Leaving the corporate nest - corporate executives as self-employed; includes related articles

Nation's Business, March, 1987 by Harry Bacas

However, the two worked out a deal under which Jacobs would join the company with responsibility for creating new products, improving the recipes, redesigning the packages and selling the products.

Four years later, Jacobs suffered a stroke, which caused a temporary paralysis. Though he recovered, his former employer did not want him back.

"What was I going to do?' Jacobs asks. "I was out of work. I couldn't get a job. I was nearly 50.

"So I decided to start my own seasonings company. I borrowed $36,000 and kept 51 percent of the stock, and I arranged for Flavorite Laboratories [a national spice and flavorings manufacturer and packager in Memphis] to do my production.'

Jacobs designed his logo, a grinning alligator in a chef's hat stirring a pot. He bought printing dies to put the logo and lettering on the laminated foil, paper and poly bags he ordered from suppliers in Wisconsin and California.

He supplied Flavorite with his recipes for the cornmeal, spices and other ingredients that go into the mixes. Flavorite manufactures the mixes, packages them in his bags and delivers the finished products to his warehouse. From there, Jacobs ships them to his customers.

"I have distributors in eight states in the Southeast, and stores as far as California buy direct from us,' he explains. "We also get a lot of retail mail orders, mostly from word of mouth.'

Jacobs says leaving the corporate nest to start his own business has not been easy, but the rewards have been great.

"I made some mistakes that I could have avoided by getting more advice in the beginning,' he says. "But now, the satisfaction of being on my own and running a successful business makes all that trouble seem worthwhile.'

Photo: Dallen Peterson spent 13 years as a corporate employee, rising to head a major division of a national company. Now he runs his own business, Merry Maids, a professional home cleaning service with franchise operations in 42 states. Cleaning supplies are distributed from headquarters in Omaha.

Photo: Bob Phipps (left) supervises production of bean sprouts at his plant in San Antonio. His first company, formed after he left a mineengineering job, was, he says, a "disaster.' But growing sprouts has proved to be a good business.

Photo: Pat Thompson, standing by a satellite antenna, deals in cable systems. She formed her own brokerage when her corporate job seemed to be at a dead end.

Photo: Don and Phoebe Jacobs test receipes in their kitchen before adding to their line of gourmet seafood seasonings and dry mixes. They run the company out of their home in Gonzalez La. Don used to be an advertising salesman. Now he sells his own products.