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2015
Women in Business ■ 2015
IDAHOCOUNTYFREEPRESS.COM
WIB
Stephanie Forsmann Photography
Teenage hobby turns into full-time business COTTONWOOD — After nearly 13 years of using her home as a base for her business, Stephanie Forsmann has moved out. “It’s really nice to be able to set up everything and have a space,” smiled the Cottonwood woman. Stephanie Forsmann Photography is located at 402 King Street in the old Simon Building, located above Purses Galore and More. The newly refurbished area with aged brick façade is the backdrop for Forsmann’s studio. She became interested in photography when she took her best friend’s senior pictures when she was only 16 or 17, she said. “The love of photography just kind of grew from there,” she smiled. An early homeschool graduate, Forsmann went on to attend LewisClark State and North Idaho colleges.
She worked for Western Photo as well as Creative Image Portrait Design in Pullman. She married Prairie High School graduate Casey Forsmann, who is currently employed by Pacific Cabinets in Ferdinand, and the two lived in Coeur d’Alene before moving back to Cottonwood. “I gained a lot of valuable experi-
2015
BY LORIE PALMER IDAHO COUNTY FREE PRESS
WIB
Stephanie Forsmann Photography Stephanie Forsmann, owner 402 King Street (upstairs) Cottonwood, ID 83522 208-816-0038 StePhanIeForSmann@gmaIl.Com
ence at my jobs and I travel for workshops,” she said. “I have a creative side so I like to think up things and ways to take photos. We are so blessed here to have so many wonderful outdoors backdrops.” Forsmann specializes in newborn, children and senior photos but also enjoys other aspects of photography such as families, weddings and mothers-to-be. The Forsmanns have two daughters, Kenly and Blakely. She knows what it’s like to balance family and work, she said, but photography, “gives me the flexibility to do what I love and still be a wife and mother.” “I have a lot of photos of the girls, I’ve done a lot of practice photos on them,” Forsmann smiled. She said she enjoys the photo editing process after each shoot and spends “a lot of time,” on this step. “I like to capture personalities and I want people to be happy with the FREE PRESS / LORIE PALMER work,” she said. Stephanie Forsmann opened her photography shop on Cottonwood’s Main Street.
5 errors that can undermine your new business The dream of launching a business runs deep in the American psyche, but more often than not those dreams go bust. Half of new U.S. companies fail in their first five years, according to Gallup. Expand the time frame out to 10 years and the failure rate reaches 70 percent. That’s not surprising, said Randy H. Nelson, an entrepreneur who has built multi-million dollar companies.
The skills it takes to start a business aren’t necessarily the same as those it takes to keep that business afloat. What is surprising, though? In the U.S., more businesses are now being shut down (470,000) than are being started (400,000). The five errors are the following: • Insistence on autonomy. An Inc. magazine study once said that a trait most entrepreneurs share is their desire for
leadership decisions within a managerial team. • Lack of financial leadership. Entrepreneurs by definition take risk when they make the decision to start their own business. In the area of financial leadership, which includes tracking cash levels and trends, financial covenants, metrics and expenses, entrepreneurs who are not financially literate and active will need the direct support of a financial expert to ensure they receive the advice and input needed in their organization. • Reacting unwisely to boredom.
autonomy, which is great starting out, Nelson says. “In the start-up phase, the company is all about you,” he says. “Your fingerprints are on everything, and there is very little you don’t know and aren’t directing.” • Unwillingness to build structure, cultivate expertise or delegate. Many entrepreneurs will need to surround themselves with a strong executive team – or at least a steady right-hand individual – to ensure the company’s success, Nelson says. But too many business owners fail to create the kind of structure that produces good
Starting a business proved exhilarating. The day-to-day operation of it may pale in comparison. A bored entrepreneur can create significant troubles for the business, Nelson says. “Things are going to get upended in a hurry, because many bored entrepreneurs either start new companies or abruptly make changes in their current companies to keep their own level of excitement high,” he says. • Failure to engage in self-examination. Entrepreneurs need to be aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, the same things they gauge in their employees.
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