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Mary Rogers is the founder of Abrakadoodle.
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Abrakadoodle has 35 to 40 franchises all over America, and more than 200 in China.
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Artwork by an Abrakadoodle student.
Every successful entrepreneur is happy (and relieved) to get the business up and running, which can take years. Selling the business and doing it all over again is almost unthinkable. Mary Rogers of James City County has done it, incredibly, twice.
According to U.S. Census data, nearly one in ten businesses these days is new, and an increasing number of entrepreneurs are women.
In 1984, Rogers presciently developed Computertots classes for children just in time for the boom in PCs. After reaching 150 franchises in 11 countries, she sold her interest in 1997. Her next project was Abrakadoodle, themed art camps and after-school classes for children. By 2005, art budgets were getting slashed by public schools, increasing the demand for alternative classes.
From her home in Landfall at Jamestown, she explained that households earning $75,000 and up are “the target market of who will invest in art education for their children.” Today Abrakadoodle has 35 to 40 franchises all over America, and more than 200 in China.
The intellectual pursuit of creativity was a pleasant offshoot for Rogers. Among her partners, she was responsible for developing the curriculum. “It’s amazing to see your work translated into another language and watch children enjoy it.”
In a peculiar way, Abrakadoodle felt the economic laws of gravity when the Great Recession struck in 2008.
“We knew that education is resistant to economic shifts, but a number of our franchise owners felt it was safer to be in the job market at that time and left the franchise system. As it turned out, Abrakadoodle continued to grow, and the franchise owners who stuck with it saw increased sales.”
Rogers has several lessons learned for budding entrepreneurs.
“Make sure your model works. It’s easy to fall in love with your business. Step back and test the model. Does it meet a true market need? Does it make money? Does it have the right people? Identify the flaws and work on improving the business model.”
Beware of stubbornness.
“I see a lot of businesses fail simply because entrepreneurs are so committed to their ideas that they are unwilling to change. If you keep looking at the horizon, you’ll have a better perspective on where you want to be and what you need to do to get there. Funny thing about horizons is that they keep changing,” she said.
Finally, the business isn’t everything.
“Take time to refresh. You will be a much better leader if you take time to spend with family, friends and activities that you enjoy.”
In retirement, she lectures on franchising at the Miller Center for Entrepreneurship at the Mason School of Business.
Attorney Tricia Dunlap left a large national law firm in Richmond to open a boutique practice focusing on business management strategies. Recently she addressed the Triangle Entrepreneurial Exchange, where greater Williamsburg entrepreneurs gather once a month at Legacy Hall in New Town to solve vexing problems.
Her pitch was that start-ups should “lawyer up” sooner than later.
“Many of our business decisions every day involve risk,” she said. “So we have to weigh those risks, and lawyers can help navigate them.”
Admittedly, legal fees are a hurdle for start-ups but routine work can sometimes be negotiated.
“Costs are the biggest reason clients won’t pick up the phone and call. Fee structures are very negotiable. Say it’s $350 an hour. Offer to pay $600 for two hours a month. Some clients pay me for two hours a month and let it accumulate. If they don’t use it one month, it rolls over to the next.”
Entrepreneurs in search of sound advice have a local resource in SCORE, the Service Corps of Retired Executives. Last year, 150 people from Williamsburg and James City County got help from 20 mentors.
Dean Risseeuw chairs the group out of the Williamsburg Chamber Alliance office. Most people who want to start a business here are “young or middle-aged, and about half of them are women,” he explained.
His poster person for success is Kathie Reynolds of Newport News, who took her 20 years as a dental hygienist on the road. Reynolds wanted to go mobile to serve assisted-living centers and her company Smiles To You brings all the gear in a trailer and sets up on site. For her part, Reynolds praised her mentors.
“SCORE has truly been a wonderful resource I stumbled upon and am so thankful to have found it.”
Risseeuw’s mentors walk a fine line between encouragement and reality. “We try not to kill an idea, so we’ll give them some homework to help them discover the flaw.”
As the education arm of the Greater Williamsburg Chamber and Tourism Alliance, SCORE is likely to see an increasing number of women requesting their assistance with their new businesses.
abrakadoodle.com • smilestoyou.org • linkedin.com/in/triciadunlap • williamsburg.score.org • tncc.edu/programs/triangle-entrepreneur-exchange-workshop-and-lunch