Local women tell entrepreneurship success stories

by Dianna Borsi O'Brien

May 5,2007

The inspiration to start your own business can come from anywhere—even from cracking your head on the garage floor.

Lisa Scribner's fall from the attic onto her garage floor left her with a few minor injuries—and the loss of her sense of smell for six months. The temporary disability made it hard for her to cook.

"I needed somebody to get dinner on the table," said Scribner, who liked to provide healthy, home-cooked meals for her husband and two sons.
Enter Super Suppers.

For some time, Scribner had been looking for business opportunities, and the head injury gave her an idea. On Valentine's Day 2006, in the Village at Cherry Hill, she opened Super Suppers, a meal-assembly operation that provides freshly prepared entrees, frozen or ready to cook.

"It makes everyday life a little easier," said Scribner.

A recent panel discussion with women entrepreneurs revealed that, in many ways, Scribner is typical of women business owners. Despite the myths, women don't go into business to make money, to get more time for themselves or because they've hit the glass ceiling, said Mary Paulsell, director of the University Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, one of the sponsors of the April 20 breakfast event. Instead, Paulsell said, women go into business for the independence and freedom to do it their own way and to create a company they would like to work for.

As business owners and managers, she said, women place more emphasis on collaboration, values, personal concern for employees, the work environment and providing for others.

Today, more women are taking the entrepreneurial plunge, Paulsell noted. From 1997 to 2006, the number of women-owned firms grew at twice the rate of U.S. firms overall, according to the Center for Women's Business research, a nonprofit research and information agency. Today, Paulsell said, nearly 10.4 million companies are at least 50 percent owned by women. Such businesses employ more than 12.8 million workers and generate $1.9 trillion (with a T) in sales.

Paulsell spoke at the panel-discussion event, titled "It ain't what we do; it's how we do it!" which drew about 40 women to discuss changing the rules of business success.

The speakers included area businesswomen Lynn Gastineau of Gastineau Log Homes, Peggy Kirkpatrick of the Central Missouri Food Bank, Myrna Roberts of DocuCopy, Lisa Tull of the Amalfi Group and Lili Vianello of Visionworks.

Many of the women had not planned to start their own companies until they were called on to fill a need. For example, Gastineau was working as a fashion coordinator in 1977 when her parents asked her to come home to help expand the family business. Today, her company boasts $7 million in annual sales and homes in 10 countries as well as all 50 states.

In the nonprofit sector, Peggy Kirkpatrick took on the leadership role at the Central Missouri Food Bank after seeing people eating out of Dumpsters. Once she had come on board at the Food Bank, she made a few changes. She shifted the organization's practice from charging a low fee for the food to giving it away. She also developed new partnerships and increased distribution from $2.9 million in 1992 to $30 million in 2006.

By the same token, Scribner said her career satisfaction comes from connections with people in the community—not from how much her business is growing or how much money she's making. "I think the best thing about being in business," she said, "is finding this amazing network of supportive people," from suppliers to clients to staff to community members who have offered her help, advice and support.

She's attracted a loyal following. Although the food service industry is known for its high employee turnover rate, Scribner has employed the same five part-time workers since she opened. "I have a wonderful staff," she said.

For Tull, who co-owns the Amalfi Group in Lake Ozark with her husband, staff support has helped shape the business. The high-end specialty communication and public safety company faced a delivery deadline in December when the ice storm hit. But Tull knew she couldn't expect all 13 employees to make it work or to leave their families in the lurch if they didn't have electricity at home.

So she made telephone calls to ask for deadline extensions and continued to pay her workers, even when they didn't come to work. When the employees returned, they worked extra hours and weekends to make up for the lost time.

Tull said this kind of policy might not work for a large company, but so far, the team approach has lead to growth in her business. "We're looking for a bigger facility," she said.

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