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Leaving Corporate Life Behind

Each Monday for six weeks and online, USA TODAY and small-business columnist Rhonda Abrams explore some of the issues entrepreneurs face when they think about starting a business. Get a step-by-step tutorial at startup.usatoday.com.

Brent Bouchez, David Page and Nancy McNally are no strangers to corporate perks.

They’ve each worked for top-tier ad agencies in top-tier roles. They’ve had able assistants, private offices, great retirement and health benefits, and the use of professional car services.

Now the trio sometimes debate who should run out and buy printer paper.

Six months ago, the three opened their own marketing firm, Five0, which focuses on consumers 50 and older. The ad industry bigwigs all share a small, one-room office in Manhattan. There’s no swanky lobby, no company lunchroom serving sushi and no cool coffee bar. The door to their office is at the end of a drab hallway. Inside, a shelf holds rows of bottled water bought at Staples. The glossy white conference table, which dominates a good part of the room, was an Ikea steal for $295.

“We change the (printer) ink. We fill out FedEx forms and set up the phone system,” Page says. “We are the IT team. There is nobody to turn to.”

The Madison Avenue veterans are among millions who have gone from working in a corporate culture to running their own small businesses. Three-quarters of company founders toiled for someone else for at least six years before launching their own firms, according to a survey this summer by the entrepreneur-focused Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Nearly half had more than 10 years of work experience at other firms.

As this recession turns more workers into entrepreneurs, such transitions are becoming more common. Most are trying to persevere without the organizational help of assistants, the tech know-how of an IT department and the use of ample expense accounts. They empty the trash, buy toilet paper, set up utilities, shop for an affordable source of office supplies, and somehow manage to get computer equipment and software installed.

“It’s daunting,” says management consultant and corporate coach Michelle DeAngelis, who left Bank of America 15 years ago to launch her own consulting and coaching firm, Michelle Inc.

Fledgling entrepreneurs often have so much to do that they can easily get tripped up, she says.

The lone office printer is seemingly always going to run out of ink when an important client’s report is due.

“The most mundane, trivial stuff can hamstring you,” she says.

Prioritizing Is a Necessity

The Five0 founders have a decent work system down now, but are still honing time-management skills.

Read on→

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