Diary of a Small-Company Owner

Part two of the journal of a company owner, who, with the help of an outside board, struggles to grow her company.

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Part Two I'm changing, and my company is changing with me. The employees want to see regular client-feedback sessions, get more recognition, and have a customer newsletter that they help with; they have definite and good ideas about how to market the company. I feel proud to be a part of this. It doesn't seem like just me alone anymore

Anita F. Brattina founded Direct Response Marketing Inc. in 1984. She was one of two female business owners in Pittsburgh selected to receive a high-powered board of directors that would meet quarterly in 1992. The board was awarded by PowerLink, a local nonprofit organization set up to help female business owners catch up with their male peers. The first installment of Brattina's "Diary of a Small-Company Owner" ran in our May issue ([Article link]) and chronicled the first six months of her company's ups and downs in 1992, as she strove to increase sales, renegotiate a major contract, and keep personnel issues on an even keel. By midyear Brattina was still tussling with the board's pointed and repeated suggestions that she set down her long-term vision for the company. But if nothing else, the board had opened her up to the notion of seeking the advice of outsiders. And she had hired her first professional manager to oversee day-to-day operations.

JULY 2, 1992 Tonight I pull out the business plan I wrote last October. It is already outdated. I still don't know what I want out of this business. I need to sit quietly and think about it. Since I've been working 60 to 70 hours a week lately, when exactly do I do that? My husband, Bill, is going away in September for four days. Decide to take four days off at the same time, go up to our cottage at the lake with the dogs, and write a new business plan.

JULY 6, 1992 Take Sarah K. to lunch. She announced at our April board meeting that she is leaving Pittsburgh and her job as a quality-control manager. This is the last time we will see each other. I ask her what she thinks of our company and the board experience. I still hold my breath after those kinds of questions.

She is straightforward. I need to be more clear about what I want from the board. She is right. I haven't really thought through how to best use their talents. And because some of them have never sat on a board before, they wait for me to lead, to tell them what it is I need from them. Then, when they do give suggestions, they expect me to drop what I am doing and act immediately. Adding the board to my life is on the verge of being overwhelming. [Note: Again, the feeling that running this business is like being the juggler on "The Ed Sullivan Show" who balanced spinning dinner plates on the ends of tall sticks, with more plates being added by the minute.]

JULY 8, 1992 Have lunch with Cathy R., CEO of a manufacturing company that was on the Inc. 500 last year. I've been polling people who have advisory boards to see how open they are with them. "I tell them everything," Cathy says. "Why should I hold back? I want them to know everything so they can help me."

I am uncomfortable with that still. After keeping everything to myself for eight years, after never telling anyone the full scope of my deepest fears . . . not even my husband knows about all the nights I lay in bed chewing on a problem. This idea of verbalizing everything is new and difficult, though I can't put my finger on why.

JULY 10, 1992 Ilana D. from PowerLink calls in response to my memo. [Note: I'd done a six-month evaluation of my relationship with the board for my own review and had sent a copy to her.] We talk on the phone for almost 45 minutes. Why did I need to be told what kind of questions to ask the board? she asks. Isn't that obvious?

I remind her that the reason I asked for a board in the first place is that I feel I need help to get "unstuck."

My personal vision of success for the business is when we are doing $10 million in sales from an office 10 times the size of our current one, with a huge list of satisfied clients and employees who stay around for a long, long time. Only, I am having trouble getting there.

I tell her I am still reluctant to present full financial statements at the board meetings. She is amazed. She insists that financials are the only scorecard that makes sense. That my primary focus and the board's should be how to maximize profitability with the financial statement as the tool to determine that. I counter that my goal is to get help in planning a well-run company in terms of marketing, operations, and management. And that I will worry about profitability. She insists I am missing the whole point and that therein may be the key to my problem of being stuck. "If you are not looking at how to maximize profitability, you'd better have a damn good other reason," she says.

Think about the call all afternoon. I respect her opinion and realize what I have been doing up to now has not been good enough. I am willing to shift my focus at least for the remainder of the year. I call her back. Will she agree to be the substitute board member in place of Sarah K.? Ilana agrees. She also recommends I add Larry R., her boss at Price Waterhouse, to the board. I agree.

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