The spirit of entrepreneurship is in Mark Loschiavo’s blood. He’s got the fever and it runs in the family. Originally from Northern Kentucky, Loschiavo’s father owned his own business. “It’s one of those things that gets into your system, in your blood. I didn’t know anything else,” he said. While his classmates’ parents were going to work at GE, Loschiavo said he had no concept of working in a corporate environment. He always knew he wanted to own his own business and be his own boss, “although you are always at the mercy of your customers and stakeholders, but you can decide what they want and how best to meet the market’s needs.”

Loschiavo started his first business while he was still in high school. “I lucked out. I met this guy in Florida who invented machines that automatically cleaned swimming pools. I convinced him to make me the sole distributor in my region,” he said. Loschiavo made lists of affluent people in the greater Cincinnati area where he lived and made house calls. “This was thought of as an extravagance back in ’71 when I started selling them and they were new to the market,” he said. It was a success because he demonstrated how the machines worked by simply dropping them in the pool and letting them clean, and he offered on-site service.
 

From there, Loschiavo went to college and had three goals: to would work outside, never wear a tie and work for himself or in a small company. “I love that lifestyle where you have the freedom to make your own decisions and you’re accountable for your own mistakes,” he said. He graduated in 1977 with a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Kentucky.
 

Some of his original goals didn’t materialize as he envisioned them. Loschiavo frequently wears a tie nearly everyday in his position as Senior Executive and Resident of LeBow College of Business at Drexel and Executive Director of the Laurence A. Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship at Drexel University. He is a successful entrepreneur who mentors and advises others on how to make it.
 

Drexel offers weeklong camps for high school students, workshops and programs for university students and existing entrepreneurs trying to start and grown their businesses, as well as offering academic degree programs. The college sponsors business plan competitions where students can compete to win a spot in the Center’s incubator. The center offers a few select companies the opportunity to learn from the best in a nurturing environment by offering access to industry experts, providing space and infrastructure at the Baiada Center Incubator. Owners get mentoring and advise on how to succeed. “We look for the kind of company that we could help grow to some scale, not just small lifestyle companies,” he said.
 

Although he’s in an office and sometimes wears a tie, Loschiavo’s dream of working for himself did come true. He currently owns a consultant business, First Serve Strategies, where he advises companies on how to revise management strategies to take success to the next level. He also is part owner and sits on the board of a company he co-founded in 1999 that was selected this year as one of the top 100 fastest growing companies in Greater Philadelphia region.

After college, Loschiavo worked for IBM. “At IBM, I found there that even in a very large company, I was allowed to operate with an entrepreneurial mindset. In any good company, as long as you are willing to treat it like it is your company, take responsibility and accept accountability, you will be given tremendous latitude to make decisions,” he said.
 

After 15 years at IBM, Loschiavo resigned and started a joint venture with 11 other people. He said he loved working for himself and the company grew to a billion dollar operation. “Then we were acquired by IBM and I found myself an executive there again,” he said. Loschiavo resigned for the second time to pursue other interests and started working at Drexel.

“I have the best job in the world, and I get so much pleasure from working with budding entrepreneurs,” he said. Any self-owned business is a labor of love, he said, and worth all the work.