Laura Culin
Austin Lumber Company

The thought of rebuilding a business after a disaster is unimaginable for most entrepreneurs, especially if the business is uninsured. But it can be done with healthy doses of determination, patience and focus.

Just ask Laura Culin, president of Austin Lumber Company.

Culin was welcoming the 2005 New Year with family and friends at her home in Llano when the telephone rang. Instead of a festive "Happy New Year!" greeting, Culin heard a somber voice telling her some of the worst news of her life - her third generation business was engulfed in flames and was burning to the ground.

The celebration ended abruptly as Culin learned that a bottle rocket set off by kids had struck the East Austin lumberyard founded by her grandfather in 1929, carried on by her father and operated by Culin since 1995.

"I was in a state of sheer disbelief," Culin recalled. "Then I got in my car and drove for an hour. I saw the flames and smoke on the horizon and just felt sick. I get goose bumps thinking about it."

When the sun rose that morning, the iconic mom and pop business at 2415 East 5th Street looked nothing like Culin's fond memories of growing up and working there. All she could see was smoldering rubble. The blaze had consumed five of seven buildings, all the machinery, inventory, offices, files and family antiques collected over 75 years in the lumber and hardware business.

The total damage was of catastrophic proportions, estimated at $1.5 million. With no affordable insurance available for such a high-risk business, Culin began the long climb back fueled primarily by her trademark perseverance.

Over the next two years, she managed to borrow and save $350,000, enough to rebuild three of the five buildings lost in the blaze. The other two structures will be reconstructed over the next couple of years. And yes, the lumberyard is now insured.

In the process of restoring her beloved lumberyard, Culin frequently visited the Business Solutions Center (BSC), operated by the City of Austin’s Small Business Development Program, for assistance. She took advantage of its technological resources and tools, including free high-speed Internet access to research financing mechanisms and potential contractors.

"I had to write a new business plan for the business that was about to emerge. The Business Solutions Center had just the right software for me to do that," Culin said. "Then the staff was wonderful in giving me the encouragement I needed at a terribly difficult time in my life and the life of the family business."

Initially, Culin doubted she could resurrect the family business. But anyone who knows the dogged single mother of three grown sons, ages 18, 21 and 22, never questioned her ability to bounce back and rebuild the business from its charred remains.

Vicky Valdez, SBDP senior coordinator for development information resources, said that reconstructing a business, even a strong business, following such a catastrophic loss is not easy but still doable.

"If there is anyone in this city who could rebuild from such a devastating loss, it's Laura Culin," said Valdez, who helped Culin find the right resources at the Business Solutions Center. "She's such a strong businesswoman, with all of the right instincts for survival. Giving up is not part of her vocabulary."

The fire swept through her business on a Friday. The same day Culin moved into an apartment at the back of the property to keep looters at bay. She spent that weekend helping to clear the property of debris to ensure that Austin Lumber Company was open for business that Monday.

"The only good news about the fire was that no one was injured. I was so thankful of that," Culin said. "And while it was devastating to me and probably always will be, I had to keep it going. I just knew I had to keep it going."

In fact, throughout the cleanup and rebuilding, the lumberyard did not lose a single day of business. For two years, Culin rarely left the premises.

"I felt strongly that I needed to be there to make sure the rebuilding and the business were both going smoothly," Culin said. "The fire changed everything about my life. After a disaster, I've been told, it takes at least two years to start thinking positively again. I'm still not there one hundred percent."

While sales are not back up to where they were before the fire, Culin says her company is once again thriving, while heading in a more environmentally sensitive direction. It has gone green.

Just recently Austin Lumber Company joined the City of Austin's Green Building Program, which champions energy efficient and environmentally sound design and construction. The lumberyard is now a supplier of FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) – certified wood products that promote the conservation of energy, water and natural resources.

"The fire was a scary thing, but I have a passion for what I do. That helped me a lot in rebuilding the family business and adapting it to green building concepts," Culin said. "We're still a small lumber and hardware store, and that's the way we want to stay. I've never wanted to be one of the big guys."

Josh Haefner
Reynolds Specialties

If you see a new flag pole flying the stars and stripes and the lone star of Texas in front of a newly constructed school, office building, fire station, hospital or other commercial buildings around the Austin/San Antonio area there's a very good chance it's the work of Austinite Josh Haefner.

The flag poles are just one mark of Haefner’s success as co-owner and sales manager for Reynolds Specialties, a manufacturers representative firm that he and a couple of friends salvaged after it had been liquidated in 2001, also the year he graduated from Southwest Texas State University, now Texas State University.

Haefner’s company, which represents national manufacturers of various products for commercial construction projects, began with little capital but has succeeded with a wealth of determination.

"We all wanted to create our own unique business, but we really didn’t know what kind of business," Haefner said. "This opportunity to rebuild Reynolds from the ground up was a very random thing. But it’s worked. We found our niche, but it took a lot of hard work and dedication."

When the three friends took over the firm, they decided to focus on promising sales markets from Austin north to the Dallas area. Haefner took the Austin/San Antonio area, and his partners opted to oversee sales in Dallas and Red Oak, located north of Waxahachie.

Haefner, a self-described "military brat" whose family eventually settled in the Austin/Seguin area after years of traveling from one military installation to another, deliberately based his business in Austin because of his love for the laid-back atmosphere.

"I was even more excited about settling in Austin because one day while I was watching television, I saw a spot for the Small Business Development Program," Haefner said. "That's where I found the Business Solutions Center and learned to use the F.W. Dodge Report to find general contractors who needed our products."

The SBDP provides free high-speed Internet access to the Dodge Report in its On-Line Plan Room, located in the Business Solutions Center on the first floor of One Texas Center at 505 Barton Springs Road, Austin, Texas 78704. The report is a goldmine of information for contractors like Haefner because details some 5,000 public and private bid opportunities throughout Texas and the Hurricane Katrina and Rita damaged areas of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama.

In his early years as a business owner, Haefner would visit the Center at least once a week to scan the Dodge Report. He searched for specific products, like flag poles, skylights and louvers needed for commercial construction projects and submit bids on each contract he found.

Just a couple of years ago, he would win one or two contract awards a month. Today, it’s more like five contracts a month, or 60 a year. When the jobs demand it, he can afford to keep as many as five installers on staff.

Haefner also regularly consulted with counselors at the Business Solutions Center about subcontractors in the area who could install the products his company specialized in.

"The Business Solutions Center is a great resource for someone like me who was just starting out," Haefner said. "It’s a key reason our business took off like it did."

A definite sign of his success is that he no longer stops by the Center on a weekly basis. He purchased his own $1,500 subscription to the Dodge Report which he and his crew of three can access on their laptop computers while out in the field. They look for new contracts on a daily basis.

Six years later, Haefner can boast without hesitation that he’s well on his way to accomplishing what he set out to do. He’s built a profitable business and there’s no limit to how successful it can become.

"But it will always be a small business," Haefner said. "We’re all keeping busy, but at a comfortable pace. We're making enough money to reinvest back in the company. That’s a great feeling."

Scott Carter
Concrete Surface Innovations

Decorative concrete is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. Austinite Scott Carter has carved out a profitable niche for his business, Concrete Surface Innovations, by staying ahead of the constantly evolving craft of transforming concrete into tile, granite, slate, flagstone, cobblestone and even wood in an array of designs, textures and colors.

"There’s really no limit to how creative you can get with concrete," Carter said. "There’s more flexibility with concrete than with natural stone. The color, the style, the shape are all up to what the individual owner wants and what fits with the natural environment. It can be as distinctive as the owner wants it to be. This is what I do, and I’m fortunate to be able to make a decent living at it."

Word of mouth about Carter's talent for making concrete mimic brick, wood or tile for a much lower cost and with greater longevity has been an asset in building a successful business.

But Carter also has routinely used a unique resource provided by the City of Austin’s Small Business Development Program (SBDP) to keep his business healthy and competitive. For almost three years, a member of Carter’s office staff has utilized the On-Line Plan Room, located in the SBDP Business Solutions Center, to find pending projects.

"The On-Line Plan Room has been a great tool for us in finding projects that we normally wouldn’t know about," Carter said. "We bid on as many as we can and let the chips fall."

Concrete has been Carter's professional passion for more than 20 years.

Just out of high school in 1982, Carter traveled from his native San Diego, California to Austin, where he hoped to put his personal stamp on the world. He joined his brother’s concrete laying business, learning everything he could about the trade, which was beginning to undergo dramatic changes in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

No longer was concrete considered the utilitarian grey basement floor to be sealed out of sight. Concrete stamping, which creates patterns engraved directly into wet cement, was growing in popularity.

In 1991, Carter's brother moved back to California. That is when Carter Concrete began offering decorative concrete work in the Austin area. He didn’t know it then, but his future had been set in concrete, so to speak.

Office manager Nicole Lentz, Carter’s office manager, makes two trips each week to the Business Solutions Center, where she taps into an Internet database that details more than 5,000 public and private projects open for bidding throughout Texas and the Hurricane Katrina damaged areas of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama. Each visit produces one to five projects to bid on, Lentz said.

The information provided by the On-Line Plan Room has allowed Carter to expand the focus of his business from residential to the larger, more lucrative commercial developments.

In the last couple of years, he's been awarded up to 20 commercial projects annually. But many of these projects can take from two to four years to complete. That's why his full-time staff fluctuates from six to 12 people at any given time.

Some of Carter's more recent creations include the front entry of the Hyatt Regency Austin at 208 Barton Springs Road and the herringbone patterned brick "porte cochere," or covered driveway, in front of the Radisson Hotel at 111 E. Cesar Chavez Street.

"I do a general search through all of the Texas projects," Lentz said. "When I find something we can bid on, I print out a couple of pages of the plans. We bid any job we find, whether it's in Austin, Houston or Dallas. We've developed a good track record with the database information. That’s what keeps us coming back for more projects."

Rachel Johnston
OperTuneUs

After finishing college and graduate school in the early 1990s, Rachel Johnston couldn't wait to begin a career that ultimately would earn her the title of web designer.

The limitless potential to inform Internet users with innovative designs and constantly developing new services lured Johnston to the information technology industry and keeps her energized today.

Johnston's enthusiasm about her profession of choice and her determination to rid websites of an overabundance of superficial advertising and replace it with meaningful content helped her build a successful Seattle web development business, called OperTuneUs.

Last year, she relocated her family and company to Austin to reap the cultural, economic, educational, social and all of the myriad benefits that keep Austin high on the lists of "best places" to live, work and play.

Shortly after arriving in Austin in March 2005, Johnston discovered the City of Austin’s Small Business Development Program's Business Solutions Center located on the first floor of One Texas Center at 505 Barton Springs Road.

She immediately was impressed by the variety of free resources available at the Center, including a B2G link to federal, state, county and city requests for proposals (RFPs) and a database of public and private contract bid opportunities.

"The first time I went by the Center, I couldn't believe what I had found there," Johnston said. "It's the greatest place in the world for someone like me who was bringing an established business to a new community or for someone who is starting out from scratch with a new business. It’s not unusual at all to meet new business people there. That’s where the dialogue begins."

The notion of opening her own business struck Johnson in 2001 while she was the high-speed manager for AT&T Wireless in Seattle. It was her growing frustration with web content that drove her to quit her lucrative job with the telecommunications giant to venture out on her own and correct this technological misdeed.

"It was driving me nuts," said Johnston, who earned a masters degree in computer science from the University of Colorado at Boulder. "I'd go to a website and find the company's mission statement and goals and not much more than that. Sites were all about marketing and didn't tell the readers anything they wanted and needed to know. I started my own business to try and turn that around."

In 2001, Johnston opened OperTuneUs, a company that integrates the latest creative online technologies – virtual property tours, virtual "walk-thrus" and construction photography – with website design to tell a company's story in an imaginative, succinct, user-friendly approach.

"Using 360-degree virtual tours of businesses and properties, we’re able to uniquely market our customers to a global market," Johnston said. "The great thing is that all businesses and industries can benefit from virtual tours. It's a wonderful way to draw in potential clients and give them confidence about your company. Before they even physically visit your facilities, they’ve toured the whole place at your website. It’s so cool."

Because of Johnston's finely honed Internet skills, her outgoing personality and seemingly boundless energy, OperTuneUs quickly became a profitable business in Seattle, attracting some of the city’s most prominent commercial firms.

But in early 2005 Johnston felt that a change of scenery was in order not just for her company, but also for herself and her young daughter.

"I wanted to focus more of my business on the construction industry. Because of the restraints imposed by Seattle’s natural resources, big construction projects had pretty much tapped out by 2005," Johnston said. "The time was just right for a big change in our lives."

Johnston, a single parent of a 9-year-old girl, said she picked Austin for countless reasons, not excluding its vibrant business climate. Her research had shown her that Austin was experiencing the kind of robust construction activity that could profit from her Internet virtual solutions, that the cost of living here was lower than in Seattle and that the community championed the "No Child Left Behind" federal education program.

"If you’re living in Seattle and read about Austin, it becomes so clear that this is a city rapidly on the move. There was no question in my mind that Austin was going to be our new home," Johnston said. "The Austin business community can benefit from the photo technology that my company specializes in."

With her company relocated to offices at 9415 Burnet Road in December 2005, Johnston shifted into full "find new customers" mode. Her company’s website, www.opertuneus.com, details its history and services and gives directions to her offices.

Early on Johnston visited the Business Solutions Center to browse through its B2G resource. She's been stopping by the Center once a week since that day. Often she finds new businesses to contact. But Johnston stressed that the biggest plus to the Center is its staff of informed business counselors, who always know about the newest businesses in town.

With the help of SBDP, Johnston’s first year in business in Austin was a big success. She signed up the City of Austin, the Austin Independent School District, Berns Commercial Property, Jimale Technical Services, Bartlett Cocke General Contractors, Coldwell Banker, GMAC Real Estate and the Warrior Group, among others. Negotiations are underway with other key Austin firms and public entities interested in expanding their websites to include virtual tours and walk-thrus.

Johnston is the only full-time, permanent employee of the company. But she has four contract photographers on staff and is interviewing for a fifth.

"The key is that we never stop looking for new contacts and new clients," Johnston said. "The Business Solutions Center has been priceless in helping me establish and build my clientele."

To help get the word out about SBDP and the Business Solutions Center, Johnston unveiled her own television show called "Austin Biz Facts" on Austin Public Access channels 10 and 16 last January. One of her first guests was Michelle Bledsoe, who at the time was the coordinator of the Business Solutions Center. Bledsoe is now SBDP's outreach and marketing coordinator.

"The show is designed to provide key information for small business owners in the Austin area," Johnston said. "I want to share what I’ve learned from the Small Business Development Program and let others know it’s here for their benefit."

Lisa Gaynor
Design it with Consignment

Lisa Gaynor credits two serendipitous encounters for the success of her one year-old Austin business, Design it with Consignment.

The first experience, Gaynor recounted, was her somewhat reluctant visit to a furniture consignment store in Chicago in 1995 at the urging of a close friend. The second was a chance meeting with a staff member of the City of Austin’s Small Business Development Program (SBDP) in 2004 at a local book club meeting.

"Without either of those two things happening when they did, I would not be the owner of a successful furniture consignment shop today," Gaynor said. "Even when I had the idea, the desire and the energy, I needed a lot of help in connecting all of the dots. SBDP did that for me."

Gaynor and her husband Dan were newlyweds in 1995 when they moved from a 600-square-foot apartment to a 3,000-square-foot Chicago townhouse. They didn’t have enough furniture to fill their new three-bedroom home, and a newlywed budget prohibited splurging on new furnishings.

Desperate for affordable occasional chairs, coffee tables, head boards, lamps and knick knacks but extremely wary of "used furniture" stores, Gaynor allowed a friend to talk her into going to a Chicago consignment shop.

Prepared to see high-priced junk, Gaynor was amazed by the high quality merchandise and values she found there, including a solid brass antique quilt rack she bought for $30. That’s the day Gaynor became a confirmed consignment shopper.

"My friend literally had to drag me kicking and screaming to that used furniture store. I had always assumed that used furniture stores were full of broken, dirty stuff that other people didn’t want," Gaynor said. "That experience was transformational. Now, almost every in my home was bought on consignment. I never think of buying new."

Fast forward to 2001, when the Gaynors relocated from Chicago to Austin, a city they had fallen in love with during their frequent visits to the area over the years. Gaynor is a native Texan, born and raised in San Antonio.

Naturally, Gaynor immediately began exploring the Austin’s numerous consignment stores. She even sold furniture on Ebay for some of the stores and managed Austin Furniture Consignments for a time.

"Then one day, I realized that I could do this for myself," Gaynor said. "My husband agreed and encouraged me to open my own furniture consignment shop."

But owning and operating a retail store was a new challenge that Gaynor knew she needed to prepare for. At that point in her life, her only work experience outside of the home consisted of about eight years in marketing and communications for Motorola.

One night in 2004 at a meeting of the Darla Adams Book Club she started talking to some of her fellow club members about her plans to open a furniture consignment shop, noting that she didn’t have a clue as to how to start a new business. Unbeknownst to Gaynor, one of those members was Michelle Bledsoe, who at the time was a business development counselor with SBDP. Today, Bledsoe is the coordinator for SBDP’s Business Solutions Center.

"I had looked for information about starting a business on the Internet, but there was just so much and none of it was pulled together in a helpful way. It was all very confusing," Gaynor recalled. "That night at the book club, Michelle told me all about SBDP. It was a godsend. That’s the night I truly started planning this business."

With Bledsoe’s guidance, Gaynor spent the next year educating herself about the basics of opening a new business. She also began laying the foundation for her consignment shop by preparing a business plan, applying for a Small Business Administration loan, recording the name of her business with the Travis County Clerk’s office and finding the right retail space for the store.

"Michelle gave me an SBDP packet that they give to every person who inquires about starting a new business," Gaynor said. "The packet had all of the information I needed and it was written in a simplified way that I could understand. 'The Basic Steps In Starting A Business' was my Bible for that entire year. I still keep it close at hand."

Without the help of SBDP, Gaynor said, she could not have opened Design it with Consignment on Memorial Day 2005.

"There is so much to do and to do right when it comes to opening a business," Gaynor said. "Aspiring business owners in the Austin area need the essentials simplified and available in one spot. That's the definition of the Small Business Development Program."

Just as she had visualized over the years, Gaynor created a consignment store using the "the gently-used Mercedes" concept that enables customers to create their dream homes on real life budgets.

"We offer top of the line furnishings that have a little bit of experience, but they’re affordable," Gaynor said. "I help people furnish their homes elegantly and with style, but they can still afford to send their kids to summer camp."

There were a couple of key signs in her first year in business that told Gaynor her retail venture was a success. On August 4, 2005, the Austin American Statesman’s style columnist Jean Scheidnes gave the store a short but positive write-up. Gaynor was surprised by the review but was astounded by the public response.

"My phone was busy all day long, with people calling in about furniture they wanted to sell on consignment," Gaynor recalled. "The story resonated with so many people that our sales doubled immediately. It’s been a word of mouth success since then."

The store, located in a 4,000-square-foot retail space once occupied by a flooring company at 4211 S. Lamar Boulevard, had a scant 50 pieces of furniture in stock when it opened. Just a few weeks after the Statesman article, the store was packed to the brim with sofas, dining room suites, beds of all sizes, antique dressers and armoires and modern desk sets.

One year after opening, the store's sales had increased by 800-percent. While Gaynor and her husband Dan staffed the store alone in the early days, today they have five part-time employees and two full-time staffers.

Gaynor’s focus on providing a selection of stylish, yet affordable furniture that can be shopped at her Web site www.Designitconsignment.com has been invaluable to building her business with an eye towards expansion.

Lately, Gaynor has been devoting more and more time to planning a second location in Round Rock.

Alayne and Herman Johnson
All Points Inspection Services

All Points Inspection Services, a City-certified MBE, provides construction inspection, construction management, and construction photography services. The company has been operating about ten months, and learned about the Online Plan Room through the City MBE/WBE program. Mr. Johnson credits the Online Plan Room with providing them the information they needed to break into the inspection business. The contact information for a project’s inspection services contract can be difficult to find because the inspector is chosen before the project is bid, but the Johnsons were able to find this critical information through the Online Plan Room. They are now working on several City projects, including Phases One and Two of the Ullrich Water Treatment Expansion project. Both Mr. and Mrs. Johnson say the Online Plan Room saves tremendous time, the system is easy to use, and it is the most convenient and affordable source for the information they need. They also agree that the Online Plan Room is a great place for new businesses to find the information and directions they need to get started. They feel that the Online Plan Room is helping many small businesses such as theirs stay in business, and that it is “imperative that small businesses have resources like the Online Plan Room for information, plans, and specs."

We are always looking for success stories of other small and minority business owners. This forum will allow business owners to share and read stories of successful business including, tips for success, key decisions that lead to success, and "war wounds" that were encountered along the way.