When Tom Simas goes to work, he has Donald Trump looking over his shoulder.

"Remember," advises The Donald, "always keep moving forward."

No, this isn't a local version of "The Apprentice." Simas keeps a talking Trump doll on a shelf in his office.

"He's my motivator," laughs Simas, CEO of a Corvallis-based process improvement software developer called Statit, after its lead product.

Simas doesn't seem the sort to need much external motivation. This is his second stint at the helm of the company, formerly known as Statware, and he's clearly enjoying himself.

"I like being in charge, and I'm not shy about saying that," he confesses.

Simas took the chief executive's reins from founder Steve Fullerton in 1993 and led the enterprise for eight years. In 2001 Statware was sold to one of its clients, Electroglas, a San Jose-based maker of test and measurement equipment for the semiconductor industry, in a cash and stock deal valued at about $3.4 million.

Most of the employees stayed on with the new company, which had opened a Corvallis office at the Airport Industrial Park. But for Simas, it just wasn't the same.

"When you first think about selling to a public company, you have all these romantic ideas about (what will happen), and that's not always the case," Simas says today.

As part of the deal, Simas agreed to work for Electroglas during the transitional period while Statware's programs were being customized for optimum performance in semiconductor quality control applications.

But something was nagging at Simas. The company he had done so much to shape had served other clients besides Electroglas, and he felt an obligation to continue supporting those accounts. What's more, he knew in his gut that Statware could still be a viable enterprise in its own right - and after all those years of being his own boss, it was tough working for someone else's company.

So after a year with Electroglas, Simas approached his new employer about buying his old company back.

He would agree not to compete in the same market space and would pay off the deal with royalties on the reconstituted software company's transactions. It took some convincing, but in September 2003 Simas had his business back, now renamed Statit.

Just as important, he had the core of the old Statware crew with him.

"Why we've been successful in the three short years we've been in business as Statit is that key people from Statware made the move with me," Simas said. "Everyone I needed to come over came over with me."

To sweeten the deal, Simas offered each of those six people an equity position in Statit. That way, he figured, they would share his motivation to make the new company work.

"If it went well, I made it clear that they would do well, but if it didn't, obviously, that equity position wouldn't mean much to them," Simas said. "It was sweat equity - let's call it that."

Today the company has 15 employees, and Simas said he has about a year to go to complete the buyback.

Simas and his crew of ex-Statware employees began the relaunch by signing support contracts with about 20 of their former customers. Then they set about landing new ones.

"Things started to take off for us," Simas said. "Now we have several hundred (accounts.)"

Many of those are manufacturing customers, Statit's traditional user base. But many are also in the health-care field, where Simas believes the company's greatest growth potential may lie. With more than 100,000 deaths a year from accidents, adverse reactions and other preventable causes, Simas said, U.S. hospitals represent an ideal - and largely untapped - market for Statit's process improvement tools.

"There are a lot of very bad things that can happen to us when we go in hospitals," Simas said. "Health care is a $1.5 trillion business, and it's growing. And we're all getting older, so it's going to keep growing."

Statit applications are already being used for quality improvement by everyone from small regional hospital operators such as Samaritan Health Services and PeaceHealth to major national players such as Hospital Corp. of America, the nation's largest.

Justin Craig, an assistant professor of entrepreneurship at Oregon State University, said it's not surprising that a onetime chief executive of a small software company would chafe as an employee in the corporate setting.

"It's hard to put these guys in a meeting when they're not sitting at the head of the table," Craig said.

Selling the company is frequently the goal for entrepreneurs. It allows them to cash in on their years of toil while providing a return to the investors who helped them get off the ground. But, Craig added, the big payday is often followed by a feeling that might be called "founder's remorse" - a sense of regret at turning their brainchild over to someone else who wasn't involved in its creation.

"You've got a real strong psychological bond to the company. You can't put a money figure on it," Craig said.

"I think it's to do with the vision these guys have - they see things others don't, these entrepreneurs. It could be also to do with their motivation and their needs that aren't fulfilled by just putting money in the bank."

Whatever the reason, Simas clearly relishes being in control of his own destiny again. And he seems to have taken to heart the Donald Trump doll's advice about always moving forward.

"I like the urgency of things. I don't like being involved with a company that thinks things can be done tomorrow or the next day. Forget about tomorrow," Simas said.

"I want some success every day. I don't care if it's a sale or a new product or a press release with a customer - I want something tangible that I can feel like I've accomplished every day."

Bennett Hall is the business editor for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.