Entrepreneur Gene Gerke used persistence and passion to establish business

by Lauren Studer, posted Oct. 26, 2009

Entrepreneur Gene Gerke visited campus recently to talk to students about tips in business and entrepreneurship. He spoke to the MU Entrepreneur Club about the things he knew, and the things he wish he had known and learned from others about being an entrepreneur.

For those looking into starting a business, Gerke said, “It takes persistence and a little bit of stupid.”

Gerke started his own firm, Gerke & Associates Inc., which provides consulting services for companies looking to strategically improve their businesses. The firm is located in Columbia and since 1977 has worked throughout North America and abroad.

During Gerke’s presentation, he said that there are “doers” and there are innovators. Not everyone is an innovator, because some people would rather be told the innovative idea and then work through to carry it out.

“Not everyone thought the way I thought,” Gerke said. “I wish I had known that before I got started.”

One of the major characteristics of an entrepreneur is persistence, Gerke said. It took him three times to launch and create a successful, online data collection business. By creating an online data collection he was playing a hand in online market research, which included figuring out what people want by a series of questions and surveys.

Trent Mumm, president of the Entrepreneur club, said he learned a lot from Gerke’s presentation

“It doesn’t matter how successful your first business is, it’s only important that you are able to learn from your mistakes and eventually have all the skills and tools necessary to run a successful business,” Mumm said.

Gerke also said that in order to start a business a need has to be identified first.  Without a need there is no market to target, which kills the business idea before it would even get on paper.  Although, sometimes it is difficult to determine if there is a genuine need.

“Sometimes people don’t know what they want,” Gerke said “And that is why market research doesn’t always work.”

Gerke quoted Henry Ford to convey a message about entrepreneurs meeting needs that consumers did not know they had, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Knowledge is learned through the years, not only from experience, but from others, Gerke said.   He worked with two individuals who took an innovative idea and turned it into a business, and they are now billionaires. What he saw in them was an undying passion for what they were doing, tremendous optimism and the ability to articulate a vision even to global scale. These two individuals are as successful as they are today not only because of those things, but also for their ability to bounce back when things do not work as planned and continually pushing to do better, Gerke said.

He also said how motivation is another important ingredient: business owners must be able to constantly push people all the time to raise the bar, because it is in those instances that people achieve more than they ever thought was possible.

“An entrepreneur needs to have values and instill them in their business,” Gerke said. “Without values the business would fall apart, values are very important asset in any business.”

Other tips Gerke had were to keep employees that are really good at selling products or services. It is important for the employees to see the company vision, too.

“From Gerke’s experience, I learned to always think. Think about the next step—think about your passions and think about what you can do to ensure you are successful,” said Trent Mumm. “Thinking alone, however, is not enough. You have to channel that thinking into positive actions that create some sort of value, both for yourself and others.”

For more information about Gerke & Associates Inc. visit: www.gerke.com.

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