Posted Under: Entrepreneurship, Our Heroes

Today under the “Our Heroes” series, we are talking with the very artistic Eva Niewiadomski. After 15 years working in accounting, finance and marketing, Eva was laid off subsequent to her company enduring a complicated merger. This suited Eva perfectly since she could now take the hands-on approach she always loved and allow her creative juices to flow…straight into her business Catalyst Ranch. Keep reading to learn more about Eva’s creative journey…

DD: Who are you and what kind of corporate job were you at?

EN: I originally graduated with a degree in public accounting and spent 4 years working for a large auditing company. I eventually transitioned to a large food and beverage company where I worked for 15 years in a variety of accounting, finance, marketing, and new product development positions. While there, I completed my MBA in Marketing and International Business at Kellogg, all while working full-time.

DD: What made you leave the job? When did you realize that you wanted to be an entrepreneur & why?

EN: There’s nothing like a good layoff to get you motivated to do something else with your life. My company was acquired by another. The culture of our two organizations was quite different and, as with most mergers, the environment was quite challenging. My situation was even more stressful as my division was immediately made part of one of the other companies located in another state (annexed from my colleagues even though we were in the same building). Being in new products, the pressure was on to realize synergies from the merger as soon as possible. I lasted a year after the merger, surviving restructuring after restructuring. However, I knew my days were numbered, as most of us creative sorts were being eliminated first. I started thinking about what I would do next and couldn’t envision myself going to another company and doing more of the same. Unfortunately, I loved doing the creative work of product development and didn’t really want to be promoted to a VP or more senior level since that would not allow me to be as hands-on as I enjoyed being. This isn’t a philosophy or career path that most large corporations encourage. They want you to progress up or out. So, I started thinking about what I wanted to do next and exploring various ideas based on what I felt my strengths were.

I realized that one of the things that I’d done in my day job that gave me a lot of personal satisfaction and recognition within the company was transforming the physical environment. I had decorated my cubicle with artwork, toys and other fun things. I developed two “Innovation Hallways” for the divisions in which I had worked, which allowed people to collaborate and connect in a way that hadn’t previously been possible. And, I created a small “Creativity Room” which was a small conference room furnished with vintage furniture, colorful walls, artwork, toys, etc. which people could use individually to work through problems or for small team meetings. The point of the room was to provide a creative environment totally different from the corporate norm that could add as a spur to look and solve problems from a different vantage point. In effect, this ended up being the seed idea for Catalyst Ranch, the business I eventually opened. Catalyst Ranch is a small boutique conference center that companies can use for their offsite meetings. It’s furnished with vintage furniture, ethnic artwork, toys, books, colorful walls and filled with natural light and high lofted ceilings.

The core premise behind Catalyst Ranch and Catalyst Ranch Design (my other somewhat connected business) is that physical environment does matter. That’s where my passion lies – in creating and providing physical environments which allow people to think different, better, to realize their full potential and to have a more fulfilling work experience. I wanted to spend my time working towards an objective I believed in, in making people’s lives better in some small way, maybe altering some of their perceptions and preconceived notions.

DD: What did you do to break the corporate jail? How did you prepare yourself for the employee to entrepreneur transition?

EN: I didn’t really have all that much time to prepare. I was given two months time by my employer before I needed to leave my job, which later became extended to three months. So, I started working immediately on my business plan, scouting out locations, purchasing furniture and doing a lot of qualitative research to validate my business assumptions and refine my offering. I cut back all my spending and started to horde money. I had a 9 month severance package coming and I intended to use every penny wisely, but I knew that money would go quickly since I was actually creating a physical space and not a virtual business. While still employed, I got an equity loan on my condo since I knew I wouldn’t be able to get it once I was truly unemployed. So I lived frugally, took a deep breath and mortgaged myself to the hilt. I guess all those years in accounting and finance paid off (even though I’d begrudged the years I’d invested in professions I didn’t really enjoy all that much). I used those skills to develop a budget and a very conservative forecast. I also did a worst case scenario to see if I could live with it. How much money could I potentially lose and would I be able to get through it without totally panicking. That was a real moment of truth. It’s one thing to do forecasts with huge rounding errors for a large corporation, quite something else to do it for yourself and realize that it’s your money on the line!

Once I left my company for good, things went quickly. I found a space within 5 weeks, signed a lease and began the build-out. The space was raw and really had nothing beyond heat & air conditioning and the beginnings of a bathroom. I acted as construction manager and somehow we managed to complete the whole build-out within 6 weeks. I was under a bit of pressure to open as I had booked 3 meetings sight unseen and had to be ready to host them. Somehow, with the incredible help of friends and family, we managed to meet all the deadlines and have a successful opening. I have never worked as hard in my life (and I’m a hard worker) as I did for the first couple years of my business. I pretty much ran it alone with one other part time person for quite a long time. It’s amazing what you’re able to accomplish if you put your mind to it and if you set and keep priorities.

DD: What are your tips and suggestions for employees who want to be entrepreneurs?

EN: Make sure that whatever venture you decide to set forth upon is something you have a lot of passion around. People can see that energy and dedication, which makes them more likely to support your business. When you have good, positive energy, it’s infectious – people want to be around those who can inspire and excite them. In addition, with the depth of de-personalization that has encompassed our everyday interactions and the generally negative feelings most people have towards large, faceless corporations, the entrepreneur starts with the competitive advantage of being the face of their business. You have the ability to foster personal relationships that will lead to loyalty and recurring business. If you approach your venture in the right spirit, people will want to help you succeed. And many will do it free of charge.

Being an entrepreneur requires courage and a certain wherewithal for dealing with risk. One of the worst mistakes people make when opening a business is trying to spend as little money as possible on every aspect of the business. Here are some things you need to realize:

1) You cannot possibly do everything yourself and do it well. Do a careful assessment of your skills and capabilities. Yes, you have the capacity to learn, but there is a trade-off of time and quality that you need to consider. Some of the things that you try to do yourself may come off as amateurish and reflect poorly on your venture despite the excessive amounts of time you might invest in the activity. Sweat equity doesn’t always turn into brand equity.

2) Some of the keys to your business success will require a potentially significant investment. Sometimes you need to stand by your convictions and judgments and spend the money that needs to be spent. Shortchanging can quickly become shortsighted.

One of the best pieces of advice I got when I was first exploring the idea of starting my own business and mortgaging my home to finance it, was that if I wrote a business plan and did my forecasts I needed to be willing to spend money when the time came. If I couldn’t stomach the idea of writing checks for those sums, I should just walk away before going any further.

3) Write a business plan and develop a budget. That is the discipline that is required to ensure that you are really thinking everything through and know what you’re getting yourself into. This process is extremely important and will give you the confidence to set forth on your own venture. If you can’t get over your fear of numbers, you will never succeed in your own business. The Small Business Association is a fantastic free resource. They have templates for business plans and offer many inexpensive and free seminars as well as free coaching from seasoned business professionals. They’ll even sit down and go through your budget with you to make sure you haven’t missed something critical.

4) Do some early qualitative research. This just means talking about your product or service to those you’ve identified as your potential target. Do as much of this research as possible. You can’t talk to too many people. They will tell you what they think. People like being asked for their opinions and having someone really listen to them. It’s a valuable way to validate your business idea without spending any money. It will also highlight for you aspects which may need to be fixed, added, and modified in order to meet a valid consumer/customer need. The added bonus is that people will give you great, unsolicited ideas free of charge. Carry a notebook with you at all times and jot down ideas, names, leads that people provide. You won’t remember them all and that notebook of seed ideas could end up being one of your biggest resources in the future.

DD: How are you now? Are you still in the same business, and how do you feel?

EN: It’s been 7 ½ years and we’re still in the same business. We’ve evolved our offerings, added many services. We’ve grown from one website to four! We’ve expanded from one floor to two floors, growing our square footage from 9,000 sq. ft. to over 15,000 sq. ft. It’s gone from me and one person part time to 20 employees. Sometimes it feels crazy to look back and think it’s only been 7 years or so. Other times, it feels like a lifetime and my previous corporate life is a barely recognizable memory. But, despite the challenges, there have been many successes. I can’t begin to list all the things I’ve learned, overcome and the level of growth I’ve experienced. Life is exciting and going to work is fun. How many of you can say that about your current corporate job?

DD: Wow! Thank you so much Eva for sharing your incredible story with us! I’m so glad you were successful in your entrepreneurial venture. I wish you the best of luck in the future with Catalyst Ranch, what a great idea!

EN: Thank you, Devesh, for listening to my story and for understanding how important entrepreneurs are in today’s world. So much of what we see, hear, and do is created by entrepreneurs who just want to make a difference and follow their passion towards something new and exciting that just might take off in this crazy world we live in. I was lucky enough to see my creativity blossom into a successful business, now 7 ½ years old and still going strong.

DD: Eva Niewiadomski everyone, successful entrepreneur and the founder of Catalyst Ranch, a small boutique conference center that companies use for their offsite meetings. This proves that the environment in which we live and work in really does affect our performance. She really had made a difference in people’s lives by changing the physical environment around them in order to provoke different and better thought processes. What an interesting job!

Success to all!!