Steve Enger turned his love for rock climbing into a rigging business that he expects will do $3 million in business this year. Photo by ISAAC BREKKEN/REVIEW-JOURNAL Steve Enger Age: 33 Occupation: Founder and president, Rigging Technologies Quotable: "If you're blending work with your hobby, you need boundaries where you stop working and start recreating. Otherwise, you can pollute both sides."

A decade ago, Steve Enger was living out of a van, taking odd jobs at ski resorts to subsidize his full-time rock-climbing and snowboarding habits.

But Enger quickly found a professional venue for his climbing skills: rigging, the cable-and-truss structures used in entertainment productions to hang and fly in scenery, audio-visual equipment and even people. Five years ago, Enger opened Rigging Technologies in Las Vegas with two partners, Simon Peck and Dan Kruleski; today, the company has 16 employees and rigs more than 40 shows each year and is Southern Nevada's biggest rigging company. Enger, who handles sales, rigging design and installation for the company, said he expects Rigging Technologies will do $3 million in business this year. Among its productions: the MTV Music Awards, the Daytime Emmy Awards and the Detroit, Chicago and New York auto shows.

Later this month, Rigging Technologies will undertake its largest show ever -- the General Motors dealer meeting unveiling new company cars at the Sands Expo and Convention Center. The show, which will have as much rigging as 15 rock concerts, will include three to four miles of trusses and more than 1,000 chain hoists to lift trusses and sound and lighting equipment.

Question: How did you get into rigging?

Answer: I got into the industry through rock climbing. To make the shows and events in Las Vegas happen, people need to climb into the ceilings to make rope and rigging attachments. Las Vegas has a really good rock-climbing area that draws climbers from all over the world.

Climbing in entertainment venues is pretty similar to climbing outside, so venues employ a lot of rock climbers.

Question: How did you go from living in a van and rock-climbing all day to owning a business?

Answer: I started working in Las Vegas as a freelancer for a California company, doing big productions around the world, like Miss Universe. I came back to Las Vegas and saw the industry leaders here weren't doing it to that caliber. It was really hard to be on a job site where I felt unsafe, so I looked around and saw there wasn't a production-rigging company here that offered full-service structural design and rope access.

So that's how Rigging Technologies started -- as a means to an end to create an environment I would enjoy working in.

Question: What was the company's first big show?

Answer: A Honda motorcycle dealer show in Chicago was the first job I drafted on computer and led from start to finish. It was great -- like putting on a glove that fits. I always daydreamed about the things I'd do if I were the boss. At a lot of companies, the negativity runs wild.

One person gets riled up and then the whole crew does. Being the leader allows me to create an energy flow that is positive and solution-based.

Question: A lot of people feel the way you did 10 years ago: They want a career that is rewarding personally and financially, but they don't fit the standard corporate mold. How should companies accommodate those workers?

Answer: By using an entrepreneurial setting in their business, where everybody is an entrepreneur in charge of their own department and in charge of themselves. When you have a freedom-based company, you have more trust. But you need to hire self-motivated people. The goal shouldn't be financial freedom first -- it should be spiritual freedom and family freedom. Financial freedom comes as an overflow of being successful as a person inside and outside.

So many people are successful financially outside, but inside they're empty. So is their company, and that's not sustainable.

Question: What are the most interesting jobs for you to work?

Answer: Shows are getting bigger and heavier. Corporations want to keep their clients stimulated at these shows and just having light and sound doesn't do it anymore. You've got to fly your CEO in on a cable, or fly them in sitting in a new prototype car.

Flying human beings around is definitely the most interesting. It's very stressful, because you have something priceless on that cable.

It's scary, but it's also rewarding. When a CEO comes flying onto the stage and people clap, it's fun just being a part of the entertainment.

Question: Have you ever dropped anything?

Answer: Maybe a shackle or something small, but nothing major.

Question: How much of an expense is insurance for you?

Answer: It's huge. After 9-11, everybody's insurance went up. Then there were a few big accidents in the industry that made our insurance go up more, even though our slate is clean.

The cost of insurance depends on how much work we do.

Right now, it's floating at around $100,000 a year, compared to about $10,000 five years ago.

Question: How do you absorb an expense that is rising so quickly?

Answer: We charge the client more money. A lot of them think it's too much. Our competitors know how to rig, but they don't have insurance. They just tell a company, "Get the gear wherever you can and I'll rig your show."

Question: How do you show companies the value they get for the higher price you charge?

Answer: Getting your foot in the door is the big thing. You have to be flexible. Maybe you bring your wage down $5 or $10 an hour and tell the company, "We're doing this to show you we can save you money, but the next job you hire us for will be at the standard rate." The producers who see it's worthwhile will know our guys are going to put tape all over the floor and mirror the whole show before hanging it.

It will be perfect and they won't have to worry. They see we'll actually save them money in the long run.

We don't just take control of the structure and make sure it's safe -- we organize the show to load in and out of the building efficiently. The venues here charge $700 a day for a local (stagehand).

When you have 50 of them on site and you forget to order something, you slow it down and waste four or five hours. That's a pretty penny the production has to absorb. So we help them manage their labor budgets as well.

Question: How do you market Rigging Technologies?

Answer: It's really hard to market. In our industry, it's not what you advertise, it's who you know. It's by word-of-mouth that you keep working, and you're only as good as your last show. Every time you save the day, you have producers and technical directors who all go off and do other shows.

They enjoyed working with you so much that the next thing you know, out of that one show you get three more shows, and then out of those shows you get three more.

Question: What was the biggest mistake you made when starting your business?

Answer: Starting with no business plan. The business plan was to become successful. We didn't need to write it down. Now we have a business plan, it's written down and there are goals. Not starting a business traditionally enough could be a problem, but it hasn't held us back to this point.

Right after we opened, 9-11 happened, and the whole industry took a huge hit. Everybody with huge overhead went out of business. We had no overhead, so maybe it was good that we didn't have a business plan that we borrowed a lot of money on to make work. Everything happens for a reason. But the next business we open will definitely be by the book.

Question: What are your plans for expanding Rigging Technologies?

Answer: We just opened a new division called Rope Access, which we're using to move into construction. We're helping construction companies get to high angles safely. We'll provide the safety supervisors and the systems to get them there. For example, the new bridge over Hoover Dam will have hundreds of guys working on ropes. We hope to train all of them. We also send guys to offshore oil rigs as safety supervisors, and we just sent some people to Dubai to teach rope-access classes for construction companies. We've expanded our production rigging into structural design -- we won't just rig your show, we'll design it on AutoCAD (drafting software) and do the mathematics to ensure a safe show.

There are lots of rope-access companies and production-rigging companies in the United States, but I believe we're the first to do both.

Question: What is your advice to people who want to form a career out of their hobby?

Answer: It's a thin line starting a business with your hobby. I started rock-climb-guiding people at one point, and it began to ruin rock climbing for me. I found myself in beautiful situations baby-sitting people who shouldn't really have been there. When I was able to take my climbing skills and put them in an industrial setting, that worked well. If you're blending work with your hobby, you need boundaries where you stop working and start recreating. Otherwise, you can pollute both sides.

You should also study a business before getting into it. Take a class, and make sure a traditional college education is a vehicle to take you somewhere. Test yourself to see if you have the credentials. But the main thing is, don't lose your dream and don't stop creating new dreams.