"I grew up in a family business, so I always knew I'd work for myself, controlling my own destiny and being my own boss," said Anderson, who founded Capstone Brokerage Inc. in 1997. The company is a risk management and insurance brokerage that specializes in workplace safety programs, workers' compensation, property and casualty insurance and employee benefits. "When you work for someone else you get paid what they think you're worth, but (as a business owner) you're making how much money you want to make and you get paid what you're worth."

The South Dakota native, who studied economics in his home state before transferring to UNLV in 1992 to study business management, has always had a head for business and made a serendipitous foray into the insurance field, a move that wound up shaping his career aspirations.

"I kind of just stumbled into it," Anderson said. "In 1994, I needed a part-time job in college to make money, and I ran across an ad for a company looking for independent business owners wanting to sell life insurance and financial services products. Then I ended up gravitating into the group market, which identified a large need for benefits brokers, so I incorporated in 1997."

Like many small-business owners, Anderson initially struggled to get the company afloat.

"It was tough and I boot-strapped it," he said of Capstone's genesis. "I was 23 or 24 years old and living on some guy's couch and just dug in for the long haul and tried to make it. It was definitely a hard start, and you've got to just keep reinvesting every extra nickel into the business until you get going."

By taking out 35 percent-interest signature loans, racking up credit card debt and "borrowing from Peter to pay Paul," Anderson did indeed get Capstone up and running, although he admitted it took about three years of perseverance until he was firmly on his feet.

Upon launching the business, which originally offered employee benefits, Anderson hired a part-time employee, who took home a paycheck before he did, eventually bringing the employee on full-time. He leased a 1,000-square-foot office suite on West Reno Avenue, which he expanded over the years to 3,000 square feet by knocking some walls down, and gradually added more staff.

In November 2004, Capstone expanded into property and casualty and workers' compensation, and hit paydirt, having grown revenue 125 percent since then — with year-over-year revenue growth of 100 percent for the past three years — according to Anderson, and staffing up to its current workforce of 16 employees.

The company also recently signed a five-year, $600,000 lease on new 5,000-square-foot office digs on South Jones Boulevard and is gearing up for a hiring spree.

"I think we'll have 25 to 30 employees by the end of 2007 — that's why we're doing the move," Anderson said, adding that the new location has 35,000 square feet of additional space to accommodate future expansion, which includes services that will complement the company's current offerings. "For my long-term growth plans we want to be able to diversify our business and provide all lines of products for clients."

These clients include Oak Creek Lawn & Landscape, which has 18 employees and is owned by Michelle Bennion, who has been a Capstone client for two years.

"They provide my health insurance and my general liability insurance and my workers' comp," said Bennion, adding that she connected with Capstone by chance. "They just happened to cold-call at the right time when I was frustrated with my current broker, (which was) not timely in their responses, and my rates kept going up and they didn't really care. Capstone is very responsive to my phone calls and my needs. I feel like they care about me and my company — that I'm not just another customer. They were also able to find me vendors that were significantly less."

Anderson — who also owns Healthline Insurance Inc., a Web-based company that helps individuals find affordable health insurance, and Capstone Financial Strategies Inc., a financial services company specializing in financial planning, pension plans, and estate and business planning — said the major challenges he faces as a small-business owner include employee recruitment and raising enough capital to stay ahead of the game.

"I have used outside consultants and that has been very successful at raising money," he said. "I just bought a competitor out this year — a $4 million commercial property and casualty company — and our goal is to be one of the largest brokerage firms not only in Nevada. We have expansion ambitions for California and Arizona over the next five years. It's just a money issue."

Anderson, a member of the Las Vegas chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), was recently selected as one of only 60 applicants in the world to participate in the prestigious "Birthing of Giants" entrepreneur program that is jointly hosted by the MIT Enterprise Forum Inc. and EO. The faculty consists of the best entrepreneurial professors from Boston's leading universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard and Babson. This three-year program is open to entrepreneurs under age 40 who are founders and lead companies with gross revenues of at least $1 million.

"I was kind of surprised I got accepted for the program, which starts in June," said Anderson, who attributes his company's success largely to the partnership he has with his employees.

"I come from a family business so I treat employees the way I would treat family," he said. "I empower my leadership team in my organization to build the company and I get out of their way. I look for good people and create an environment for them to excel."

As a successful business owner, he had some advice to offer other entrepreneurs.

"Be tenacious, never quit, pay your dues and put your time in and eventually it will come," he said. "I power through when it gets hard and definitely embrace change. Every business is a constantly changing environment and if you can't adapt you're going to fail. You get hit with a new curve every day — the industry changes, products and product cycles change, employees change — and you have to become a master of change. One of our keys to success is we're constantly looking for better ways to do things before the change hits. We try to be proactive rather than reactive to change."