ShareThisBy JONATHAN B. COX
Raleigh News & Observer
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Genel Webb works 10-hour days and doesn't get paid. But she loves it.
"It's been more rewarding than my 20-year career," said the mother of two.
Webb, 44, left Verizon Communications in July 2005 when the company decided to reduce its work force.
She set up office in her Fuquay-Varina, N.C., home and set out to start an elder-care business; CenterPeace Companion Care now employs 10.
"It was not my goal to retire from Verizon," she said. "I always had the sense that I would do something different."
Webb represents a new current of entrepreneurship that is coursing through North Carolina in the wake of mass layoffs, population growth and other economic shifts that have roiled and reshaped the state this decade.
Established companies still account for most employment, but in the past year, jobs among startups and the self-employed grew more than twice as fast.
"The entire 2001 through 2004 was the time when all of us who focus on entrepreneurship were checking our phones to make sure they were still connected," said Mark H. Mirkin, a lawyer with Williams Mullen in Research Triangle Park, near Raleigh. "We have seen a comeback, with a vengeance."
Manufacturing and technology workers thrown out of work have opened restaurants and shops _ some by choice, others because they couldn't find other jobs. Retirees who migrated to Asheville and Wilmington are supplementing incomes by consulting. Residents are seizing the opportunity to provide services for newcomers.
Venture capital that evaporated when the economy contracted has returned, giving sustenance to big ideas that could become the next big technical, medical or pharmaceutical breakthrough.
And more entrepreneurs are getting help from the government. The number of loans made to North Carolina companies by the Small Business Administration in the past five years has more than doubled, according to data from the federal agency, exceeding national loan growth by 45 percentage points.
"We're in an economy that's in a state of flux. Old industries are declining, decaying. New industries are sprouting up," said Mike Walden, a North Carolina State University economist.
"That's very fertile ground" for entrepreneurs.
The most successful of them can shape a city. But they also bring risk. Startups are fragile. A downturn in the economy can stamp them out. A marketing misstep can prove fatal.
Indeed, an estimated one-third of new businesses fail within two years.
David Braaten has beaten the odds -- so far. Among his secrets: Sound effects.
"You're dealing with small people who don't want shoes put on their feet," said Braaten, 32, the proprietor of Trendy Toes Children's Shoes in Cary.
So Braaten gets creative. He makes airplane sounds to put his little customers at ease.
"I absolutely love the interaction," he said. "I tell my wife it's the best job I've ever had."
Like a lot of people, Braaten tried for years to find happiness at work. He took different jobs but never found a niche.
His wife's family had a long history in the shoe industry, so Braaten decided to give it a shot.
His store, a colorful place with checkerboards, backgammon and other games on the carpet, opened last summer. It stocks athletic, casual and dress shoes for newborns up to youth size six. Braaten promises friendly service and a proper fit.
Building the business was more challenging than he expected.
"The nice thing is, when you first start a business you don't know anything," Braaten said. "Once you get into it, you realize how hard it really is."
For two decades, Webb improved processes, added automation and fixed problems at Verizon.
But she was unfulfilled. She was reading "48 Days to the Work You Love," which helps people turn passions into profits, when she volunteered to leave.
"It was so timely," she said. "I felt like a door was being opened."
Growing up in Bladen County, N.C., Webb learned compassion. Her mother and grandmother owned a facility for the elderly there.
When a friend in New York was disabled by a stroke, Webb hatched her idea. Her friend was crying one day when Webb called, because she struggled to get into bed. Webb found a company that sent an employee in every other day to help.
CenterPeace does almost exactly the same thing. For $16 an hour, the company will send workers to visit elderly clients, remind them to take medicine, do light housekeeping and pick up prescriptions. In May, it was also licensed to provide in-home services such as bathing. It charges $20 an hour for that.
"There's a lot of opportunity," said Webb, who intends to start taking a salary this year. "There's a lot of need."
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
