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