WINONA LAKE – Meeting at the Grace College School of Business, Kosciusko Leadership Academy cadets learned from local entrepreneurs who shared about their experience starting a business.
Dennis Buhrt, CEO of Buhrt Engineering, talked about starting Buhrt Engineering after working at General Electric and Dalton Foundry. He chalked the company’s success early on to “not making any big mistakes, and not worrying about the small mistakes.” His advice was recognizing the owner’s responsibility to his or her family and employees (he talked about times he still chose to keep employees them when he did not have as much work for them) and living generously.
Todd Speicher founded Instrumental Machine & Development in 1994, needing $18,500 per month to make ends meet, grew it to a $13 million company.
He talked about part of his story being learning new skills, and explained, “Always watch the person ahead of you, because you never know when you might have to do their job.”
His advice was surrounding yourself with good people, hire people smarter than you, be frugal, and to worry less about the competition and more about what’s going on inside your walls.
Kelly Britton started Giverny Fitness Studio with the goal of creating a friendly fitness atmosphere that was as simple as possible for the customer. Now having been open for a decade, Britton attributes her success to surrounding herself with people who knew what she did not and always doing whatever needs to get done at the studio.
Her advice was to not quit when things get difficult. “If I ever decide to stop, I want it to be when things are going great, not when it’s difficult. I always tell myself ‘I’m not going to quit today,’” Britton said.
