Entrepreneur learns success comes slowly

He left his high-profile job at Palace Sports in 1998 to start own firm, now a $15M business.
By Eric Pope
The Detroit News
Sunday, April 10, 2005

ROCHESTER - Andy Appleby was a young man in a hurry in 1998. At 37, he left a dream job as senior vice president of marketing at Palace Sports and Entertainment Inc. to seek even greater accomplishments with his own company. Seven years later, Appleby has built General Sports and Entertainment LLC into a $15 million company that oversees a minor league baseball team in Fort Wayne, Ind., and General Sports Turf Systems, which sells synthetic athletic fields. Building on Appleby's experience with the Detroit Pistons, General Sports negotiates marketing contracts with sports teams and puts together sports marketing events. "I expected we would have 10 clients in the first two weeks. It took three or four weeks to get the first one," Appleby said. While he still has his sights set high - buying a major league team remains a cherished dream - he now knows it can take an entrepreneur a long time to achieve the blockbuster deal he envisioned when he left the Palace. "It's been harder than I imagined, but if it had been easy, we never would have learned as much as we have," Appleby said. "The only way we know how to do anything is to make every mistake twice. Failure allows you to succeed in the future." Mistakes are the price entrepreneurs have to pay for the process of coming up with good ideas, says Rick Cole, chief administrative officer of the Detroit Medical Center who was a General Sports client when he handled marketing for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. "Entrepreneurs can't be afraid of having a bad idea," Cole said. "When they have one, they dust themselves off and try again." Appleby's first big project was putting together a group of investors to buy the Fort Wayne Wizards baseball franchise. He thought running a minor league team would be relatively easy because of his experience with the Pistons. Instead it took two years to get a staff in place that could build a base of support in the local community. He has made a point of building his own contacts in the sports industry. For the past five years General Sports has hosted the Sports Executive Leadership Conference in Colorado Springs for team owners, top executives and high-ranking representatives of sports sponsors. "We do it primarily to meet great people," Appleby said. He sees similar benefits from General Sports' executive recruiting service that slowly adds to his company's network of personal relationships throughout the industry. After seven years, Appleby believes he has put together a team that will produce great products and service on a really big project. But he no longer expects to find that opportunity around the next corner. "I used to tell my wife when I kissed her goodbye in the morning that this could be the 'big day'," he said. "Now I realize it is never going to be 'the day'. We just have to keep doing good things every day."