Debra Magnuson’s work is not for the faint-of-heart. She’s the owner of Exterra Drilling Company, and it’s a tough business that she’s grown to love.  Together, she and her husband deliver the earth’s most vital resource: water.

The couple operates two drills, and she provides water for clients on a planned schedule. But emergencies come up too, and Magnuson is always ready. “I’ve gone out in the middle of the night with a flashlight, looking for the source of a water problem,” Magnuson said with a chuckle. 

That is no surprise.  Magnuson has American spunk that sees her through the rough-and-tumble road of running a small business.  When she opted to start a company, it was a surreal experience.  “I went into the bank and they laughed,” she quips.
  Undaunted, she found a private investor, and ever since the business has spread by word of mouth; Exterra’s fantastic customer service consistently earns good references.  Magnuson is a businesswoman with a heart, and she sometimes provides free labor to people who can’t afford to pay for it. 
 Her background prepared her well, instilling strong discipline, common sense, and a healthy team spirit.  Magnuson never was a shrinking violet; at the tender age of eighteen she joined the Marines, working at the Camp Lejune base in North Carolina.  “I had a ball!” she remembers.  Believe it or not, she was involved with a grooming class on her base, bringing her unique charm—complete with “green eye shadow and red lipstick: Camp Lejune colors!”—to life on the base.  
She’s seen a lot, and today Magnuson is blunt in her assessment of modern life.  “I enjoy working, but I don’t see that work ethic today.”  She is critical of the administration, saying “it’s a scary deal running a small business with the way the country’s being run.”  She is opposed to the recent health care bill and worried about increased costs to the small business owners, citing bonds for unemployment insurance and employers’ taxes. “It scares the hell out of me. If government is gonna force businesses, it’s going to put people out of business,” Magnuson said. She expresses a general frustration with the health care bill and with health care in the United States.  “One sick individual and they raise the rates,” she said.  Magnuson believes instead in eliminating frivolous lawsuits, which she believes contributes to the high health care insurance costs.  Her words of advice: “You get outta life what you put into it. I went into everything as an adventure, learning and getting as much as I could out of every experience.  And I have fun doing it.”