When I got my $250,000 Small Business Administration loan, I was three years into Under Armour and $120,000 in debt. I couldn’t borrow any more money from friends or family or anybody else that I knew. I was out of options.
The federal government underwrote at least 75 percent of that loan so the bank was rewarded with getting some protection while having a customer who became large. That’s the role that government should be playing: enabling businesses to help other businesses.
Give them wings; don’t give them a ride.
The thing that drew me from D.C. to Baltimore, frankly, wasn’t some government fund or agency. It was a landlord who gave me a chance on my lease. So much of this is not just controlled by government. Government can help, and there are great assets and resources like the SBA that need to be better marketed. The SBA is awesome. People just need to know about it.
The largest obstacle facing small businesses today is the overriding sense of doom and gloom that exists in the market. It’s very tough out there—there’s no question about that —but if you’re going to do something bigger and better than anybody else, the greater economy should not hinder that from happening. There is never a perfect time to start a business. It’s about building the internal courage to find a moment in time to move forward, and I think that unfortunately there is an overwhelming sense that the safety or security of a job doesn’t match up to the spirit or idea of entrepreneurship. The risk-reward perception of taking a chance and starting a business doesn’t seem to be as great as it once was in this country.
If anything, I hope that Under Armour can serve as an example. I want people to look at me and say, “You mean that Maryland football player started a company and it worked? If he could do it, I should be able to do it as well.”
There are great ideas sitting in a basement or an attic or a garage or sitting with somebody after the hours of 9-to-5. I know there are people who are thinking, “I’d like to, I just don’t know.”
Sometimes you’ve got to try. Not everybody’s going to win or succeed, but I don’t think it’s about two grand slams. It’s about us batting 100,000 singles, 10,000 doubles, which will net us 1,000 triples and hopefully from that we’ll have maybe 100 home runs, and from that, we’ll have five or 10 grand slams.
And that’s the way I’d love for us to be thinking about entrepreneurship as a country.
Kevin Plank is chief executive of Baltimore-based Under Armour.
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