Growing entrepreneurs share common business strategies

Alexa Stanard / Special to The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Some up-and-coming Michigan entrepreneurs are betting they can boost their businesses and the state's struggling economy by giving each other a helping hand.

The Entrepreneurs' Organization, a global group with an 80-member Detroit chapter, connects young business owners whose companies generate at least $1 million in annual revenues. Its core mission is to help members successfully navigate business challenges and help their companies grow."Entrepreneurs travel in packs, so this was a natural idea," said Mark Winter, communications chairman for the Detroit chapter of the Entrepreneurs' Organization and a partner at Identity Marketing and Public Relations in Bingham Farms. "We have similar-size businesses, similar ages, aspirations. We have similar plans in life, both personally and professionally."

The Entrepreneurs' Organization, known as EO, got its start 20 years ago, and today has 108 chapters in 38 countries. Jonathan Smith, the Detroit chapter's president and president of Wave Dispersion Technologies Inc. in Sylvan Lake, emphasizes that EO isn't a platform for gaining new clients or sales, though its members may ultimately form business relationships.

"It's about entrepreneurs helping other entrepreneurs," he said.At EO's heart is its monthly forum, a sort of group therapy session where six to 10 members get together and pow-wow about whatever is on their mind -- from how to better manage employees to finding the right work/family balance to staying sane while working 100-hour weeks.

At forums, members must turn off their cell phones, leave their laptops behind and can expect to pay a fine if they show up late. In exchange, they get each other's total attention as they attempt to navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship and strategize about how to develop their businesses in a tough economy.

"Most entrepreneurs don't have a road map," Winter said. "What gets an entrepreneur off the ground is aggressiveness and tenacity and love for what they do. But they need support and help with issues at work, at home and sometimes in breaking through the ceiling."

Those who do break through often "graduate" from EO to the Young Presidents Organization, a group for young leaders of large companies that's informally linked to EO. EO graduates include Josh Linkner, CEO of ePrize in Pleasant Ridge. EO also offers its members regular opportunities to rub elbows with top business leaders. The group recently toured the site of the new Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital and spoke with President and CEO Gerard van Grinsven. Christopher Ilitch, president and CEO of Ilitch Holdings Inc., met with EO members in a Comerica Park suite during a Tigers game.

The group is able to score such access because "there isn't one business leader or politician who doesn't look at entrepreneurship as the future of Michigan," Winter says.

To ensure that future is a bright one, EO is now working to support successful entrepreneurs and to cultivate those who are on their way up. The new Accelerator International is a 10-city initiative in North America that began in 2006 and is aimed at helping initial-stage business owners get to the $1 million revenue level.

Next year the group hopes to raise its profile in Michigan by initiating an awards program recognizing best practices and the best entrepreneurs. Doing so will allow the group to further support those going out on their own.

"From an economic development standpoint, entrepreneurs are the fuel that power the country," Smith said. "They're the folks that grow jobs. We want to graft what the future of Michigan's economy looks like."

Alexa Stanard is a Metro Detroit freelance writer.