Take the plunge; 'Sharkproof' author Harvey Mackay tell you how to join the entrepreneurial revolution - includes related article on six steps for starting a business - Interview - Cover Story

Home Office Computing, May, 1993 by David Langendoen

HOME OFFICE COMPUTING recently caught up with Harvey Mackay, best-selling author of Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive. When we last interviewed Mackay four years ago, the economy was still growing, home offices were starting to come into their own, and he was finishing his second book.

Since then, the economy has fallen on its face, the number of home offices has grown explosively, and Mackay has completed his third book, Sharkproof. These are not isolated events. As Mackay puts it, "While the Fortune 500 companies were losing 4.1 million jobs in the '80s, small businesses created 1.5 million jobs in the last two years alone. It's what saved this country."

While Sharkproof is primarily about getting and keeping a job in today's sluggish economy, Mackay has plenty of advice for those who want to create their own jobs by starting their own businesses (also see accompanying excerpt from Sharkproof).

No matter what Harvey Mackay has done, from being an envelope salesman to owning an envelope manufacturing company to writing best-selling books, he has always relied on one principle: Do your homework. As a salesman, he located prospective customers by following competitors' delivery trucks on their rounds. As a business owner, he compiled comprehensive profiles of all his customers and prospects (based on a list of 66 questions). And as a prospective author, he interviewed successful writers and editors to find out what it takes to bring a book from rough manuscript to national bestseller.

"I am a firm believer in superior information," says Mackay. "Try to get your hands on people who have done exactly what you want to do. Ask them what they would do differently if they had to start over again. Listen, take copious notes, and thank them with a beautiful follow-up note. Get a mentor if you can. Read everything there is to read. If you get only one good idea from every book or article, it's time well spent."

UNDERSTAND YOURSELF

Mackay also advocates getting a second opinion from an industrial psychologist. "You go and take four hours of tests and find out your strengths, weaknesses, what you are truly interested in. It's not cheap, but it can steer you away from a bad decision or toward a better one."

Although he admits that no one could talk him out of his youthful ambition of being a pro golfer until reality set in, he contends that starting a business without serious thought can have more significant consequences. For him, understanding yourself is as important as understanding your prospective business.

He is quick to add, "If you have gathered the information you need and you know your business idea has potential, but you still haven't decided whether to take the leap, you should know one thing. I have never, and let me emphasize never, met anyone who has gone out on his own, who has taken a crack at it, even if he failed, who has been sorry he did it."

Interestingly, as long as you have sound information and a sound idea, Mackay feels that no time is a bad time to get started--even if the economy is in the tank. He states, "Sometimes the worst of times are the best of times. There are one million people who quit looking for work. They're waiting for Dan Rather or Peter Jennings to tell them that things are OK again. In tough times, a lot of your competition has already given up, leaving you the opportunity."

However, Mackay is furious at the government for making tough times tougher by enacting restrictive legislation and saddling entrepreneurs with mountains of paperwork. Mackay minces no words when he says, "I think the IQ of our legislators, senators, and congressmen sometimes borders on 88. Legislators don't understand small business. They've never understood that it's the backbone of America. Entrepreneurs saved this country. Of the new jobs created over the last couple of years, 70 percent of those were by companies with fewer than 20 employees. Years from now some of those businesses will employ 20,000 if they are given the fight incentives.

"You cannot saddle these entrepreneurs with red tape. You have to make money accessible to them, which it hasn't been. Applying for a small-business loan takes two years, 2,000 forms, eight days a week.

"The solution is not to take the incentive away from the risk takers. Sometimes it's risky not to take a risk--if you walk backward you never stub your toe. These are the people who are going to save America. If only the politicians understood that."

When asked about the recent Supreme Court decision limiting the home-office deduction, he pauses thoughtfully before saying, "This deduction has been abused sometimes." He pauses again, seemingly concluding that he supports the decision, before he continues, "However, if an entrepreneur is using his home office full-time, even if he does much of his work out of the home, that's a crime. That again is total ignorance and outlandish discrimination against a risk taker who might eventually be out there creating jobs. It's just putting up more barriers and more obstacles. When you take incentives out and raise taxes on the entrepreneur, all you're doing is jeopardizing the future."