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How SCORE helped.

Asked if the current picture is one she had envisioned ten years ago when she started on this journey, Marie noted that she had not developed a specific 10-year-goal but she had identified how she would recognize success when the time came. “I would feel that we had achieved success if I was not involved the day a sale is made." Marie believes, “True entrepreneurship involves creating something new – something that was non-existent. It involves committing your dreams and goals to paper and going through a long process of becoming familiar with what you want to create so you can explain it and try to determine what the market will bear. SCORE helped me crystallize my idea and then get intimately familiar with the market to figure out how we would fit in and that is essential for a number of reasons, including getting funding.”

 

How Did Your Business Get Started?

Marie O’Brien is no stranger to the limelight. In 2008– just 7 short years after it was founded, her company, Enterforce was recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine as #4 on their list of the Top 50 Fastest Growing Women-Led Companies in North America. This is a huge accomplishment, to be sure but no surprise for someone whose company achieved its initial 5-year goals in 3 years and is regularly cited by its clients as a leader in many areas including customer satisfaction and innovation. The recipient of the 2010 Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year – WBE Success Award from the Women’s Business Development Center, Marie has often been honored and recognized for her business success and expertise. She makes it look easy.

Where did she get the tools she needed to drive her business to this level of success? “In 2001, when I was getting ready to start my business, some wise person told me to call SCORE, so I did,” Marie explained. “I was paired with a mentor and we spent numerous sessions laying the groundwork. We worked together on everything from the foundational structure and bylaws to the financial aspects and developing a business plan I could be proud of. He gave me the keys to getting my company off the ground; he helped me identify the steps I needed to take and also connected me to an accountant, a banker and others who could assist me. I attribute much of our success – and we invoiced $75 million last year – to the support I received from SCORE.”

Marie believes, “True entrepreneurship involves creating something new – something that was non-existent. It involves committing your dreams and goals to paper and going through a long process of becoming familiar with what you want to create so you can explain it and try to determine what the market will bear. SCORE helped me crystallize my idea and then get intimately familiar with the market to figure out how we would fit in and that is essential for a number of reasons, including getting funding.”

Asked if the current picture is one she had envisioned ten years ago when she started on this journey, Marie noted that she had not developed a specific 10-year-goal but she had identified how she would recognize success when the time came. “I would feel that we had achieved success if I was not involved the day a sale is made.”

Obviously, having the ability to assemble a talented and capable team is an integral aspect of that equation and Marie’s success is not only a testament, it’s a business model. Enterforce makes that formula work for the Fortune 1000 companies it serves throughout North America and abroad by managing best-in-class procurement processes for their contingent workers, consultants, independent contractors and direct hires.

Now that she is not intimately involved in closing deals, Marie’s main focus is on strategic growth and future vision for Enterforce. What she learned through her association with SCORE has undoubtedly become part of her business toolkit and will continue to be utilized as the company grows. A strong supporter of women in business and of the Milwaukee business and non-profit community, she “pays it forward” in many ways, including serving as a member of several local boards. This model of business success truly knows the SCORE!