Joe Piper Inc.

Ann Piper says being a woman business owner is an advantage in the paper industry.

"A woman in this business is a rare thing," says the owner and president of Joe Piper Inc. in Birmingham. "Because I am different, people remember me."

Piper says her business is somewhat unusual in and of itself, though. Joe Piper Inc. is an outlet for paperboard used to make such items as folding fast-food and bakery cartons.

Piper says she has never had a chip on her shoulder about not having the same advantages as men in the industry because she has not experienced discrimination.

"I've felt like I always got the same consideration as anyone else," she says.

For Piper, being a woman in business isn't any different than merely "being in business."

Her late father, Joe Piper, founded the company in 1968 when he discovered a need for paperboard distributors while working for a manufacturing company as a representative, she says.

"A customer he was selling to asked if he could get inexpensive paperboard for trouser guards for wire hangers," Piper recalls. "He made some calls and found that product from a converter who made milk and juice cartons.

"Dad realized the need to offer this kind of product. So he started his own warehouse distribution - and the rest...