Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 23, 1982)
DIM SUM Sunday 11 am - 3 pm Authentic Chinese Brunch Don’t miss it China Blue Restaurant _ 879 E. 13th Ave. ■m-Ttan 11 IB I* S* 5 to II lAl lO’l') frill to 11 San 5 to 18 ~ KROKUS - One Vice At A Time The Rock'n Roll Band KROKUS, makes you stop in your tracks and then dance the night away! Each of these advertised items must be readily available for sale at or below the advertised price in each Fred Meyer store, except as specifically noted in this ad Except Morrison Meyer mori£t • 4»VAk*i * »<* *■ a fAH Self-employment: risky, rewarding Bad times for small business In making the decision to start a small busi ness, it helps to take careful inventory of three very important commodities — one’s friends, assets and personal sanity The chances of liquidating all three are high Depending on the source, estimates place the failure rate of budding businesses between 50 and 90 percent And in an economy such as Eugene's, the upper end of those estimates probably is more accurate In fact, small business failure rates are at the same level as they were during the depression of the 1930s, according to recent government reports Yet Eugene's case is different, argues Ruby Brenne of the Eugene Chamber of Commerce Small business is alive, well and growing in Eugene, Brenne asserts “There's really been an upsurge in the last few months " Oddly, it's Eugene's high unemployment rate that is causing a renewed interest in small business operations, Brenne says People who have lost jobs or are under-employed are "fish ing around for some way to stay in Eugene,' she says The answer for many is starting their own business The survival rate of those businesses is anybody's guess, Brenne says For a University student who faces graduation but is uncomfortable with the prospect of an undesired or unfulfilling career, it sometimes is worth the risk The term "small business" actually is fairly vague, and business magazines print annual articles that try to define just what separates small business from big For a college graduate, perhaps Univeristy business professor Don Lytle’s definition is the most useful “If I had to define it, it would be from sole proprietorship with no employees to 20 em ployees max." Lytle says His description seems to fit most graduates' image of a small business — something between a booth in the Saturday Market and a three-story structure at Valley River But that's where the similarities between images and reality end There is a romanticized notion that owning a small business means sitting behind a calculator and totaling the day's profits, while planning where to spend the next month-long vacation The first step to starting a new business may be to expell those notions, Lytle says "This is a very difficult time to start a small business," he warns, and it is especially difficult for a student, or for someone fresh out of school "They don’t have a track record If they need financing, no bank is going to listen to them The one advantage students may have is an abundant source of energy, Lytle says And they will need it "They have to be willing to work hard and long They have to have a lot of self-con fidence " Chuck Spinner, who works in the University's legal services offices, also dispels some of the romanticism associated with owning a business His advice for first-time entrepreneurs is to see an attorney at the onset “It's much easier and cheaper to do something that is preventative," Spinner advises "I look at the worst of everything," Spinner says, "all the problems that could become realities " Students can get a little carried away when they first decide to try a business venture, he says They start "fresh with the vigor of an ticipated success.” but they're not really looking at the potential problems Under-capitalization is the number one rea son new businesses fail. Spinner says Another big cause of failure is when two members of a partnership begin to disagree on how the busi ness should be run He suggests two ways to guard against irreconcilable disputes between partners First, while they're still buddies, the partners need to anticipate all the problems they may encounter Then they should create a way of resolving those problems so they don 't sue each other "People have no idea of the kinds of disputes they can run into,” Spinner says Less than 10 percent of beginning partner ships survive, he says He recommends that anyone wanting to start a business "analyze his own personality " “If you're a control person, you shouldn't be in a partnership " Ex-student breaks away by starting a bike shop He graduated from Sonoma State College in California, a B A in English Then he studied music at the University for three years Now he owns a growing Eugene business. "t woke up in the summer of '75 and decided I d had enough school,” says Mark Jackson, a soft-spoken bicycle mechanic who once thought about making a career of playing the trom bone Jackson's business. Pedal Power bicycles at 245 E 6th Ave . is one of thousands of small concerns in Eugene, many run by former students who wanted-to forge their own careers During its first full year at its current location. Pedal Power turned over $175,000 worth of business “It s been nothing but a winner since it started,1 Jackson says When he left the University nearly a decade ago Jackson was not positive of his next step, but he knew *H was time to take another direction ”1 guess I just wanted to work with my hands,” he says. T discovered when I worked with my hands. I had to work with my head as well ' Jackson s comments reflect the cur ious white collar/blue collar paradox of the small business owner. Much of the time. Jackson s hands grip wrenches and and broken bicycle parts The palms are blackened with bicycle grease, and the skin is a little too dry from using harsh petroleum solvents The rest of the time, his hands are busy in his office writing checks, signing purchase orders, and rattling the keys of a calculator It's clear he loves his work. ‘ The bicycle is one of the admirable products of 4he industrial age,” he says “It seemed like the obvious busi ness Pedal Power actuary is Jackson s second business venture Before opening up his shop outside the Fifth Street Public Market, he started a used bicycle partnership, Second Nature Bicycles, in 1977. But the partnership soured, and he sold his half for less than he thought it was worth "ft taught me the value of putting things in writing, " he says Now Jackson employs three full-time and two part-time workers He sells new bikes and accessories, he has a complete bicycle and equipment rental service and he runs a full-service repair shop The savvy required for managing a healthy business in a failing economy doesn’t come from college Jackson says It comes from working hard, making mistakes, and then working a tithe harder. ' Business majors feel as though they get too much fluff, too much irrelevant stuff,’ he says — and that s under standable University business courses don’t mention half the things that can go wrong in business. “I would not take any course from someone who has not owned or run a business himself." Smatf business classes taught at Lane Community College have been a help, however. Jackson says That's because they are taught by people who have been in business for themselves and know the score, he says. "My basic feeling is that unless my instructor had been in business I would not trust him ” Stories by Harry Esteve Photo by Bob Baker Pedal Power, one of Eugene’s thriving small businesses, exists because a former University student needed to use his hands as well as his brain. STARTS TONIGHT! 730 & 930 BMM93-fwifT VALLEY RIVER 1077 VALLEY RIVER OR NICK MANCUSO • SAUL RUBINEK and MEG FOSTER in TICKET TO HEAVEN a RONALD COHEN-VIVIENNE LEEBOSH Production an R L THOMAS turn Screenplay by R L THOMAS & ANNE CAMERON Adapted trom the book "MOONWEBS" by JOSH FREED Co-producei ALAN SIMMONDS Executive Producer RONALD I COHEN Produced by VIVIENNE LEEBOSH Directed by R.L. THOMAS PG iMm mois’iti'a United Artists Classics >.*« MA'Iftukx MCI M MAI A*. I IOUCmON* OUl'W ** "*<1 A"‘ Al, lAjhlS i«#r»eC ''Chillingand moving...absolutely fascinating and completely absorbing. —Roger Ebert. Chicago Sun-Times TICKET TO HEAVEN Let us Kelp select tke professional look you need for your job interviews. Tj 941 Oak Street ^-J Eugene, across from the Overpark, Downtown Traditional Apparel for Men <5c Women
