Hard work brings success to business woman

Photo by Rick Harris Lori Cogan, co-owner of Evergrow, Inc., works with two employees on a project. Although tough economic times forced her business to downsize, she now employs the same amount of workers she had before 2000.

By Lesley Jenkins
star staff
ljenkins@starhq.com

   Without a career goal in mind, a young California woman enlisted in the Army where she found a love for writing and drive to be successful in the business world. She was recruited after the Army to work for MedMark in Johnson City.
   Lori Cogan worked for the medical marketing company for a year before it declared bankruptcy and left her and her husband, Dan, also a MedMark employee, without careers.
   They re-evaluated everything and decided to stay in the area and jumpstart their own business in marketing. At the age of 29, she had a lot of learning to do -- how to work together, doing commercial work and growing to do other work.
   They did marketing for prestigious Tri-Cities businesses Mountain States Health Alliance, Sycamore Shoals Hospital, Bristol Motor Speedway, Milligan College, and Citizens Bank.
   "For the first 10 years we did nothing but grow. But at the turn of the millennium, we lost 60 percent of our business. What I have decided to learn from it is that ad agencies feel a recession coming first. The industry feels like when businesses aren't sure on how the industry is going to go they start to rain back on advertising and marketing first," Cogan said.
   Two years were spent cutting down from 12 staff members to five workers. "It was a time to dig in and provide some leadership. It is easy to lead when you're growing and all is good, and it is tougher to lead when the company is downsizing and is finding its footing again in the marketplace and starting to grow again," she said.
   The past four years were tough on Cogan's company, but she also described it as "good for us" and called it a "maturing process."
   In order to be ready to grow again, the Cogans needed a change in creative leadership. The "missing puzzle piece" was found as Target Marketing was set aside in 2003 and a new company was founded, with the same people. The new company was named Evergrow, Inc.
   Robert Baggett and Jay Fields were hired to bring a new presence into the growing company. Fields now offers clients a link to the company with an office in Asheville, N.C.
   After forming in June, Evergrow had its best quarter in more than three years during the fourth quarter of 2003.
   "We also feel the economy come back first. I also feel we were ready and we had the right footing to take advantage of that with all the right talent in place. For the first two months of this year that trend has been continuing," Cogan said.
   As a leading woman in the stereotypical "man's world," Cogan feels she has gotten a lot further in her business by being assertive but not aggressive.
   Cogan said, "I really struggle with what to tell women about 'here's a special key for you.' It is really a special key for everyone. Just be respectful of the people who work for you. They get you everything in terms of success of a business or as a person. If your people aren't successful then you're not going to be successful. I concentrate on the folks who work for me. If they are loving it and learning, and they are growing then I am too."
   "But there is one thing. When I was in the service and I moved from having the stripes on the shoulder and your badges and you just kind of walk around with your accomplishments. When I came out I didn't have any of my military badges. None of my accomplishments could I wear. I wore a skirt. I was 29. I was trying to conduct myself as I would expect people to see me. But they only just saw this young woman."
   She continued, "They didn't see my accomplishments anymore. They didn't see me in any particular way other than a nice young girl who is going to come into the male business world and try to conduct some business. When I was younger I worked hard at thinking smart and bring assertive and at the same time not taking myself too seriously, not walking around with the need to make a point all the time."
   Cogan said the toughest thing in working in a man's business is the presence of sexism. Although she feels it has lessened over the years, she still feels it will be around for the next generation for women to experience.
   "On the whole, women have made huge strides in the last 20 years. The hardest thing for me is to see some of it still remain, some of the sexism, some of the stereotypes, some of the salary challenges that shouldn't be there anymore. I feel like I haven't done my job in a way. But, I am not 60 yet. I am not done yet," Cogan said.
   Despite these obstacles, she emphasized that there aren't as many barriers to business that women might think. She said she has never encountered anything that she thought she couldn't accomplish. I would just encourage women to set aside that whole issue. Maybe if it is not in your head then it is not going to be in the other person's head either. If you look around the Tri-Cities there are a lot of women in powerful positions." She mentioned some accomplished females as the publisher of the Tri-Cities Business Journal and the Dean of School of Business at East Tennessee State University.
   While juggling her packed work schedule, Cogan is also a student at Milligan College, where she is pursuing a teaching degree, one of the items on her life goals list.
   "It is in my nature to look at a challenge and say 'I can do that' and then I figure out how," said Cogan, who attributes this trait to the Army and her experience as a paratrooper.
   Prior to owning her own business, Cogan spent seven years as a paratrooper and a journalist in the Army. She was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Award from the Department of Defense -- the military's highest communications award. In 2003, she was a speaker at the Tennessee Governor's Conference on Tourism. In 2000, she was selected to the Business Journal's List of the Region's Most Powerful Women.