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Janurary 24, 2003
A: FROM MENTOR SARA RAMSDELL
IN KY
In my case, moving from being a technical professional to
an entrepreneur
was both unanticipated and frightening, but I survived and
succeeded. In
fact, I was named one of the Top Women in Business [in central
Kentucky] in
1994.
In 1981 I resigned from an engineering firm that had a very
stifling
atmosphere and didn't want to work for any of their competitors.
The day
after I resigned I received a call from another engineer who
said that his
client was looking for an independent inspector for a construction
project
that was expected to last approximately five months. It was
work I was
well qualified to perform. I jumped at the opportunity (forgetting
how shy
I was) and, instead of doing it on a freelance basis, incorporated
a
business with the help of two friends who were an attorney
and an
accountant.
It was a bad economic time (similar to now), but instead of
that being a
handicap, I found that people had time to speak with me and
give me ideas
for tailoring the business to meet their needs that were not
being served
by other firms in the area. It also gave me time to learn
how to run a
business. There are many resources out there, including SCORE
(the Service
Corps of Retired Executives) and the SBDC (Small Business
Development
Centers). Networking with professional and trade organizations
was
especially helpful.
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