Business
Thanks Billions!
(Actually More, But We
Lost Count Decades Ago)
Michigan's Largest Independently
Owned Mortgage Banker, Period.
• Stability — Serving homeowners for nearly 50 years.
• Service — A commitment to 7-10 day approval time.
• Low rates — Always.
71E31 A1 1
MEMBER
DAR
FINANCIAL SERVICES, INC.
Serving Homeowners Since 1946
24445 Northwestern Highway, Suite 100, Southfield
313-827-2436
s otENGTH4
**I ouR ASSETS *•
•Communicate more efficiently and effectively
Enhance
your creative thinking and problem-solving skills
•
•Learn how to increase the value and effectiveness
of meetings
While books, self help tapes and seminars can be very useful,
highly interactive, small group workshop training intensifies and
speeds up learning. Improved Communications
offers both open enrollment workshops and
training tailored to company needs taught by
an expert in the field of communications.
111116'
Ken Pool, Pres.
Im roved Communications Inc.
C/D
LU
Call (313) 477 5366
for more information
-
clb
C/D
LU
CC
LU
CD
UJ
F-
3 0
Advertising in The Jewish News Gets Results
Place Your Ad Today, Call 354-6060
RISK TAKERS page 34
hours a week. I have three
kids that I don't see as
much as I'd like."
While there are no statis-
tics which track how many
children leave a family
business to strike out on
their own, the Labor
Department reports entre-
preneurs in general have
increased in numbers dur-
ing 1992 due to corporate
downsizing and other fac-
tors.
Research also reveals
new-business starts often
increase during hard times.
Recent data from Dun &
Bradstreet shows that new-
business incorporations
rose 7 percent in the first
six months of recession-
racked 1992. That was
after five successive years
of decreasing starts.
"You really must possess
that fire in the belly,
because no one else can
drive the company but
you," said Sarah Wolk,
president of Sarah Wolk
Associates, Inc., a public
relations and marketing
firm she founded in
Birmingham 14 years ago.
A retail expert, Ms. Wolk
could have taken a job with
her brother, Douglas
Mossman, a managing
partner of Oakland Mall
Ltd., which owns Oakland
Mall in Troy and a host of
other retail shopping cen-
ters.
Ms. Wolk said she start-
ed the company with per-
sonal savings and listed the
late restaurateur Chuck
Muer as one of her first
clients. Today she has over
20 clients ranging from
Oakland Mall to Follmer
Rudzewicz & Co., a mid-
sized accounting firm in
Southfield.
"Certainly I could have
found a job with a relative,
but that wasn't my style,"
said Ms. Wolk, whose hus-
band, Erv, owns Wolk
Advertising and The Think
Tank, a graphic design
agency. Both firms are
based in Birmingham.
"I guess I had something
to prove. I wanted a firm
that favored quality over
quantity," she said. "It's
been a tough struggle, but I
wake up every day ready to
go to work. You don't get
that same adrenaline rush
when you're working for
someone else."
The secret to a successful
business venture, be it run-
ning a bakery or a print
shop, say these entrepre-
neurs, is to plan slowly,
research the marketplace,
and to look long-term for
future competitors and
opportunities.
Other advice includes
securing adequate financ-
ing to run the company at a
potential loss for the first
year, using outside experts
like lawyers instead of hir-
ing in-house counsel.
Renting equipment when-
ever possible to avoid being
saddled with debt if the
business fails also is an
option.
"When I made the jump I
knew there was a chance I
could be back on the streets
in a year, but I don't mind
risk" said Scott Eisenberg,
vice president of Onset
BIDCO Inc., a capital
investment firm in Livonia.
Formerly with Deloitte &
Touche, a Big Six account-
ing firm with offices in
downtown Detroit, Mr.
Eisenberg said he was on
the partner track up until
1991 when the opportunity
to join Onset BIDCO
became available.
"At 'Deloitte & Touche, I
was manager of the corpo-
rate financial group but all
I could do was advise
clients on certain matters,"
Mr. Eisenberg said. "What
I really wanted to do was
sit down with entrepre-
neurs and help provide
them with the tools they
needed for long-term suc-
cess.
"I wanted more control
over my destiny. Right now
there's five of us at Onset
who work as a team. That
make-or-break decision
making is with us every-
day."
Onset is one of 10 private
investment firms in the
state designated BIDCO, or
Business Industri ii
Development Corporation.
Through use of its own cap-
ital, Onset provides funding
for companies with strong-
growth opportunities.
Meanwhile, Sanford
Mall, 39, president of
Integrated Enterprises Inc.,
a management consulting
firm in West Bloomfield,
has slowed down his eight-
year-old practice in recent
months to prepare for law
school in the fall.
"Since I was a kid, I always
wanted to be a lawyer, so it's
really a dream come true," said
Mr. Mall, who worked at the
Canvas Product Co., a marine
textile manufacturing firm
his family owned in Oak
Park.
"It was exciting moving
away from the family busi-
ness and into the consult-
ing practice, but there was
always a yearning in the
back of my mind for law
school." ❑
R.J. King is a Detroit
freelance writer.
(