by Julie Kampf, President, JBK Associates, winner of
the 2005 Stevie Award for Best New Company in The American
Business Awards
Owning your own business is a mix of a dream come true and
your worst nightmare. For me, the good news has been that the
dream-come-true days have overwhelmingly outweighed the
nightmares. Here are the four most important pieces of advice
I've learned since starting my own business:
Rule #1: You can create a
successful new business regardless of the economy.
In fact, starting a business is like having a baby: there
really is no perfect time. But make sure you have a true
passion for what you're doing, because you will need to work
hard to be successful and even harder if the economy is bad. I
founded my own company, an executive recruitment agency, in
2003 and exceeded goals within the first month of operation
despite entering a very crowded marketplace during a
recessionary economy.
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As a specialist in animal
health, Dr. Vincent Guyonnet did a lot of traveling,
particularly to the Far East, during the fifteen years that he
worked at the animal health division of Pfizer. For many of
those years he commuted into New York City from Westchester.
His most recent position was as general manager for Pfizer's
Australian operation, based in Sydney.
. Courtney received the Stevie Award for
Best Entrepreneur in The 2005 Stevie Awards for Women
Entrepreneurs. 
