Kane County Chronicle | Entrepreneurship dream for some, reality ...

Peter Bogle believes his product is unique.

?There?s nothing on the market right now that does what this does,? Bogle said. ?Nothing.?

But how Bogle came to spending his days and nights making, promoting and selling his line of odor-killing products ? which he sells under the O-Liminator brand ? are themes recognized by Americans.

In 2007, Bogle, of St. Charles, had grown tired of spending money on products that fell short of solving his problem: a basement that reeked of sweaty and smelly athletic equipment.

Putting his background in chemical engineering to use, Bogle concocted a deodorizing product that he claimed did something no other product he tested could. It absorbed moisture, attacked odor-causing bacteria and removed the stench that had made the basement uninhabitable.

?I walked down in the basement one day, and it hit me,? Bogle said. ?I didn?t smell anything, and I thought, ?I think I?ve got something here.? ?

In the years since, Bogle has taken his invention beyond his basement, mass producing O-Liminator products and selling them online and in retail stores.

?To see how far we?ve come, it?s amazing,? Bogle said. ?I think this will become a household name before we?re done.?

In recent decades, some have noted that stories such as Bogle?s ? of entrepreneurs willing to take the risk of starting a business from scratch ? have become common.

Ernie Mahaffey, president of the Center for Business Education, Innovation and Development, a Geneva-based organization offering support and guidance to entrepreneurs, said the economic environment almost demands an increase in entrepreneurs.

?When I started my career so many decades ago, no one was talking entrepreneurship,? Mahaffey said. ?We were talking lifetime employment: A young person would take a job, and then stay with that company until retirement.?

But such days, he said, are gone, replaced with the uncertainty that characterizes the economic environment of the past few decades.

Mahaffey credits that uncertainty with fueling much of the boom in entrepreneurship locally and nationwide.

?For some people, it?s about a quest for a second income without taking another job working for someone else,? he said. ?For others, it?s about creating their own source of income that isn?t dependent on any one employer.?

Mahaffey also credits technological innovations with fueling entrepreneurship.

?Thanks to the Web, laptop computers and mobile devices, it?s less expensive now to start a business and to grow fast,? Mahaffey said.

The urge is strong among many, even as the economy remains sour, said Mahaffey and others who work regularly to help small business creators launch.

?We?re just as busy, if not busier than ever,? said Harriet Parker, director of the Illinois Small Business Development Center at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove.

Parker said as many as 400 people a year come through her office, many seeking advice and guidance on launching their startup business or growing an existing small business.

However, while many daydream and a number may scribble thoughts on paper or talk about it with others, fewer still will accept the challenge of turning their idea into a viable business.

Parker noted that only about 5 to 10 percent of the local clients with whom she has worked in the last seven years have ?actually started some type of business.?

A report on entrepreneurship, released in July by the nonpartisan New America Foundation, indicates the number of startup businesses has been declining quietly, yet precipitously, in recent years.

The study notes from 1977 to 2006, the number of Americans starting businesses that employ at least one person had declined by 30 percent, when measured as a number of new business startups per 10,000 Americans older than age 16.

And since poor economic conditions began five years ago, the decline in Americans starting businesses accelerated, the report said. By 2010, the total number of startups had dropped by 53 percent, compared to 1977.

On average, Americans created 27 businesses for every 10,000 working Americans each year from 1977 to 1989, the report said.

In the 1990s, that number slid to 25 new businesses per 10,000 Americans. And in the 2000s, the number slipped to 22 businesses.

At the same time, the number of Americans who were self-employed also declined, the study found.

From 1994 to 2011, the self-employment rate in the U.S. decreased by 13.6 percent, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, falling from 663 self-employed per 10,000 Americans to 573 last year.

?The bottom line is that we have no reason to be self-satisfied about America remaining a beacon of entrepreneurialism,? the authors wrote. ?To the contrary, we seem to have great reason to be deeply concerned.?

The New American Foundation did indicate reasons for the decline in its report.

Parker said would-be entrepreneurs face a number of challenges, including operating in the economic environment and dealing with a lack of access to money they need to make their dreams a reality.

She and Mahaffey noted many who have succeeded at starting their businesses typically have been forced to walk away from banks and traditional business lending sources and rely on a blend of personal financing and loans from people they know and trust.

Bogle, for instance, financed O-Liminator using his and his family?s money.

Others told similar tales.

Rebecca Colburn last year started a Geneva-based catering company, Gracious Hall. A single mother, Colburn said she worked for months to find a lender willing to support her business.

Ultimately, she had to rely on a family loan and work another job as she started her business.

?I quit that, though, because I want this to be my sole income, and I want to put everything I can into this,? Colburn said. ?It?s harder now.

?But I?m seeing growth, and I think I?m going to make it.?

Steve Mastio, a St. Charles entrepreneur who founded a commercial cleaning company, said he also is seeking financing to support his next entrepreneurial project, an online scheduling program for home services he calls Fittlebug.

The program would allow users to schedule appointments at their homes for such services as cable television installation the same day.

Mastio said he has struggled to land financing for the project. At the same time, his cleaning company has been hurt because his large clients have cut spending.

?It?s been a challenging year,? he said.

Mastio said the severity of the challenges lead him to suspect other would-be entrepreneurs are feeling similar pressures, particularly in the economic environment he blames on the administration in Washington.

?I?d say the entrepreneurial spirit is weakening,? Mastio said. ?It?s not extinguished yet, but it is weakening.?

But he also accepts that entrepreneurs face problems that those working for others may not.

?If you want to get ahead, you have to take risk,? Mastio said.

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Source: http://www.kcchronicle.com/2012/08/28/entrepreneurship-dream-for-some-reality-for-fewer/a4o3sv2/

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