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Show YOUR OWN BUSINESS/continued ~EE say, ‘This isn’t just a = gym,’” Francoeur recalls. = Through persistent efS$ fort, he eventually did receive a bank loan, and in zine named Sounds True as one of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in America. ® Critical challenge: Because she considers her employees friends, Simon December says she had difficulty asking them to improve their performance. Her solu- some secondhand equipment and a lot of enthusiasm—he opened “Jean- tion: establish quantifiable performance 1994—with goals for each worker. Paul Fitness Specialists.” Francoeur himself acted as “You have to have people who believe in you, and you have to be dedicated potential and serious and exemplify that in everymarket bafore thing you do.” launching —Michael Coburn a software Asa student of economics and black compaiiy, history at the University of Pennsylva- Conceptual personal trainer, dietary consultant and cheerleader for each client. “T felt I could break even if I could start out with two nia in the 1980s, Michael Coburn, now 28, dreamed of a way he could combine his interest in the two subjects in his career. Coburn talked often of his dreams with his best friend from Chicago, Paul Wilkinson, then an economics student at DePaul University. to three regulars,” says Francoeur. He ended up with 12 in the first few months. Jean-Paul’s client MindWorks. Below: Jean-Paul list stands at 5C now, and Francoeur, 28, found he makes about $14,000 a a niche to fili— month. He has had to add four trainers to handle an even in the crowded increasing client load. mam ®@ Critical challenge: To get After graduation, Coburn rejoined heaith-ciub tield— m his loan approved, Franee coeur returned day after Wilkinson in Chicago. Neither youag man found a job that interested him. Wilkinson, now 29, worked ata title-insurance company. Coburn worked for day to the bank to check on a business-consulting firm. One day, j Jean-Paul Francoeur, 28, Eddie Adams Coburn, a basketball fan, had a brainstorm: Whynottry to develop line of athletic wear with a basketball theme? The result was Pro Athlete In Development(P.A.1.D.), a 3-year-old Chicago sportswear company that took in "needed start-up money for his gym, but, “because I'm $650,000 in saleslast year. It produces clothing depicting youthsin action pos- young, investors wouldn't es on the basketball court, and the line is now carried by Foot Locker and J.C. Penney. It was in February 1993, at a trade talk to me,” he says. show in Atlanta, that their clothing caughtthe eye of a buyer from Dr. J’s, many places,” he recalls. “One day,” Francoeursays, “it occurred to me that the one constant in my needed to buy merchandise,hire artists to create designs and screen-printers to imprint those designs on the clothing. Enter Dr. Terry Mason, a Chicago urologist who had known Coburn since Administration Young Entrepreneur he was a teen. Coburn gave Dr. Mason a 20-page business plan. The physician not only loaned them the money they needed but also allowed Coburn and ® Critical challenge: Getting the startup money at the right time enabled an office. “I’m not investing in a business pian,I’m investing in you,” Mason told the young entrepreneurs. Since 1993, P.A.LD. has expanded into a full line of athletic wear. Wilkinson and Coburn reinvest mostof their profits in the company; each takes just 2 nominal salary of about $200 a week. The two wonan Illinois Small Business ting to know everybodyintheoffice. I wanted to makesure people had a face to attach to my name,so that when my papers came across their desk, they'd know me.” Thetactic worked. “Do what you love. The moneywillfollow. That's the American dream.” —Robert Bizzeil In 1987, as a student at the University of West Florida, Robert Bizzel!, now 28, tie-dyed T-shirts for fun in his mother’s kitchen. Soon, local stores began ea carrying the shirts, and Bizzell and his best friend, Scott Martin, also 28, began “waited tables in I don’t know how driving around the country—to Grateful a sporting-goods chain, who placed an $11,000 order. There was one hitch: whereto get the start-up funds to produce the order? Coburn and Wilkinson Wilkinsonto use a room in his house for oe the progressof his applicaOn, “I madea pointof get- Award in 1995. Coburn and Wilkinson to succeed. life was fitness. I was alwayseither training {he was a pole vaulter and a wrestler in high school] or training someone eise.” After working in various health clubs, Francoeur, 28, says he saw a gap in the crowded fitness field to “serve people who wantto getin shape but are majors six times before dropping out. After leaving school, among other jobs, intimidated by the large gyms with their muscleheads and loud music.” He decided he couldfill that need with a gym where every client would have a private workout with a personal trainer. Francoeur estimated he would need about $20,000 in start-up funds. But investors scoffed at his plan. “Because I’m young, a lot of people wouldn’t talk to me. They’d say, ‘Who he worked as a plumber’sassistant and wants to invest in another gym?’ I’d “If you really apply yourself, chances are you'll succeed. Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid.” —Jean-Paul Francoeur Jean-Paul Francoeur just couldn’t seem to find his niche in life. At the University of Arkansas, he changed Dead concerts and other music events— selling them outofa car trunk. “In the summer of 1989, we began to look at this as work,” Bizzell says. He and Martin started their company, EyeDye, and sought bank loans to buy equipmentand hire help. But because of the young men’s inexperience,their parents had to co-sign for the loans. “It was pretty embarrassing,” Bizzell recalls. In 1990, almost overnight, Eye-Dye went from producing 150 shirts a day to producing nearly 4000 daily when a large companyplaced a big order. It took one month to get geared up for the additional work, Bizzell recalls. But seven months later, Eye-Dye’s customer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, leaving Bizzell and Martin $50,000 in the hole temporarily. The experience drove home “the importance OU PAGE 10 - JUNE 23, 1996 - PARADE MAGAZINE |