Pink plus or minus.

Day Thirty: Timing is everything.

I’m not the only entrepreneurial Happonen. (Just the one with cat-like reflexes to nab “happonen” for both Twitter and Facebook. HA!).

My sister-in-law, Debbie Happonen, launched her own business a year and two days ago. BH Axis is a project management firm that helps “Owners” with their design and construction projects. They handle everything from renovations to full-blown building projects. Acting as the owners’ representative, they pull together everything from negotiating the leases, selecting design teams, identifying consultants, putting together RFPs, assisting with the bidding process, finding contractors, managing budgets, schedules and generally overseeing the process to make sure everything gets done as smoothly as possible.

Not an easy job.

Oh, she also had a baby six weeks ago.

For those who are cranking the numbers right now, that means she found out she was pregnant about a month after she launched her business.

“I almost fainted,” she explained upon reciting her initial reaction to the doctor’s news.

Evidently, “growing a person” wasn’t a part of the business plan. But like all good entrepreneurs (and mothers, for that matter) she was able to think on her feet and do what she needed to do to still build her business. Working up until the day before Myanna was born, she and her business partner culled together some good clients, and were off and running. Just in time for her to take a few weeks off to care for her newborn.

Besides being a great story to tell Inc. magazine when they profile her as one of the fastest growing businesses one day, I’m always fascinated by the process of entrepreneurship. Everyone does it for different reasons. But we’re all guided somehow by a certain element of insanity. We know the rules. We just choose not to follow them. I asked her point-blank why she decided to start her own business.

“Why wouldn’t you do your own thing,” she turned back to me.

And that’s the common thread beneath all entrepreneurs. They do it because they can’t imagine doing anything else. They do it because they NEED to do it. Sure there is risk, but the rewards are unmatched. Some say this is the age of entrepreneurs. As fewer “traditional” jobs are available, more folks are striking out on their own. This already in a nation of small businesses which, according to the Small Business Association, employ roughly 65 percent of the population.

Having traveled this great land, I have to say I can see why we are so gung-ho for doing our own thing. One of the great things about doing something new is that you don’t know what your aren’t “supposed to do.” You are free to make all the mistakes in the world. And as a nation, we seem to have the resiliency to bounce back from mistakes relatively quickly. We are quick to forgive, in general, and mostly forward thinking. And if that weren’t enough, think of all the wonderful things that have been invented out of mistakes. The potato chip being perhaps the greatest of them all. Ok, maybe penicillin.

Debbie has her first “post-baby” client meeting next week. She’s busy now trying to find clothes to fit her “i just had a freakin’ baby” body. But she’s more busy with the details of preparing and knowing the business needs of her client. And that’s how a business is built. Moving forward, taking risks, making mistakes…one client at a time.