Work Like A Dog Business owners who break a sweat

Robin Knepp works hard, worries harder and looks forward to the day when the result is a bigger company.

Knepp, 35, is the owner of All About Dogs, an 11-employee canine training and day-care provider she founded six years ago in Woodbridge, Virginia. Knepp wears many hats, including former Marine, dog lover, trainer, manager and entrepreneur. Now she has a new one: Hard Worker, one of five entrepreneurial types defined in a national study performed by Yankelovich Partners for Pitney Bowes Inc. Members of this group, which represents 20 percent of entrepreneurs, are characterized by their willingness to sweat the details to build bigger businesses.

Knepp, who was nominated by Pitney Bowes as an exemplary Hard Worker, acknowledges fitting the profile. "I probably would have classified myself as a hard worker before I even finished the test," she says.