These are not your typical equipment rentals stories. These are the stories of 10 women who took calculated risks to go boldly where few women had gone before.
These women trashed the conventional wisdom of guidance counselors about career choices and ventured into a testosterone-dominated industry with high hopes and little warning about what lay ahead.
Women made substantial progress in fields such as computer science, politics, public administration and medicine in the 1900s, but not in rentals. The American Rental Association says women fill only 17.3 percent of the management, ownership or partnership positions at its 4,298 member businesses.
There seems to be an invisible barrier preventing most women managers from seeing and reaping the financial rewards proffered in rentals. Could it be the physical requirements of the business? Limited training? Lack of role models? The perceived hostility of male co-workers and customers?
The women RER interviewed say it's all of the above - that social and educational barriers still hinder women from pursuing a career in rentals. But they say that once they hurdled those barriers, working in equipment rentals gave them the freedom to be their own bosses, to live comfortably and to do something they enjoy.
Finding these women was a challenge - there are so few of them, and they are scattered all over the country. Getting them to open up about their career ups and downs interspersed with personal drama was even tougher.
Here are their stories, and here's hoping the search will be easier next time.
THE ONLY ONE
Listening to Bernadette Serrano describe compression ratios is like a crash course in Engineering 101.
"It's a performance level," says Serrano, parts manager for Admar Supply in Rochester, N.Y. "You have a cylinder chamber, [and] the piston will compress the gas and air before the spark plug ignites to make a more voluble mixture so that it will spark, burn hot and force the piston down. While the piston pushes down, it turns the crankshaft, and the crankshaft output is what makes your wheels go. The more compresses from the original space to the burning space, that's called the compression ratio."
Unlike some women (and men) who shun the intricacies of anything mechanical, Serrano loves it.
"I think I'm the only one," she says. "When we have department meetings, I'm the only woman there. It doesn't bother me anymore, but I'm aware of the glass ceiling. Not at work in general, but of women as managers."
Serrano says her position is also financially rewarding -- most parts managers earn about $30,000 a year and entry-level parts clerks start off at $20,000 annually.
Serrano worked in the billing department for years but longed for more rewarding work. So when Admar considered hiring a parts manager a few years ago, she jumped at the opportunity.
"They always talked about having a parts guy," she says. "I thought, 'I can do this job as well as any guy.' I was ready to assume a more challenging position."
Admar president Richard DiMarco Sr. had doubts. "I told her it's a tough job and that she's going to be in the garage with all the mechanics," he says. "She said, 'No problem.' She rolled up her sleeves and got right in. Once she was into it, I saw that she could be a success."
Serrano initially was intimidated by the fleet's large equipment. "The forklifts, the air compressors ... I even had no clue what a piston looked like on a shelf," she recalls. As she spent more time on the job, her confidence and parts knowledge grew. Now she quotes parts numbers, eight to 11 digits long, from memory. "For example, a Multiquip pump cap is 0631112200, and a cylinder and piston for a TS3 cutoff saw by Stihl is 42010201200. It's easier to ask me than look it up in the book."
How do Admar's customers react?
"It's esoteric knowledge, and most men are stunned," Serrano says. She says one customer came into the shop and asked a male worker for a part. "Ed then turned to me because I knew exactly what part he was looking for," she says. "I didn't act smart because I didn't want to embarrass him, but inside I was gloating."
BERNADETTE SERRANO
Parts manager, Admar Supply, Rochester, N.Y.; 40 years old; associate's degree in liberal arts and computer science, Monroe Community College, Rochester; married, two children.
Toughest part about job: Being the boss. Managing is not a comfortable role for me. I'd rather think of us all as a team.
Advice: Absolutely attitude. It's very important to have thirst for knowledge, to be adaptable, switch gears and not to be intimidated.
IN HIGH GEAR
Sherrie Shaw is the "last Chicago cheerleader in rentals." When the industry gets tough to handle, she takes it in stride.
"Why let (negativity) take you down?" asks Shaw, a parts/technical support specialist for Chicago-based Niftylift USA who lives in Levis by day and Armani by night. She gets a kick out of the smell of hydraulic engines and of getting in a 40-foot towable lift and cranking it up.
She is at her best when her customers are in distress.
"I feel like I have people's lives in my hands, so I give them the safest, best information as possible," she says. "A lot of big guys who buy the lifts will not even go up on them. I tell them to just pretend you're on [a ride at] Great America [amusement park]. They're sissies. They buy, they rent, but they won't operate them. I tell them, 'If you don't feel safe, how can you make the customer feel safe?'"
She has managed rock 'n' roll bands, served as a television technical adviser and been a corporate executive. But none of these jobs had the same allure for Shaw as rentals.
When she goes to the salon, Shaw eschews fashion magazines and reads product manuals. Her neighbors have seen her take home a 51-foot towable lift to watch fireworks, work on her tan or repair the chimney.
"I'm really getting into this," she says. "When I'm working and I get a smell of hydraulic engines, it's weird. My mother tells me it's probably something I've always wanted to do."
SHERRIE SHAW
Parts/technical support, Niftylift USA, Chicago; 49 years old; bachelor's degree in education, University of Miami; single, two children.
Accomplishment: I just received my operator's and demonstrations license. It's most important than any other type of education in this industry.
Career plan: Who knows, we're all in the market's hands. We just have to continue to be strong. But I'm a risk taker. I'll be here as long as the ride will take me.
Advice: No matter what your title is, the bottom line is how you treat people. When they purchase something from me and something went foul, I wouldn't walk away.
NO PLAIN VANILLA
Some women in male-dominated industries downplay their femininity. They insist on acting like men and suppressing traits that could propel them to the top. However, some women understand that when they work in a man's world, they can't be plain vanilla.
"Most people in the field enjoy dealing with a woman," says Janis Mueller, rental manager for Michigan Cat's Kalkaska division. "Occasionally you get some degrading SOB that treats you like crap, but for the most part men enjoy talking to a woman. It calms them down, and they enjoy flirting, which naturally occurs. I use my flirtatious personality to joke with the customers, which makes them relax. They enjoy the fact that I remember names, which means they always give me first call."
At age 5, Mueller started wearing a hard hat and work boots and carrying a black lunch box. As she got older, she answered phones and typed letters in her father's excavation business. In high school, she processed payroll, ran parts and drove the company truck.
She was born to be on a construction site. Yet she still had to prove herself before earning a top spot in her father's firm. After college, she worked in the freight forwarding industry in New York. She later moved back home to work with her father as an operations manager.
Mueller worked with her father until 1995, when she lost her parents to cancer. Within a year, she said she was forced out of the business, faced tough legal battles and eventually accepted a job with Michigan Cat to handle rentals for its Kalkaska division.
She says women executives should try to "think like a man" when confronting male colleagues.
"You can't let heated discussions get you personally upset," she says. "State your position clearly, without emotion, and work to resolve the situation. Men have egos, which must be taken into account when dealing with them in this business. You must temper your conversation to keep them comfortable while allowing them to maintain the illusion of control."
Mueller thrives on the daily grind, which entails equipment selection, processing invoices, inventory control, shop management, marketing and then some.
"My job is rewarding but I wouldn't say I'm raking in the dough," she says. "I make a living which allows me to live comfortably. I looked at my salary as a trade off with my piece of mind.
"I love coming to work, but there are days when the phone won't let up, people are at your desk, service is freaking out, and trucks break down. You barely have time to breathe that I wonder why I am in this industry. But that's what makes it fun. There's new challenges [that] test the brain on a daily basis."
JANIS MUELLER
Rental manager, Michigan Cat, Kalkaska division, Kalkaska, Mich.; 37 years old; bachelor's degree in international language and trade, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti; single
How she promotes industry: I go back to the college I graduated from and spend a day or two speaking to the third- and fourth-year classes in management and marketing. I promote the industry, the career paths and the ability for women to move up in the ranks. I encourage the women not to feel pushed out of the business because they are women.
Goals: I'd like to continue with Michigan Cat and get into upper management. The position I am in gives me great exposure to all facets of the business, but I am not ready to apply for the division manager spot yet. If Michigan Cat continues to grow, then I would not be averse to running a new branch in the rental arena. But it's not an option yet.
Source of strength: I don't know how many times I heard, "I want to talk to someone who knows something, not a girl." I learned to confront the issue and was fortunate to have a strong backing from the other managers. I had one guy who refused to deal with me no matter how much I tried to convince him that I was the only person who could help him. My boss got on the phone with him and said, "Listen, if you want to do business with us, you will deal with our experts, male or female."
A PRACTICAL DECISION
Lois Ashbrook took the reins of a rental center because it was the choice that made the most sense. She could have gone back to teaching, but it would have meant taking 18 extra credits. And no jobs were readily available at the time.
So she did what any practical person would do, given the circumstances. Ashbrook started managing a Taylor Rental Center branch, Benton Harbor, Mich., after her husband, Galen Mundwiler, died in 1986. Since opening the branch in 1976, the couple had worked as a team. After his death, she was uncertain about running the center alone, with two kids and $350,000 of debt.
"I was really nervous because he was the accountant and I was the customer service person," Ashbrook says. "But I've done this day in and day out. I knew how to bring the dollars into the door. For the accounting, I can hire an accountant. And if I didn't know how to bring the dollars in, the accountant would have nothing to do."
Ashbrook says sheer guts and "the good Lord's leading" helped her dissolve the company debt. She also reorganized the staff, computerized the store and doubled the store's total volume.
But it wasn't easy. Ashbrook and many other women executives face opposition and discrimination -- clients who ignore them, sexist male customers, employees who refuse to work with them. Such antagonism could explain why few women executives are in equipment rentals, construction and manufacturing.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women managers are more likely to be employed in services, public administration and finance than in construction, manufacturing and equipment rental. One rental manager, one of four women among 14 rental division managers in her company, says the company has no women service managers, parts managers, product specialists or vice presidents.
"That was a challenge, dealing with a chauvinistic mentality from some salespeople," says Ashbrook, who experienced such hostility at a trade show a few years ago.
A salesman asked Ashbrook to bring her husband when she tried to place an order. She was incensed. Instead of exploding, she walked away, came back and told the salesman, "I am the sole owner of my store since my husband passed away. In the future, when a woman places an order with you, don't assume she's placing the order for someone else."
LOIS ASHBROOK
President, Taylor Rental Center, Benton Harbor, Mich.; 55 years old; bachelor's degree in elementary education, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti; remarried, two children
Milestone: In 1988, I was invited to become a member of the now-defunct Taylor Rental Center Presidents Club, which at the time had 80 members. Three were women. It helped me reflect that I had some mileage since my husband's death.
Advice: Be prepared to work extremely long hours. You need a lot of energy to go with it. Have a lot of good common sense and be a good listener. This business revolves around developing trust and relationships with your customers.
A SMART MOVE
Carolyn Entrekin took control of New Orleans-based J-R Equipment after her husband, William Edmondson, died in 1977. The couple opened the center in 1962 with his father, Henry, who died in 1971.
With both male figures gone, Entrekin considered closing shop. But years of hard work, pride and the reality of three young kids to feed kept the store alive.
"I knew that I would stay, but I also knew that I could fail because I was never involved in the decision making," she says. "I didn't know the things that Bill knew."
Entrekin had to earn the employees' trust. Most were loyal to her late husband and resented her, she says.
"When I tried to implement more accountability in the parts and shop area, they were not real receptive. They just boycotted," she says. "They won that battle that time. But that won't happen now because I'm smarter."
Entrekin says her gender never became an issue as a manager. She does rule from the heart, she says, but because that's her personality, not because that's what women managers do.
"I think we can do anything we want if we want it bad enough," she says. "There were bad times, but I've always managed. I did a lot of praying and trusted a lot of people. I wasn't embarrassed to go for help."
CAROLYN ENTREKIN
Owner, J-R Equipment, New Orleans; 62 years old; remarried, three children
Management style: It's hard to be real hard-nosed when you work with people who are like family. We're a close-knit family, and sometimes it's hard to keep that separate. Now I do what's best for the company.
Goals: To keep the company a living, viable corporation. I'm also thinking of going back to school, taking fun classes and spending more time with my grandkids. Turn loose a little.
Advice: It's a man's world. Go in with your eyes open. They don't make any concessions for you, and I don't think you'd want them to.
Next generation?
Stacey Loftis displays a calm confidence that no doubt will help her succeed in equipment rentals. The 22-year-old recent graduate of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill wants to be her father's "right-hand man" at Spring Lake Rent All in Sanford, N.C.
"Rentals is in high demand. It's different and something I haven't done before," Loftis says of her decision to follow in her father's footsteps. "A lot of it has to do with family. With my degree in communications, I would likely be in public relations or working for someone else. Here I have a vested interest. I'd like to be able to run the business if it came down to it."
Loftis says she is fazed by the "horror stories" of young women going into construction sites.
"I heard these stories because I'm a woman and I'm young," she says. "I'm scared to get out and visit the sites because people tell me they're going to walk all over me. But my dad tells me you have to be straightforward and let them know that you mean business."
To help herself on the job, Loftis reads industry magazines, takes business computing classes and solicits the advice of her father, T.K.. But nothing prepared her for it as well as the first two weeks she spent managing the center alone after graduation.
"I had all these people coming in, and I was relied [on] to do the computers, invoices and know all the equipment," she recalls. "I just had a lot of patience. I learned more during that time because I had to learn it."
