It has to come down to self
confidence, ” Prevost says.
“(Working for someone else
offers) no big chances of
zipping up, and no risk of losing
everything. A stable income
appeals to a lot of people.
“An entrepreneur doesn’t
like to work for another person.
The thing about working for
yourself is that you answer to
no one but yourself. (In big
business), if you work 10 times
as hard, you’re not going to get
paid 10 times as much. When
you work for yourself, there is a
greater chance of direct
rewards. The chance of failure
is greater, but so is the chance
of success. ”
While many people look
upon entrepreneurs as
compulsive gamblers, Prevost
says calculation is the key
difference between the two.
He says gamblers thrive on
risk and don’t know when to
stop. A successful entrepreneur
is different.
“If pulling out is better, then
giving in is also part of the
entrepreneurial spirit, ” he says.
“Sometimes a gambler doesn’t
know that. He does risky things
without calculating them. An
entrepreneur has to calculate
or he will be a very poor
entrepreneur. ”
He says running a business
is hard work, and it’s not
always rewarding.
“We would rather accept a
few failures to accept the
rewards we get in the long
run,’’Prevost says.
Beside being a good source
of learning, entrepreneurship is
vital to the nation’s economy.
George Rice, ENVE adviser
and professor of management,
says entrepreneurship is the
source of all business.
“All big businesses were
once small businesses, ” Rice
says. “It was all started by
someone. In the beginning, it
was entrepreneurship. Without
that, where would we be?
“Somebody has to have the
dream. Somebody has to have
the willingness to risk his life’s
savings and his energy and
perseverance to put something
together and make it run. ”
Students join ENVE to
experience entrepreneurship,
but it can also help them if they
want to work for someone else
in the future.
“Entrepreneurship is aimed
at starting an ongoing
business,’’.Rice says. “It’s not
aimed at preparing you to work
for someone else. However, if
you know how to run your own
business, you ought to know a
little bit about helping to run
someone else’s. Running your
own business is probably the
best training you can get to
become a manager of any
kind.”
Several government
programs have been
developed to help
entrepreneurs make a go of it.
The Small Business
Adminsitration (SBA), the
Service Corps of Retired
Executives (SCORE), and,
locally, the Small Business
Development Council (SBDC)
and the Chamber of
Commerce all work to make
business start-ups more
successful.
SCORE is made up of
retired businessmen and
entrepreneurs who are
knowledgeable about starting
and running businesses. It
conducts two seminars a
month on the fundamentals of
starting a business, covering
topics such as things to look for
in a lease, hiring employees
and finding a location and a
market
Sydney Schachtmeister, a
SCORE volunteer, says the first
thing he tells clients wanting to
start a business is to go to a
SCORE seminar.
The first order of business
should be in securing the
appropriate permits, he says.
Every retail store needs to
register its company name, get
an Internal Revenue Service
number and get a state sales
tax number. Some businesses
may require special permits
and licenses.
Lack of a business
background and poor store
locations are common pitfalls
trapping new entrepreneurs,
Schachtmeister says.
“If you don’t locate your
business where there are
compatible businesses you’re
going to starve,” he says. “You
can’t locate a dress shop where
there are factories just because
the rent is cheap. ”
Many people come to
Schachtmeister with the idea of
starting a restaurant, and he
asks them what experience
they have.
“They say, ‘My wife has
cooked for 27 years,’ ” he
says. “I ask them what has that
got to do with the restaurant
business?”
People starting businesses
must also consider pricing,
inventory control, money
control and lease negotiation.
Schachtmeister says the first
thing a person should do is hire
a lawyer and an accountant
familiar with retail business.
Setting up the business’s books
is important, he says.
“Everything depends on
books, ” he says. “You have to
know where you stand. ”
One of Schachtmeister’s
clients was doing $20,000
worth of business a month and
losing money. The client had
not kept any record of his
inventory and had let his
employees order more as they
Photo by Fred D. Joe
Billy Moreland demonstrates the use of a video camera
that can be rented from his store. It’s Showtime.
Page 8/At Ease/Thursday, Oct. 20,1988