If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, the case can also be made that too much knowledge is equally undesirable: It may prevent you from seeking your destiny.
At least that's the way it has worked out for Carmelle Jensen, president of Commercial Contract Group, among the top 10 women-owned businesses on the Wasatch Front in gross sales last year."I knew just enough to be successful but not enough to know I should't try going into business for myself," said Jensen at CCG's new headquarters and showroom at 105 N. 400 West, the newly renovated and very trendy Salt Lake Hardware Building.
Founded by Jensen in 1987, CCG is a full-service office design, space planning and office furniture dealership and is the sole Utah distributor for Haworth, the world's second largest office furniture manufacturer. Haworth is based in Holland, Mich.
To see Jensen today, walking through her 11,000-square-foot facility, stopping to talk with some of her 58 employees (including CCG subsidiary Source One Installations), it would be easy to assume that she is simply one of those people for whom good things just seem to "happen."
But that assumption would be wrong. Like most entrepreneurs, Jensen went way out on a limb to launch CCG in 1987, even to the point of selling her car for capital and using her personal credit cards to pay business bills.
"The first 18 months were really critical," she recalled. "I was undercapitalized and found that the banks had no interest in funding me. It's a fantasy for people to think they can start a business with bank loans."
It would have been easy at that point to call it quits - about 95 percent of all new business owners do - but Jensen hung on. "I had this feeling that people fail because they don't work hard enough. I refused to fail."
She also refused to bring in outsiders for funding help. As a result, she remains the sole owner today.
But hold on, you're thinking. There is a price to pay for being a workaholic; one of those career-driven women who will one day realize too late that they achieved business success by sacrificing hearth and home.
Well, not exactly. Photos of Jensen's husband, Todd, who also has his own business, and sons Turner, 4, and Noah, 1, occupy a prominent spot on her desk.
A superwoman of the '90s? Maybe. But Jensen laughs off that suggestion. Moreover, she credits husband Todd for many of her achievements. "I'm lucky to have a very supportive husband. I owe a lot of my success to him. It makes work a lot easier if your personal life is in order."
A native of Los Angeles, Jensen came to Salt Lake in 1977 armed with degrees from Pierce College and the West Valley College of Design. She worked in fashion design for a couple of years and then segued into residential interior design.
Deciding she needed more formal training, she completed a two-year core program in interior design at Brigham Young University and then worked for two companies, now her competitors, in design and sales.
Not satisfied with simply being a designer, she once again went back to school, this time to the University of Phoenix where she completed a two-year business program.
Then the firm she worked for was sold and her position was "downsized" out of existence. Jensen had a major decision to make. Her choice, as she saw it, was to leave Utah for a new job or start her own business. She chose the latter road.
In retrospect, it was a prescient decision, but, as noted above, she didn't know that at the time. Failure was not only a possibility but a probability.
But she beat the odds and last year won first-place honors in total quality management among Haworth's 358 dealers. Also, this spring, she was a finalist in the Utah Entrepreneur of the Year awards.
She counts among her customers Ma-trixx Marketing, Fidelity Investments, Kennecott, Novell, Deseret Mutual, Ernst & Young and the state of Utah.
Total sales for 1995 topped $12 million, and the goal for 1996 is $14.75 million, a 25 percent increase. Considering that CCG has enjoyed 20-25 percent increases over the past three years, that's a reachable number although as market share expands it gets tougher to sustain high growth rates.
What does the near future hold for CCG? "Our plans," says Jensen, "are to become the best possible dealership on the Wasatch Front and be acknowledged as one of the top players in the industry."
Those who have followed Jensen's career over the past 10 years would likely say, "Consider it done."