So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur?

March 2006 Special Advertising Section

For many who dream of starting their own business, the first step is to earn an MBA or related  master’s degree. These programs prepare learners with the tools to apply in almost any kind of business endeavor, whether it’s opening a restaurant, sharing leadership skills, or using horses to teach life lessons. This approach certainly worked for the following seven entrepreneurs who all launched successful businesses after attending graduate school.

Julie Steenerson, Sapor Café and Bar
One of Julie Steenerson’s favorite parts of her former job in the financial sector wasn’t crunching numbers; it was taking clients out to lunch and also recommending great eateries to her coworkers. But when she decided she wanted to turn her culinary passions into a commercial pursuit, Steenerson realized she knew nothing about the restaurant business, so she decided to go back to school to put together a business plan for a restaurant.

Steenerson is now co-owner of Sapor Café and Bar in Minneapolis for which she laid the groundwork while attending the University of St. Thomas MBA program. “I chose St. Thomas because I had gone to a small, private undergraduate school,” she says. “I knew that learning environment worked best for me.”

She decided on a concentration in entrepreneurship/venture management, an elective track that St. Thomas offers. The school’s entrepreneurial courses are delivered in its full-time, evening, and executive MBA programs;  Steenerson chose evening classes she took on a part-time basis. In the end, her business plan doubled as her capstone project and she took her PowerPoint presentation to the bank to secure a loan after she finished her degree in 1999.

“When I look back at the business plan, it’s amazing how many things were pretty close,” she says. But what surprised her even more is how much her professors helped her through the process. “The professors’ care and concern and help went far beyond the classroom,” she says. “My law professor became an attorney for the business. My HR professor helped me build an application and interview process. My capstone professor helped me decide on a space for the restaurant.” Plus, she says, “They continue to be customers of mine.”

Michael Miller, Hound Dog Products
“I’ve wanted my own business since I was five years old,” says Michael Miller. “My grandfathers both [had their own business]. I got to see the joys and pitfalls of owning your own company.”

Like grandfather, like grandson. Miller founded and runs Eden Prairie–based Hound Dog Products, a developer and marketer of a novel line of gardening tools that pull weeds, cut and refill holes for bulb planting, and even pick up dog poop. The company, which was formed in 1994, will post sales of nearly $10 million this year.

Prior to starting the company, Miller worked as a salesman for Procter & Gamble and also as a national sales manager for Pillsbury before deciding to pursue an MBA at the Carlson School of Management, which offers full-time, part-time, and executive MBAs. Miller signed up for the school’s advanced placement program, an accelerated version of the full-time program that is no longer offered. It took him one very intense year to complete, earning him a degree in 1990.

After graduate school, Miller re-entered the corporate world and was sniffing around for potential business leads when he met with a man who showed him an innovative lawn tool he had developed. Miller, a lawn-care buff, realized he’d found his calling. He took a chance, quit his full-time job, and launched Hound Dog.

The greatest benefit of getting an MBA, he says, was learning from the years of experience of others in business. “It taught me some of the basics of how to think about business,” he says, “how to critique a business plan, how to view a business from the top down and the bottom up.”