Her venture proved to be a rah deal.

• Position: Gwen Sykes-Holtsclaw's Cheer Ltd.

Her venture proved to be a rah deal

One of these days, Gwen Sykes-Holtsclaw says, her mother wants her to get a real job. But as long as her cheerleading business brings in annual revenues topping $800,000 with a 37 percent gross profit, this Fayetteville entrepreneur won't be taking any flying leaps.

"I never would have believed that business could be so fun," says Sykes-Holtsclaw, a cheerleader from junior high to college. What's both fun and profitable for her company, Cheer Ltd., is training people who train cheerleaders.

After heading up special projects at Methodist College for 10 years and running a cheerleading camp for 18, Sykes-Holtsclaw, 44, decided that coaches might like a pep rally of their own. So she organized a North Carolina coaches' clinic in '81, added South Carolina in '82 and by '84 had launched the National Cheerleading Coaches Conference.

It proved to be a winning venture. The first year, when 70 coaches showed up, she cleared $1,000 on her $6,000 investment. And after that, things just kept getting better: "Most of the costs remain fixed," she says. "Once the instructors were paid, the profit margin could only increase because attendance increased every year."

Nowadays, the NCCC puts pep into 3,500 high-school and college coaches from 41 states and three Canadian provinces, providing instruction in safety, choreography and elocution. Much of that growth was fueled by a deal she struck in 1988 with a Canadian investor and a Boston cheerleading coach. As the company grew, they brought in a local businessman, Tim Holtsclaw, as general manager. Last year, Tim and Gwen entered into an unlimited form of partnership: marriage.

With $95,000 in start-up capital, the company branched out into cheerleading competitions and specialized merchandise, such as T-shirts sporting sayings like "Cheerleaders do it in the rah!"

1989 saw revenues of $849,000, and other investors bought out the Canadian. Sykes-Holtsclaw predicts her six employees will generate more than $1 million in sales this year. If those digits continue to flip over, her mom had better brush up on her own cartwheels.

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