Carl Owens said owning his own business is a longtime dream.  But, he also realized the road to entrepreneurship can be fraught with pitfalls and snares that can trip up even the most experienced manager.

Today, he is the hands-on owner and operator of Woolley G’s Bike and Fitness. Before buying the business more than a year ago, Owens had been involved in managing several manufacturing operations for several years and had a solid background in many of the fundamentals of business.

But that wasn’t enough, he said.

“I always wanted to own a business of my own,” Owens said. He had been involved in the world of fitness by participating in triathlons and other competitive running and riding events.

Before buying Woolley G’s, he had been a customer of the store and previous owner David Plant. Owens and Plant struck up a conversation with Plant indicating he was interested in getting out of the business.

“It took about eight to 10 months,” Owens said of the span from initially making a decision to taking possession. During that time, he did a lot of research, visited with bankers at Austin Bank about obtaining a Small Business Administration loan, consulted with the staff at the Kilgore College Small Business Development Center and enrolled in the center’s course titled “How to Start and Operate a Business in East Texas.”

Owens said while he thought he knew a lot about operating a business, he found sitting in on those sessions worth the time.

“They helped me develop a business plan to take to the bank and went over a lot of things like marketing, legal issues, insurance needs for a business and other details,” he said. “The marketing week was great with a lot of good ideas.”

Owens said he liked the fact experts from various fields were brought in to teach the weekly sessions.

“I would highly recommend it to anyone considering getting into business,” he said. “I thought I had a lot of things figured out, but going through the course I realized I had a lot to learn.”

Owens said the speakers taught from real world experience rather than textbook theory.

“A lot of the people who taught were in our shoes 20 years ago,”he said. Owens took over operations at Woolley G’s on Jan. 1 and said he has used a lot of the information from the SBDC course in his daily operations.

The shop has three employees plus himself and allows Owens to make a living doing something he enjoys.

“This is what I like to do,” he said. He is sill active in training for bike rides and runs.

On the business side, he still comes across questions he is not sure how to best move forward with.

Having a professional relationship with the staff at the Small Business Development Center offers him a wealth of expertise he has called upon from time to time.

“They’re extremely easy to work with and really helpful,” Owens said.

The next SBDC eight-week course will be offered 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday evenings beginning Sept. 29.

It runs for eight consecutive Thursdays.

Tuition for the course is $99, which includes a 330-page entrepreneurial startup guide and all course materials.

Seating is limited, and early registration is recommended. To register and to receive information on this and all SBDC training programs, call the SBDC at (903) 757-5857 or (800) 338-7232 or visit website at www.KilgoreSBDC.com.