T. S. Eliot once said, “Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”
Elaine Sustar fits that description. She’s come a long way since 1997, when she took the helm of the Twinsburg trucking company, Sustar Distribution Systems, and the distribution and warehousing company called Pros (formerly Executive Logistics Association).
Sustar started working at the company more than 12 years ago in planning and development, and later married its owner, Jerry Sustar.
“As the business grew, it had some serious growing pains,” she recalls.
When the Sustars’ marriage ended in divorce, Jerry Sustar moved out of state, leaving Sustar in charge of the struggling businesses. She says her defining moment came on the “best and worst day” of her business career.
“The bank wanted to foreclose,” she recalls. “So, I pulled everybody in — the owner/operators, vendors and the employees — and told them the situation. I told them, ‘I don’t know if we’ll be allowed to stay in business.'”
While the accountants, financial advisers and attorneys were telling her she should file for bankruptcy, her employees, landlord, vendors and subcontractors were telling her they would work with her to keep the business afloat.
“I asked the employees if they thought we could make it,” Sustar says. “They said, ‘If we can’t get a paycheck or whatever we need to do, we don’t want to leave. We want to work for you.’
“At the time I didn’t know if I could handle this business or not. I had to stand up to a lot of expert people and get rid of those that didn’t believe in us and move on until somebody would listen and help us succeed.”
She didn’t tell her family how bad things really were because she didn’t want to worry her mother. When her stepfather called to let her know she could stay with them if she needed to sell her home, she realized things weren’t so bad.
“When I honestly thought about it, that was the worst thing that could’ve happened,” she says. “I realized I had all of these people who really cared and were helping the business succeed and making sure that Elaine was all right. Even though they couldn’t help financially, that’s the best anybody could hope for in a lifetime.”
Determined to make it work, Sustar was “brutally honest” with everyone the company owed money to. Within a few months, the turnaround was obvious. The company never missed a payroll and has since triumphed over its debts.
Sustar says she decided to take the company forward for its people — not for financial reasons.
“Some of the people here have gone to a multitude of other places and they felt they had found the place where they wanted to stay until retirement,” she says. “To have that much support from the people working here, I felt I couldn’t do anything else.”
Sustar has faced many challenges over the past few years but being a woman in a field predominately run by men isn’t one of them.
“I don’t think you should separate yourself as a woman in business,” she says. “The business is here to make money but you can be here for a better purpose and the money will follow. Everybody has something they have to get past, but being a woman is a privilege.”
Making the best of every day is her rule.
“You have a choice when you wake up in the morning,” she says. “You decide if you’re going to look at everything from a positive or negative standpoint.
“This could’ve been a tremendous tragedy and a very negative thing but it turned me into a positive person and opened my eyes to how many good people are out there.”
She says she would rather be known as a good human being than as a successful business owner. She values having balance with family and friends along with running two businesses.
“The most important thing about being in business is to remember that you’re in business to have a life,” she says. “This is not your life — it’s a part of what you do every day, but if it was all gone, whatever you have left of those relationships is all you’re going to take with you.” How to reach: Sustar Distribution Systems, (330) 963-0700
