Marketplace Features

Starting Over -- The Final Act Over the past year reporter Jo Giese has presented a series of profiles of people who starting over in new careers. Host David Brown looks back at the characters from Starting Over along with Jo Giese and author Mark Henricks. Tuesday, June 8, 2004

She answered another calling Another Monday - another day at the salt mines. What do you do when your job becomes -- just a job? The solution often begins by following one's bliss. Getting buy-in from the rest of the family .... that's another matter. We meet a woman who found her calling but had someone else to answer to. Monday, May 3, 2004

Leaving the bank for the jazz stage Many people dream about ditching their day jobs and going off to paint, dance or sing -- and get paid for it. Rene Marie, a former bank teller lived that dream by becoming a jazz singer. While working at the First Union Bank, the singer in her couldn't be contained. After seeing an unexceptional singer in a bar, she realized she could do it better. So, at 40 years old, she started doing gigs and borrowed money to record a CD. Soon, the gigs got better and a small record deal followed -- but now, she’s only earning half of her bank salary. That’s the price of freedom. Monday, February 2, 2004 www.renemarie.com: Jazz singer Rene Marie's Web site

Former serviceman veers away from the defense industry A Harvard grad heads for the Marines and becomes a captain and logistics specialist; today, after business school, he's applying his military logistics skills by starting a camp for chronically ill children. Such a transition can be especially tough if you're one of the 250,000 active-duty military personnel who return to the civilian sector each year. Nearly 40 percent of people leaving the military transition into the defense sector, another 40 percent join corporations, and 10 percent are entrepreneurial. So few military go into nonprofits that no one keeps track of the numbers. Monday, January 5, 2004

Urbanites go country For some people it’s not enough just to make a living: They want work that gives them a life. Before you start making those New Year’s resolutions to work on your career, meet a family that decided to kick their high-powered Manhattan life over the traces and start a sheep farm. Thursday, January 1, 2004

Singing a different tune by opening a record store Today, we travel to Ocean City, Md., and meet two people who are starting over at very different points in their lives. After Lisa Denshuick lost her job, she moved back in with her parents. She soon got another job she didn’t care for and decided to do something she really liked: open a record store. When her partner dropped out, her mom stepped forward. Together, they invested $48,000 and opened Fishnet Music. So far, no one’s making much money, but the store is a dream come true for mom and daughter. Monday, November 3, 2003 Online resources www.fishnetmusic.com: Life's Fishnet Music

Sous chef’s forced to cook up another job The slow economy and the struggling job market mean that more people are being forced to start over. Executive sous chef Jim Dowling is one of these people. Performing in the only job he has ever known, Dowling clearly had talent, but the work was physically difficult – and he had to quit because of chronic neck and back pain. So, what should he do now? While he had an idea to start a multicultural food class in public schools, he wasn’t sure how to get the ball moving. With the help of The Life's Work Center, an unconventional career counseling organization, he’s meeting with others like him in group sessions to try to get a business plan together. Now, he’s moving forward. Monday, October 6, 2003 Online resources www.lifesworkcenter.org: Life's Work Center

Making it in the mountains While many want to be lifestyle entrepreneurs, it’s difficult to make the dream work. But the founders of the North American Ski Training Center (NASTC) in Lake Tahoe, Calif., have conquered most of the challenges many lifestyle entrepreneurs face. Chris Fellows created a dream job for himself, conducting adventure ski camps in exotic locations around the world. He did it because he loves teaching skiing. Fellows and his wife left their jobs to open two resorts; now, they have 18 of them worldwide. Although skiing seems like a seasonal sport, NASTC puts on ski camps 10 months a year. Their annual gross sales are over $300,000. Monday, July 28, 2003 Related commentary Listen - So, how did the NASTC founders make their business work? Author Mark Henricks says that Chris Fellows went into a field he already knew well, and he began with a pilot program funded by a minuscule $2,000 loan. “Starting small without a big load of debt or demanding investors let them evolve in response to the market,” says Henricks. “If these guys can make a living skiing the world's most exotic mountains, maybe your lifestyle dreams can come true too.” Mark Henricks’ book "Not Just a Living: The Complete Guide to Creating a Business That Gives You a Life" is available on Amazon.com. Your purchase helps support Marketplace. Online resources www.skinastc.com: The North American Ski Training Center Web site Mark's Web site is www.notjustaliving.net

The flipside: The death of a dream It’s great idea to become a lifestyle entrepreneur, but it doesn’t always work out. It's a lesson in the dangers of letting go of a steady paycheck in search of “something more.” Wendy White and her husband, Jaime Ballesteros, had a dream of opening an inn to capitalize on the Flagstaff, Ariz., winter tourist season. So, Wendy closed her small law firm and they opened the Arizona Sled Dog Inn -- during a drought. But they got “pegged” as a winter resort, eliminating the summer tourism traffic. And, the name of the inn was confusing to people. A few years into the venture, they knew they were in trouble. Now, badly in debt, they’re doing what they can to increase business -- and eventually make a profit. Monday, July 21, 2003 Related commentary Listen - Author Mark Henricks, author of "Not Just a Living: The Complete Guide to Creating a Business That Gives You a Life," says that studies show that within 5 years, about 50% of small businesses fail. He says that White and Ballesteros have learned difficult, but useful, lessons. By taking steps to reduce their expenses and debt, they’ll have a better chance of making it over the hump and down the smooth slide to lifestyle business success. Online resource Mark's Web site is www.notjustaliving.net

Serious illness as a catalyst for personal change Maryalice Hurst was very sick, but after a bone marrow transplant managed to extend her life, she decided her job as an advertising executive in New York City wasn't a good fit for her anymore. After traveling to Conway, Ark., for a consultant job that didn't work out, she and her husband purchased and restored a historic building there. When market research revealed the town needed a bookstore, in 2001, they opened That Bookstore at Montblanq Place. Between renovating the building and stocking the shelves, the investment is about $250,000. After 18 months in business, the store isn't making a profit. But the enormous personal satisfaction Hurst derives from this new venture is characteristic of the passion that drives lifestyle entrepreneurs. Monday, July 14, 2003 Related commentary Listen - Mark Henricks, author of "Not Just a Living: The Complete Guide to Creating a Business That Gives You a Life," says that when those with health-related disabilities start businesses, they can design them to fit their physical limitations. While Maryalice regained her health, she lost the ability to emotionally connect with her old job. He predicts "it will take more than a tough bookselling environment to send this ‘uppity Yankee woman’ back north." Online resources Mark's Web site is www.notjustaliving.net For more info. on the bookstore, send an e-mail to Thatbookstore@conwaycorp.net, or call (501) 327-8900

Aiding an aging parent prompts lifestyle change After Tom Dempsey’s father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he made a promise to help his mother go on with her life. But at the time of dad’s death, Tom had a standard corporate job at a sporting goods company in North Carolina -- and his mom wanted to continue living in her home up in Pennsylvania. So, 3 months after his father’s death, he created a new business, liquidlogic, that manufactures high-end kayaks. The headquarters are in North Carolina, but he decided the manufacturing would be done in Pennsylvania, 10 minutes from mom’s front door. So far, the quirky arrangement is working out fine. While the company may have paddled through some rough business waters a couple years ago, the tough obstacles didn’t capsize it. Monday, July 7, 2003 Related commentary Listen - Mark Henricks, author of "Not Just a Living: The Complete Guide to Creating a Business That Gives You a Life," says Tom Dempsey is clearly violating some basic business rules -- but the big question about the way Tom is managing his lifestyle venture is: “So what?” If he keeps up his business, there's no reason why either mom's landscaping or liquidlogic's financial statements should look less than excellent. Online resource www.liquidlogickayaks.com: Web site for liquidlogic kayaks

Leaving the City for the Country Dr. Karen Weinberg was once an industrial organizational psychologist and her husband, Paul Borghard, was a senior VP in real estate, managing $13 billion in assets. Now, they own and operate 3-Corner Field Farm in northeast New York -- and their clients are a flock of 150 dairy sheep. Karen and Paul left NYC and moved from limos to tractors because they just wanted to experience farm life. They’re making a go of organic, sustainable, small family farming. While the farm’s still young and has yet to turn a profit, the agrarian life has certainly “paid off” in spades, in terms of their lives. Monday, June 30, 2003 Related commentary Listen Mark Henricks, author of “Not Just a Living: The Complete Guide to Creating a Business That Gives You a Life,” says it’s not really so crazy to give up accomplished corporate careers to shovel sheep dung -- if you do it like Karen and Paul did. Online resource www.dairysheepfarm.com: 3-Corner Field Farm Web site