Dawn Gluskin gave birth to a baby girl. Seven months later, she founded SolTec Electronics. Today, clients rely on her to deliver what many competitors can't even find.

 

Dawn Gluskin has always been a focused, determined, career-minded individual. Yet, the truly defining moment in her professional life actually occurred two years ago, when at the age 31, she gave birth to her daughter, Calista, an experience that changed her perception of the way things ought to be. And out of that cathartic moment a wildly successful entrepreneur emerged.

With her maternity leave all planned out, Gluskin took a few weeks off from her job and then started working part time from home to take care of both her work and her parental responsibilities. She worked as much as she possibly could and delegated any extra tasks to some of her co-workers. Her employers, entrepreneurs in the semiconductor industry, were totally agreeable to this arrangement, they said, as long as she held up her end of the bargain. They were totally agreeable, that is, until the plan actually was put into place.

As timing would have it, Calista was born right at the start of the current economic downturn. As Gluskin’s employers started feeling the crunch and saw revenues declining, they put enormous pressure on Dawn to get back to work and produce out of the office. You couldn’t blame them: She was one of their top sales reps, and they needed her back to help their bottom line. She was uneasy, though, due to feelings stemming from her core instincts: She had just given birth to a tiny baby girl who needed her mother, and she was determined to spend time with her, knowing she wouldn’t be her little baby forever. She didn’t want to miss out on a cherished life experience “to go right back to making somebody else a bunch of money!”

On the other hand, she felt it could affect her career if she didn’t get back in the saddle as her bosses wanted. It was a classic dilemma, and she was torn.

In the end, she felt so inspired and motivated by the experience of becoming a mother that she immediately soured on the idea of working for others and playing by their rules. She became weary of being a gross-profit statistic on somebody else’s spreadsheet. Life, she now believed, was worth more than that.

Having dabbled in, and thoroughly enjoyed, some entrepreneurial music promotion and sales adventures earlier in her career, Gluskin knew what she wanted to do and immediately began writing a business plan to carve out her own niche in the electronics sector. Approximately seven months after Calista was born, her mother officially turned in her resignation and SolTec Electronics was born, in her living room, with the gracious help of her mother, who took on the role of nanny.

The rest, as they say, is history.

SolTec Electronics, headquartered in Melbourne, is an independent distributor of obsolete and hard-to-find electronic components. By definition, an electronic component is a basic electronic element usually packaged with two or more connecting leads or metallic pads. Components are normally connected by soldering them to a printed circuit board to create an electronic circuit with a particular function (e.g., an amplifier, radio receiver or oscillator). Components can be packaged singly (resistor, capacitor, transistor, diode, etc.) or in complex groups as integrated circuits.

In today’s fast-paced supply chain markets, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and electronic manufacturing services (EMSs) must keep their production lines up and running. This means that waiting long periods to get components and redesigning out obsolete components aren't valid options for them. Enter SolTec Electronics— an independent distributor that offers strategic procurement solutions to those electronic component issues.

Under Gluskin’s leadership, the company has a 2,500-square-foot office and warehouse facility, seven employees and a stellar reputation among clients and peers. The company is also on track to secure $1.5 million in revenue by the end of this year.

“I understood the need for these services,” says Gluskin, who has been in sales and marketing since she was age 18. “There are a lot of high-tech companies in this region, and they’re constantly looking for components. So this was a perfect place to start this type of operation.”

It may have been a good place to open shop, but the risks of starting a new business still loomed large, even for Gluskin and her unbridled entrepreneurial spirit. Although a successful sales rep in the industry, she had no clue how to open and run a business. Thus, learning the entire operation was imperative to her success.

Raising capital also represented a daunting challenge. It was impossible to get a bank loan, so she used her entire 401(k). Her husband, Dave, who is the company’s vice president of operations, also went for broke. Together, they used their entire savings and maxed out their credit cards to get the operation off the ground. “I guess I believe in the no-risk, no-reward axiom,” she says, “but the truth is it was very scary, especially with a newborn.”

It was a calculated risk, and one that Gluskin was willing to take because she recognized her strengths. She felt confident her sales background was a sufficient platform for moving forward and making SolTec a success. The unlimited supply of potential clients also was something that was too provocative to overlook. Reality dictates that components on circuit boards eventually become obsolete or defective, and when these parts need to be replaced, it’s often very difficult to find them. For the OEMs and EMSs, buying new replacement parts is not an option because redesigns are too time consuming, so unless the older parts are secured, entire production lines can go down and products don’t get to market.

Gluskin understands this, and she continues to work hard to establish strong relationships with vendors throughout the world to be able to find any component a client might need. With her global network of suppliers, she can find a part “as long as it exists.” If the part doesn’t exist, she offers alternate solutions. She also works with affiliate companies to offer value-added services to clients such as electrical testing, product programming, counterfeit detection and compliance testing.

To ensure delivery of a component, she often buys inventory of canceled product lines to stock in the warehouse in case a client needs a discontinued part. Indexed on Google, SolTec receives lists of everything various vendors have in stock, and those lists are uploaded and published on the SolTec Web site. If a buyer is looking for a part number, he or she can type it into this index and SolTec will come up.

“Our customers are usually repeat customers, which is good,” comments Gluskin. “We have competitors, but some don’t have the same quality standards or aren’t good with customer service. We try to set ourselves apart by being prompt and delivering what we say we’re going to deliver. This seems simple, but it’s so important for any business. Customer service is everything.”

Clients would agree.

“Dawn is the best in the business,” says Daryl Grimes, product manager for Smart Start Inc. in Irving, Tex. “She’s very open and upfront, and it’s easy to do business with her because you know what you’re getting is her very best effort.”

Smart Start produces ignition interlock products, which are essentially breath alcohol analyzers that keep drivers with DWIs/DUIs from operating vehicles if their breath alcohol level is over a preset level. The devices provide a cost-effective alternative to jail or license suspension and allow defenders to keep driving. “It’s a very unique product,” explains Grimes, “so we need to find very particular components in a timely manner in order to keep our product line going. We use many overseas distributors, and lead times with them tend to be very long. So we call on Dawn to go out and find the parts from alternative channels, and she always comes through.”

Smart Start is a midrange company competing with big boys like Motorola and Sony for these materials, and distributors tend to favor the bigger companies when it comes to putting their needs first. “Having a broker who can get you parts quickly and cheaply is imperative for us,” says Grimes. “She’s amazing, and if she can’t find it, she comes back with 12 other options for us.”

Integrity is an important trait in the electronic component arena as counterfeit parts are prevalent, and installing them can compromise a product. Quality is compromised and reputations sullied if it’s discovered that a manufacturer used lesser-quality components. “We depend on our vendors to tell us the truth about their parts, and Dawn would never supply counterfeit parts,” Grimes continues. “She’ll tell us if she doesn’t have a good feeling about an overseas source, and she’ll test the parts as an added service to make sure they’re genuine.”

Ultrablend LLC provides paint dispensers and mixers for companies like Home Depot and Benjamin Moore. They’re precise machines that require constant maintenance. Leslie Hoehne is an Ultrablend quality engineer who deals firsthand with the electronic components that make these machines work. “We need very specific parts, and sometimes these parts are hard to secure in a timely manner,” she says. “To add to this, some of our machines are 30 years old, which makes it hard to find parts at all sometimes.”

Hoehne met Gluskin years ago when she was a buyer for another company. She needed specific parts back then as well, so Gluskin would give her a list of vendors who had the parts at decent prices. They became fast friends and are still good friends. “Dawn is very detail-oriented, which is a must in this business,” says Hoehne. “She’s so thorough she even catches mistakes in my purchase orders, and the truth is, to this day, Dawn can find parts nobody else can find. She’s like a bloodhound, and she finds it cheap.”

As a testament to Gluskin’s hard work and dedication, SolTec Electronics was selected as one of 10 women-owned businesses that won the Make Mine a Million Dollar Business competition sponsored by Count Me In, a nonprofit organization that encourages and supports women entrepreneurs. The competition is for women who own companies that have the greatest potential of reaching $1 million in revenues for the year. Gluskin had to give a three-minute elevator pitch in front of 600 people at the most recent Women’s Business Summit in Houston as part of the final selection process. True to form, Gluskin nailed her pitch and was awarded a business/life coach for a year and a line of credit with American Express OPEN.

The future is bright for SolTec Electronics, which is music to the ears of Gluskin’s clients, all of whom depend mightily on her to get the job done. In light of her success, she’s an ardent believer that if you dig deep inside, believe in yourself and go for it, you will succeed.

“That precious little girl of mine has been such a source of inspiration and motivation,” she concludes. “I want to provide for her future but also want to be a positive role model as a woman who can do and be anything.”

Gluskin's 6 Musts:

1. “What do most all successful businesses have in common? A well-thought out, written business plan. Especially when you are getting ready to start a new business, it is such a great exercise to do a formal business plan covering all aspects from finances to sales and marketing to daily operations. You will learn so much about your business going through this formal process. The Small Business Administration Web site, www.sba.gov, has some great resources on writing a business plan.”
2. “Cash is the oxygen to a business. Make sure you don’t run out. It takes a while to start turning profits in a new business, so make sure you have enough money tucked away to pay your bills until the cash starts coming in. Some business owners don’t pay themselves at all the first year or even longer. Also, make sure you have a backup plan when capital starts running low. Most traditional banks won’t even consider lending to a business until [it is] at least three years old. In the meantime, turn to personal savings and retirement funds, credit cards, home equity loans, or friends and family to buy into your dream. And, when you are doing your budgeting, make sure you factor in some extra padding for any unforeseen expenses that might come up.”
3. “You must have passion. Being the ‘boss’ is not all glitz and glamour. You must love what you do. There will be long hours, stressful circumstances that arise and all sorts of obstacles to hurdle while building your dream. When all else fails, this passion deep inside of you is the only thing that will get you through it. And, through it all, you might just even have a smile on your face.”
4. “Think [outside] the box. A successful businessperson has to be able to think on [his or her] feet and be open to new ideas. Sometimes plan A or B might not turn out exactly as you planned, but don’t give up. The most successful businesses learn to adapt, even in the toughest times. Keep thinking creatively. Plan C or D might just be the ones that take you to the next level.”
5. “Use social media. If you are not on Twitter and Facebook, you are missing out on many great networking opportunities as well as potential clients looking to buy from you. These are free marketing tools that, with a little creativity and some manpower, you can [use to] really generate some buzz for your business. Even if social media is not your cup of tea, you should at least look into hiring a college intern to help you get started. What do you have to lose?”
6. “Have a great support group around you. Get your friends and family on board with what you are doing. They will be there to congratulate you when things are going great, or even to give you a shoulder to cry on if things are going a little rough. In addition to that, find groups of like-minded businesspeople that you can network and exchange ideas with. I think women really have an advantage in this realm because there are so many great organizations for women business owners out there. Count Me In [www.makemineamillion.org] is the nonprofit organization that sponsors the M3 program [from which I received an award]. And, Big Fish Nation [www.bigfishnation.com], which I am also a part of, is a yearlong business development [program] for women entrepreneurs who dare to soar. The advice, support and encouragement I have received from these groups has really helped push me along to where I am today. There are tons of other organizations out there as well. Get to Googling with your particular interests in mind to find the perfect one for you.”