Julie Swatek (pictured at left) recently moved her online retail company’s headquarters into a larger facility in southwest Orlando, tripling its overhead costs and taking a leap of faith that Scrap Your Trip will increase its revenue in 2007 enough to cover them.

The daughter of entrepreneurial parents, Swatek was raised not to be afraid of risk. But she also had a secret weapon when she took this important step in her company’s growth: a team of advisors helping her make the decision.

Swatek is the first participant in the Athena PowerLink program, which kicked off in Orlando in 2006. Originally founded in Philadelphia, the Athena PowerLink program is designed for women business owners whose companies have been in operation at least two years, employ two or more people full time, and count annual revenue of at least $250,000 in retail/manufacturing or $100,000 in a service business. The Orlando program, which is hosted by The Rollins College Center for Entrepreneurship, will begin accepting new applications to be a mentored business starting March 1. The deadline for applications is April 30.

Scrap Your Trip started out as a home-based business in 2002 when Swatek was laid off from her corporate job. Five-and-a-half months pregnant with her son, and accustomed to a flexible schedule that allowed her to spend more time with her 2-year-old daughter, she knew her chances of finding another ideal job were slim.

Swatek turned to her hobby of scrap booking and decided she could fill a niche providing stickers and other accessories for people who like to document their travels. Her husband was working full time, and she had money in savings.

She was serious about the business from the start. “I’m not really the kind of person who does anything halfway,” she says. “I’m an all-or-nothing type of gal.”

Within two years, Scrap Your Trip had taken over any available space in her family’s house and garage. She moved the company into its first commercial space and was there only five months before it was time to expand again. Scrap Your Trip made its fourth move recently to a 5,000-square-foot facility.

Today, with 17 employees and annual revenue of more than $700,000, the company has been recognized for shipping more packages worldwide through the U.S. Postal Service than any other company in Orlando – almost 27,000 in 2005. I’ve had a tremendous amount of success almost without even trying hard, but it’s taken everything I have,” she says. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

That’s why she decided to apply for the Athena program when she heard about it from a friend. “I’m starting to hit the ceiling of my knowledge,” she says. “I needed access to people who would say, ‘Do this’ and ‘Don’t do that.’ It’s invaluable to be given the opportunity to have those people help you for a whole year.”

Her team is made up of a CPA, an insurance agent, an attorney, a business growth consultant, a banker and a former business owner with corporate and academic experience.

On her application, Swatek said she most needed help with strategic planning. She felt she was flying by the seat of her pants and not taking time to look at the big picture of her company’s future. The team immediately examined her space needs and put together a plan for her to expand her facilities.

She also wanted help with the financial part of running her business. Even though Swatek is an accountant by trade, she wasn’t aware how quickly she was burning through her cash flow. Her team helped her obtain a banker and set up a line of credit. She had thought her company would have to show a profit, which it hasn’t yet, before she could gain access to capital for growth.

Swatek and her team are now putting together a strategic calendar for milestones she wants the company to reach in 2007, breaking the goals into quarters, months and weeks.
She meets with her team of advisors once a month but also doesn’t hesitate to pick up the phone and call one of them when she needs his or her expertise in a hurry.   During a recent call, an advisor helped calm her doubts about whether she’s doing the right thing expanding the business – doubts all entrepreneurs face at one time or another. He told her she has a solid company and a lot of support. “There are other people who have confidence in you,” he advised her. “Lean on that until you get through this.” Getting the advisory panel was one of the best moves she’s ever made, Swatek says. “I have a lot of confidence in my abilities. I have a lot of confidence in the staff I have surrounded myself with, and I have a lot of confidence in my advisory panel that they’re not going to let me shoot myself in the foot.”