Ronald J. Irvine

Ron Irvine is the founder of Irvine Consulting Inc., a Deerfield, Chicago based marketing consulting firm.

In 1987, Irvine was the director of market planning and research at G.D. Searle, a pharmaceutical company. It was a comfortable position in the corporate hierarchy with a good salary, but offered little room for further advancement.

"As a young African-American director, I didn't see a lot of steps ahead of me," he told Money Magazine. "I decided to set my own sails."

"The corporate climate was changing," Irvine told Black Enterprise Magazine. "Since I was already director of market planning and research, I didn't envision making a lot of moves beyond where l was."

So in 1987 Irvine started his consulting business, and within four years he had seven employees and revenue of $2.3 million.

 "I used to hire consultants," he said. "I had rewritten enough of their reports to know that there were people out there making a living doing this who weren't doing it as well as I could."

Irvine started with a working budget of $40,000, after refinancing the mortgage on his home. Spending $5,000 on office equipment and the rest for living and business expenses.