business

When Kay Frandsen was let go from her position as an interior designer, she knew she never wanted to go through that again.

"It came as a total surprise and shock," Frandsen said. "I just thought, OK, that's the last time that's going to ever happen to me. I will never be an employee for anybody else. I will take control of my future and my life. It's up to me."

That determination led Frandsen to launch what would become the Wabi Sabi Shop, a consignment store for fine home furnishings, accessories and artwork that opened a year ago in Plymouth.

The store takes its name from the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, which Frandsen discovered while researching her business idea. The word wabi, Frandsen said, refers to the letting go of excess, while sabi means the beauty that comes with age.

Going into business, however, took more than philosophical inspiration. In addition to her own tireless, meticulous research, networking and planning, Frandsen took advantage of free business counseling and other services from the Minneapolis chapter of SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives.

Frandsen and two other women business owners will discuss starting their companies, even in the face of the recession, on Thursday at SCORE's annual Women in Business luncheon. The nonprofit SCORE, in partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration, provides free online and face-to-face business counseling to small-business owners.

Joining Frandsen as presenters at the Women in Business luncheon will be:

•Lisa Hendrickson, who used nearly a decade of corporate computer help-desk experience to launch Call That Girl, a computer support and repair company for home and business clients, as a full-time business in 2007.

•Ann Drew Yu, owner of Good Intentions, a home and lifestyle consulting business founded in its present format last year. Through her business Yu, a former high school English teacher who enjoys helping people, provides advice on making positive changes to create a home that "flows" and makes the best use of space. Her recommendations incorporate elements of interior design, intentional living and feng shui. In addition to her consulting service, Yu also developed a product -- the Intention Box -- that provides an easy, concrete structure to focus on making a change, advancing it and achieving success with it.

Leverage your experience

SCORE counselor Caryl Sharp, who has chaired the Women in Business event for the past five years, said each of the women making presentations this year had done well to open businesses that build or expand on their previous experience.

"That's the quickest and soundest way to move on into a particular business segment," said Sharp, a former accountant. "As a counselor I feel much better about someone utilizing their prior experience than going into something completely unfamiliar. Oftentimes if I see that, I suggest they get a job in that area to make sure they have some insight into the business. I guess we call that pragmatic."

In addition to encouraging women to go into business, SCORE hopes its yearly event will help recruit additional women to serve as business counselors, Sharp said.

Here's what this year's panelists said when asked for their advice on starting and building a business in the face of a recession:

Frandsen: "Ask questions," she said. "Ask, ask, ask. Talk to as many people as possible. Do your homework. I went about investigating and let the business plan prove it to me. It was the tool that let me prove to myself that I had a valid idea. I knew if I could prove it to myself, I could prove it to a bank."

Frandsen met with local consignment shop owners, joined the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops, called shop owners across the country and attended the organization's national conference in pursuit of information to help her start her business.

Hendrickson: Entrepreneurs who don't focus on their core business are the ones who can end up struggling, Hendrickson said. That's an issue Hendrickson has dealt with herself: As she used social media as one of her primary marketing tools, she fought the temptation to start a social media company. Instead, she ended up writing an e-book on social media.

"You have to remember that everything you do has to draw people to the core business," Hendrickson said. "You can't take time away from the core business. That's a problem with entrepreneurs, if they don't put 100 percent in."

Yu: At the same time, entrepreneurs shouldn't get rushed into business, she said. A case in point is her Intention Box product, which she thought would be ready to hit the market after six months of work but took nearly two years to complete.

"Building a quality business takes time," Yu said. "There's such a strong desire when you're passionate about your idea for things to move quickly. But everything takes longer than you think. And [to do everything well it] ... takes more time. If you've got a racing heart, I'd say go to bed and sleep on it. That's that adrenaline that can overrule your head."

Todd Nelson is a freelance writer in Woodbury. His e-mail address is todd_nelson@mac.com.