March 24, 2010

More people deciding it's a good time to start a small business

By Angelia Davis • Staff writer • March 24, 2010

Kevin and Joyce Fort saw an opportunity to live their dream with their new downtown shoe store, Talloni of Greenville, and they didn’t give up their day jobs to grab it.

The Forts, both managers at local manufacturing plants, started their women’s shoe boutique in downtown’s Riverplace development in the third quarter of 2009, a period that saw a surge in entrepreneurial activity, according to Challenger Gray & Christmas, the global consultants.

But unlike most, the Forts didn’t quit their careers to launch their venture. Experts say that increases their chances of succeeding.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas said the third quarter of 2009 had the highest surge in entrepreneurial activity among job seekers — 11.8 percent — since the second quarter of 2005.

“They had to bring in income. They couldn’t find a job, the job market really was stalled, so they took matters in their own hands,” said John A. Challenger, the firm’s chief executive officer.

Economists say that some of history’s most successful entrepreneurs launched their careers in tough times. Hewlett-Packard was born in a garage near the end of the Great Depression, Bill Gates started Microsoft in the recession of 1975, and James Dyson launched his vacuum cleaner company in the recession of the early ‘90s.

Brian Headd, an economist with the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, said the number of new employer businesses tends to increase when the labor market is struggling and then levels off.

Not surprisingly, he said, the number of such companies was up 8 percent between 2007 and 2008, compared with a rise of 2 percent a year in the late 1990s when the economy was better.

Challenger expects entrepreneurial activity to continue its momentum in coming months.

“Now as the economy starts to make its way back, more of those people will start to leave companies voluntarily and start businesses they’ve turned their sights on,” he said.

Joyce Fort, a 34-year-old who also owns a photography studio, has long had her sights on shoes. They are a trademark of her photographs.

Kevin Fort, a 35-year-old engineering manager, said his wife’s familiarity with the upscale Talloni brand was a reason they pursued ownership of the Greenville store when it became available.

“The recession gets so much attention. We took the mindset that the recession just forces you to just rethink how you’re doing business and move forward,” he said.

Joyce Fort said the timing of their purchase gave them a different perspective from other retailers that had seen sales suddenly drop off.

“We never knew where it was from an ownership standpoint. We hit the ground running,” she said. “It’s been a learning process.”

The Clemson University Small Business Development Center counseled 2,842 people looking to launch new businesses statewide last year, including 464 in a region that includes Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Oconee, Pickens, Greenwood, Laurens, Edgefield, Abbeville, McCormick and Saluda counties.

Jill Burroughs, director of the Small Business Development Center, said that in general, a recession may not be a good time to open a business but the argument for doing so can be made that it’s easier to find good employees without having to pay them as much and to negotiate less expensive lease rates.

The Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy says 70 percent of new employer firms last at least two years, and 50 percent survive five years.

The Forts are working toward keeping their establishment from becoming such a statistic.

“Joyce and I are coming from strong manufacturing-type backgrounds to jump in this pool of women’s shoes industry. We’re out here swimming and seeing things from a totally different light than the way a lot of the veterans of the industry see it,” Kevin Fort said. “There’s so much we can do when we say we want to grow the business.”

It all starts with understanding your demographics, Joyce Fort said.

“Once you understand who your customers are, what your customers value, then I think you can begin to make those changes, bring in new lines, different shoes,” she said. “Maybe it’s the same line or a different type of shoe.”

The Missouri natives, whose jobs brought them to the Upstate from the Dallas-Forth Worth area four years ago, consider Talloni of Greenville their fourth child. Their biological children are ages 5, 3 and 1½.

Just like they pick up their biological children from day care in the evening, they pick up work at Talloni’s.

“We do still maintain our careers, and establishing a strong staff at Talloni’s is the key,” Kevin Fort said. “They do a very good job of maintaining our baby so that we can go back to work.”