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The Rare Breed who Start the Economic Engine in Montana

The people who start businesses — entrepreneurs — are a rather rare breed. They are people who can shoulder risk, stand alone if need be, persevere and face failure as though it were just a new beginning.

Just about anybody can be an entrepreneur in terms of from where they might emerge. Studies have shown, that while entrepreneurs are knowledgeable they don’t always have college degrees. While they must be bright and intuitive, some were only average students, and sometimes trouble-makers in school. They may be rich or they may be poor, although poverty has often proven to be a great motivator. And, while they all are hard workers, being an entrepreneur is primarily about attitude, and contrary to popular belief, it’s hardly ever about the money.

Economy and Business By Evelyn Pyburn

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Montana has more than its share of entrepreneurs. Their stories quickly explain why. When opportunity for challenging and rewarding jobs is lacking, as has come to be in Montana, an entrepreneur-type creates their own. Another reason may lie in the way they are raised — many come from farm backgrounds where hard work is expected without question. Involved as they are in an industry where risk is constant — dependent upon the unpredictableness of the weather — they are accustomed to living with uncertainty. For whatever reasons, Montana is rich in the entrepreneurial spirit as this year’s group of US Small Business Administration’s award winners demonstrates.

A search for quality service is what prompted Rick Larson, Billings, this year’s recipient of the Entrepreneurial Success Award, to begin EBMS, Employee Benefit Management Services, Inc. The way he looked at it, "there was nothing to lose" in trying to start a company that would deliver the kind of service he was promising clients.

Frustrated with the lack of response from the companies for whom he worked, he realized that the only way to achieve what he wanted was to be in control of the situation. "I like to control my future," said Larson, "I have an idea of how things should be done."

Today, Larson says that his moments of satisfaction are "When we do a good job for a client. When they see that what we told them we would do, we do. It’s a wonderful feeling. We can do things half as expensively and we do it better."

Providing the quality and service that customers need and expect was consistently mentioned by the award recipients we interviewed, as their primary goal and the primary reason for their success.

"I don’t see myself in business just to make money," explained Ryan Deskins, Young Entrepreneur of the Year, who started his business R & R Pressure Washing in East Helena, just a couple of years ago. While he has to provide himself and family with an income, that’s not what he worries about day in and day out. "I have employees and I have taken the responsibility for them being able to make a
living."

Deskins said, "Everyone relies on you. You are the last line of defense. You have to get things done." Creating jobs is a way to give back to the community, said Deskins, "It’s not only a job, but being part of something bigger and better." "I’m not worried about whether I make money, but whether my employees and customers are happy." he said, advising, "You should measure success like that."

Frank Smith, founder of TowHaul, SBA’s Exporter of the Year, underscored that sentiment, somewhat facitiously, saying, "My first goal was to make a profit." Failing that, "my second goal was to break even." Should that fail — "I just hoped to lose as little as possible." His primary concern was being able to deliver the equipment his clients needed.

"Being generous is a key," said Jack Morgenstern. Morgenstern’s Lewistown business, Century Paving, Inc., is successful beyond anything he ever imagined. He is the first runner-up Small Business Person of the Year.

Bill Woody of Nightingale Nursing Services, Inc. of Missoula was named the Business Person of the Year.Jennifer Keck of Big Sky Travel Nurses, Inc. in Conrad was named Woman Owned Business of the Year, and Mandi Luce-Heinle and Sarah Ann Hamlen of Innovative Marketing Solutions, LLC of Hathawy, were named Main Street Business of the Year.

"Going the extra mile for the customer, goes far beyond profit motive alone. It’s always been obvious to me that the most successful businesses have always been generous with time and resources." Emphasized Morgenstern, "You don’t focus so much on profits. You want to build something you are proud of."
Morgenstern carries that over to employees as well as customers. "Treat employees as partners," he said, and "you must be more than fair with them. Fair is not good enough. Reward them as the business progresses. Be sensitive and understanding and personal. But you need to expect them to produce the extraordinary.

If you don’t you won’t succeed. You need them to treat you with the highest regard, and you have to set an example to earn that."

Respecting employees and caring about them was also emphasized by Kim Wild, TowHaul Corporation. "I truly don’t believe you can leave your personal life at home," she said. An employer has to be understanding of that. "Our people have always been free to come and go," she said. "The work needs to get done, of course, but we try not to set hours. Family matters are as important as business."

That kind of appreciation for their employees is one reason that TowHaul, which has also been named as the SBA’s second runner-up, regionally, has offered to pay for all twenty-six of their employees to attend the US Small Business Administration’s awards ceremony in Orlando, Florida.

As far as Wild is concerned their entire work force is entrepreneurial. "They all have that attitude," she said, which is one reason why the company’s founder, Frank Smith, moved his business from Canada to the Gallatin Valley. One of Montana’s economic strengths, said Wild, is a workforce that has a great work
ethic. "Montana has been very good to us," said Wild.

Ryan Deskins also chose Montana as the state in which to start his business. He was raised on a dairy farm that had to interface with the metropolis of Seattle. Coming to Montana was an escape from the press of the huge population, as well as a quality of life issue for him and his wife, Rachael, who have two small children. "It certainly wasn’t the economic potential," laughs Deskins, but
nonetheless Montana provides business benefits that Deskins doubts
he would find elsewhere.

"One of the things I do good," said Deskins, "is I develop accounts. I spend time with the clients and take care of them, no matter what it takes — quality and service are everything." Deskins says he has discovered an unexpected pay back in that. There are times when his business has "a bad day," and the clients — "they take care of you, because you have taken care of them. You treat them right and they treat you right, back." It’s "a kindness and service, I don’t think I would have in other areas of the country." "I just love Montana," said Deskins enthusiastically, "I like the people, the state, the recreation, the beauty, the way of life."

Being in Montana was also a benefit to EBMS, in a sort of negative way that proved positive. When Larson sought underwriting from an insurer for his new business idea, "While they were pretty forward thinking," he said, they still looked at it and said "You are in Montana so we don’t think you can do a lot of harm." That was in 1994; today, EBMS is Billings’ largest private sector employer with 250 people.

"We don’t loose clients very often," said Larson, which he attributes to the fact that his company is in Montana and that his employees have the famous Montana work ethic. It’s what gives EBMS its market advantage. "We are considered the competition," among 400 competitors in the region in which they do business, said Larson, who is a native Montanan, growing up in small communities like Hardin and Park City.

Getting started is not easy. Perhaps part of the impetus for an entrepreneur is, as Larson mentioned, "not having anything to lose." Deskins said that when he started he was "flat broke." There’s no where to go but up, if you just hang in there.

"You have to be a bull dog," said Larson, "The fear of failure lurked pretty large, when we started. We put in a lot of early mornings and late nights. We just did what we had to do. It never seemed like work, it never seemed like drudgery. It was a new experience every day and it’s still like that." When Larson says "we" he’s talking about his wife, Nicki, in the beginning. But that "we" grew to include other family members as well, including his mother-in-law, and today, his two grown children.

"You can’t give up. You just have to keep trying," said Larson.

Giving up is what Deskins suspects leads to the failure of many new businesses. The "biggest surprise" about becoming an entrepreneur is how much work it is. "It’s not as nostalgic as some people think." There is an idea that some people have, said Deskins, that they can just w<%-2>ork a short period of time,
"and then kick back and drink knee-highs. It’s not like that, it’s a lot of work…It doesn’t go away. Most people start up and work real hard and then give up on it. They get burned out."

Deskins also gives much credit to his wife, who he calls a "good sport." She wasn’t so sure that being self- employed was the way to go, he said, but she has been fully supportive despite her early reservations. In the beginning, "We would wash trucks together, while the kids were sleeping in the back of a truck."

Bringing the kids to work with him continues the enterprise as a family operation, for Deskins, one that he hopes will positively impact them. "It’s awesome" to be with the kids as much as he is, said Deskins. Not having the opportunity to learn to work is one of the things wrong with America, today, said Deskins. " I don’t think they [youth] are lazy; they just have been brainwashed by parents who come home and say ‘work sucks.’"

Deskins, who tends to employ young people at an entry level, explained that occasionally a youngster, after their first full day of work — ever — will say, "work sucks." He said, "I have to say to them, ‘How do you know? You haven’t been around enough to know.’"

"I don’t bad mouth work in front of the kids," said Deskins — he wants his children to have that all- important "right attitude."

Morgenstern underscores, as being most important in any attempt to start a new business –" it has to be a family project." "When you are going to leave a comfortable job, you are going to cross a long social bridge that is going to take a lot of sacrifice. If your family isn’t supportive, don’t start it. I know I couldn’t have done it without the support of my family." Morgenstern and his wife, Ann, have three grown daughters.

Morgenstern was born to an entrepreneurial life.. "My Dad was very instrumental in forming my thoughts," he said. At the age of 14, Morgenstern’s father encouraged him to start his first business — the custom haying business. That’s when he hired his first employees. He put himself through college on earnings from an excavation business. After the military, he returned to work for the
family sand and gravel business, only to see it fold during the recession of 1973. Not to be daunted, said Morgenstern, "We all started over from scratch. That’s when I decided to go to central Montana and serve the rural municipal market with a small paving and infrastructure service."

Morgenstern has more advice — well thought out and pointed. "When you do start a business it is imperative that it serve a niche market. To dive into the main stream is too much of an uphill battle. You are competing with people who are established. They have a system, employees and networks that you can’t overcome.
Begin in the backwaters of the main stream."

"Hard work and integrity goes without saying. They should be considered prerequisites and not ingredients. Persistence and persistence alone, supersedes in importance personality, skill sets, etc. All of that takes a back seat to persistence," said Morgenstern. Be cautious, too, he advises not to become too celebratory about the first bubble of success, not realizing there are going to
be ups and downs. An over-reaction to a surge of success can exhaust the financial resources needed to sustain the business in the inevitable downturns.

And, just as important, said Morgenstern, is in knowing when to move on. "Creating and building a small business is a different kind of mission than growing an established business larger. You have to know when it’s time to turn it over to some one else." That’s where Morgenstern sees himself at this point in time. He has hired a CEO and has relegated himself to serving as chairman of the board. "It’s a new frontier for me to function as the chair rather than the day to day management. It takes a lot of discipline to know what to hang onto and what to let go."

Despite the challenges, these business owners never hinted that being an entrepreneur was anything they would change. The important thing is just to start it, says Frank Smith, who often finds himself coaching budding entrepreneurs. After that, "it will carry you where you are going to go. It will either grow or stay stagnant. But, if you don’t start it, it will never do anything," said Smith, whose business "took on a life of its own," once it was started. "We never consciously decided any direction. We would look for the next stepping stone, saying what do we have to do next to stay in business."

Go for it, is the advice from Deskins.

"We live in a time when there is so much potential for growth and opportunity. We live in an exciting time for small business. We have so much access to information that it’s easy to learn what you need to know, and you can present yourself in a way that they’ll think you know what you are doing," said Deskins, only half jesting.

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