Taking bull by the horns, exporter becomes own boss.

Jose Estrada found his future as a small-business owner by chance.

Newly married, Estrada was looking for a job when he was offered a dispatching position for a Chicago meat processor. The native of Mexico took it, using his fluency in Spanish and English to work his way from dispatcher to a sales position for a Hudson, Wis., meat distributor.

After four years, he decided it was time to take a shot at being his own boss. Estrada took the skills he had learned and with help from the Small Business Administration and small-business counselors at SCORE, founded his own business, Estrada Foods Exporting Co. Ltd.

Today, the suburban St. Paul, Minn.-based business is racking up nearly $10 million in annual sales sending U.S.-raised meats to distributors, wholesalers, chain stores and processors, mainly in the fast-growing market of Mexico.

But Estrada, 33, isn't ready to rest on his laurels. His plans for the future include expansion into other North American and foreign markets, including China and Brazil, as well as launching a second business distributing meat directly to consumers in Mexico by 2006.

"I'm proof that risks sometimes pay off," he said with a laugh. "You've got to roll the dice occasionally."

And if it hadn't worked, Estrada admits his backup plan was to go to his former boss and ask for his old job back. "That's it. That is the only backup I had," he said.

So far, Estrada hasn't had to do that nor does he anticipate he ever will. He decided his company was over the hump somewhere in the fourth year when he realized that even if something went wrong, he could make it through.

But that doesn't mean Estrada's journey to small-business success hasn't hit a few bumps in the road.

"It is not an easy business," he said from his small office adorned with trophy fish, model cars and carved wooden mementos. "Every day there is more competition. You have to deal with other countries' importing rules that change constantly. You have to stay on top of problems."

When Estrada, who finished a year and a half of college before dropping out to start working, first thought about going out on his own, he attended seminars offered by the Minnesota office of the SBA on how to start a business and started developing a business plan with SCORE. The nonprofit offers training and counseling as a resource partner to the SBA.

Rita Green, an international trade representative with SCORE, recalled how she helped Estrada, who was honored as SBA Small Business Exporter of the Year in 2001, develop his plan.

"It was really just a matter of showing him what he knew," said Green. "He knew the business inside and out--unlike many people with ideas. Anybody who has the background that he had is going to make it."

When his business plan was finished, Green put Estrada in touch with Nancy Libersky, regional manager of international trade finance programs for the SBA. Initially, Libersky said the program usually doesn't work with startup companies.

"It is very rare to find someone who has the know-how for international trade and a startup business," she said. "But it was apparent he had the business savvy and he had the contacts."

There was little interest from local banks, though, in backing his plans. Eventually, Marquette Bank agreed to back his idea with an $833,000 export working capital loan, which was 90-percent backed by the SBA. With each year, the loan has been re-approved and increased.

Today, the loan--his fifth through the SBA program--is for $1.1 million through Wells Fargo Bank. The interest rate is prime plus 1.25 percent.

"I launched this business with about $10,000 of my own money and the SBA loan," he said. "Without that loan, I wouldn't have done anything."

Estrada started his company in February 1999. To keep his expenses down, he started with an office in his basement and only himself as an employee. He would take orders, pay bills, dispatch trucks to customers and answer phones. By the end of his first year, he had close to $4 million in sales.

"The hardest part for me was having to do everything for myself," he said. "I was used to having people to do stuff for me."

The other adjustment was losing his secure paycheck. "My paycheck wasn't guaranteed now," he said with a laugh. "But I was lucky. I was profitable from the very beginning."

By 2000, sales had climbed to about $8.6 million. By 2004, sales topped $9.4 million and the company, now with four employees, had moved from his basement to leased offices, then to an office condominium in Little Canada, a suburb north of St. Paul.

Today his time is spent making deals over the phone and Internet, visiting customers and traveling to conventions to make further contacts.

"If there is one thing I've learned in working for myself, it is to do things right," he said. "You have to keep on top of problems because problems just get bigger if you let them sit there. I've always cared about my job but not as much as I do when it is my own name and money on the line."

Estrada Foods Exporting Co. Ltd. * www.estradafoodsexportingltd.com * 2578 Rice St., Little Canada, MN 55117 [phone] * Founded: 1999 * Employees: 4 * Revenue: $9.4 million * Principal: Jose Estrada