Savino-Erichsen of Automatic Industries: Certain pride when owning a business

Name: Denise Savino-Erichsen Title: President Company Name: Automatic Industries Inc. Years in Commercial Real Estate: 24 years What motivated you to step out on your own? My father had a vision when he started Automatic Industries in 1971. His commitment and dedication to build the firm inspired my efforts to grow it. There is a certain pride when you have your own business and it is my personality to give it my all. In my experience as a business owner, I have found that when you put your best efforts forward, it ends up being beneficial to the bottom line. What was the biggest obstacle in launching your own business and how did you overcome it? As the second generation owner of the firm, it was very important to me to demonstrate a strong work ethic. My father was a tough leader and gave me an opportunity to help grow his business. Many second and third generation owners possess a sense of entitlement, and my father instilled a sense of gratitude and hard work that I am grateful for. I worked part-time for the company during college and became a full-time employee upon graduating college. The learning experience of working my way up and working in several different positions gave me a well-rounded view of the different functions of the company. Over the years, I expanded the family business, increasing its service vehicles from 2 to a fleet of 11, and now employing 26 full-time workers plus subcontractors. I am happy to say that I genuinely enjoy what I do. What one piece of advice would you give to a woman who is launching her own business in the real estate profession? No business is easy. The real estate industry has ups and downs, however, I can honestly say that I have never felt that gender was an obstacle for me in the business world. I network with other "laundry route" operators around the country and find that it is very rare to see a female owner in the laundry route business. In a room of 60 men, it is not uncommon that I am the only female. Fortunately, we have a company in New York, where anything goes, and most folks don't concern themselves with gender. At Automatic Industries, we just focus on providing a fair deal and quality service to each client.