Launch - Summer 2008 - (Page 19)

“I learned that there are things you can do to keep an optimistic attitude and move forward. When a business begins to struggle, don’t get so discouraged and withdrawn that you are unable to seek help. There are things you can do and people you can turn to. You may have to put it in the tank, like I did, but at the end of the day it’s just money; and it shouldn’t be family, friends or yourself — those things continue on and can still provide you satisfaction. You simply regroup and start over. “That being said, expectation should be tempered with realism. Know when to cut your losses and do something else. Remain optimistic, work hard and good things will happen. It may not be this business, but it will be another.” Michael Proper CEO, DirectPointe Risk: Time away from family. Reward: Reprioritizing and creating value for others. Michael Proper has one of the most endearing ragsto-riches entrepreneurial stories you’ll ever hear. Proper, a former foster child and 16-year-old manual laborer, has led his technology company to massive growth and success. Proper and his wife invested their savings to launch DirectPointe in 2000. “When you start a business, it isn’t like you can punch in and punch out,” says Proper. “You’re always in. There’s an emotional risk when you miss out on things such as family. However, it’s truly rewarding to force yourself to find a balance, to reprioritize and to focus. That’s been a growing point for me as an individual. I’m constantly asking myself, ‘What am I not going to do today?’ “I’ve always valued relationships. As you start and grow a business, you end up losing that basic intimate relationship that you once had with friends. Even from an HR standpoint, because our business has grown, there are people who walk down the hall that I don’t know. I used to personally interview and hire everyone. For me, those relationships are really important. “But by taking risks, you get huge rewards. We get to create businesses and use them as a vehicle to create value and help others. That’s one of the reasons I started a business.” $ Joshua Steimle CEO, MWI Risk: Personal well-being. Reward: Being your own boss. Joshua Steimle’s first real business was a Web development firm called Mindwire Interactive, which he started in 1999 while a student at Brigham Young University. He sold it in 2003 and started MWI, a Web design firm in Draper. Steimle also works to raise seed funding for the SEO Consultants, a project that uses automation of basic SEO tasks to provide high-end search engine optimization services to low-end customers. “Risk, what risk? That’s how I looked at things before starting my business. I was hopelessly optimistic,” says Steimle. “But there are very real risks and a lot of the risks I took didn’t yield the rewards I expected. I risked my marriage, health, financial well-being, reputation and sanity. I’ve been through some very tough times with my business, so the risks seem a little more real for me than they might for others. “The biggest rewards for me, so far, haven’t been financial — I’ve run my own business for eight years now and I’ve only been paid half the time. But I’ve loved it just the same. There’s something incredibly satisfying about calling the shots and being 100 percent responsible for the results. Even if you don’t like the results, you can’t beat the feeling of taking the plunge and knowing that, succeed or fail, it’s all up to you. “If I could go back in time and have just one minute with myself, part of me would be tempted to not say anything, because I’m grateful for all I’ve learned, but if I ignored that temptation I’d tell myself to sleep on major decisions, never go into debt, ditch the ego, and take my wife’s advice more seriously.” Click here for the HTML version of this article on launchutah.com. launch summer 19 http://www.launchutah.com/article-coverstory-q22008.php

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Launch - Summer 2008

Launch - Summer 2008 Contents Editor's Note Dashboard Marketing Column Funding Column Sales Column Risks vs. Rewards Myths of Entrepreneurship Opportunities vs. Ideas Funding Options for Startups Making Sense of Term Sheets

Launch - Summer 2008

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