News Summary

Starting a business, no matter how the economy is doing, has its share of challenges.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 50 percent of new businesses fail within the first year and 95 percent of new businesses fail within the first five years.

At The Chamber of Commerce's Business Expo at Miami University Middletown Wednesday, March 19, a couple of new business owners shared some of those challenges of starting a new business.

Melissa Howard is a franchise owner of Action Coach, a business coaching company that focuses on helping businesses grow.

Howard, who worked at Mead Corp. for 21 years, said the most important thing for a person thinking about starting a business is "making sure it's the right one for you because there are so many options."

She talked with the corporation in October and opened her own business on Jan. 1. There are four other franchisees in Cincinnati and one in Dayton. Howard said being a franchisee allows her to have resources of a larger organization but still having her own business.

"I'm not quite by myself," she said.

Howard said she invested $75,000 to start her business, which was a significant financial hurdle.

Now her challenges are understanding her resources as well as getting more into the community.

Adriane Scherrer, president and CEO of the We Can Business Incubator, said some of the challenges her clients face in starting a new business are being unable to leave their current jobs because they need health insurance.

Other challenges they face include getting financial consideration from potential landlords for space they're interested in leasing as well as finding affordable liability insurance.

Linda Moore of the Ohio Small Business Development Center said a major challenge she sees for prospective business owners is simply being able to sell their idea.

"No matter how much money they have, if people aren't interested in their product or service, it doesn't matter," Moore said.

Her colleague Jack Gatlin said having the starting capital is important, as is the marketing of the product or service.

Melody Heupel, who on Jan. 14 opened All About Us — a combination restaurant, catering and photography business on First Avenue — said "its been a learning experience," and her biggest challenge was communicating with the city and understanding how things work.

Heupel worked for a number of months getting a 100-year-old building up to code, adding that "it would have been cheaper to build a new building."

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2871 or erichter@coxohio.com.