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With unemployment high statewide, Karen Rehn, who runs a staffing and job placement business, is an odd candidate to report sales growth of 200% over the past 18 months.
But Rehn has done just that with Bradenton-based HH Staffing. After an overhaul of the business model, revenues have grown 200% since 2009, even in the face of double-digit unemployment. The firm's total annual revenues are less than $5 million.
“There are jobs out there,” says Rehn, despite the daily barrage of news that says otherwise. “They are not coming all at the same time, but they didn't all go down at the same time, either.”
Rehn bought the firm, then called Helping Hands Staffing Services, in 2009. She had been in the job placement business for 10 years in her native Wisconsin and sought two new dynamics in her life: An ability to have more control than the stock market provides for her retirement savings and warmer weather.
The firm, founded in 1988, mostly provided day laborers for the construction industry before Rehn bought it.
But Rehn didn't believe that model was a sound long-term strategy. So she set up four divisions for the revamped HH Staffing. One is light industrial, which was her specialty in Wisconsin. The three other divisions are hospitality, professional-clerical, and property management/maintenance.
Rehn also grew the business geographically. She opened an office in Clearwater last year and plans to expand to Orlando later this year.
Finally, Rehn redid the firm's website. It's an employment-services portal, with daily tips on everything from cover letters to interview dos and don'ts. Says Rehn: “We've done some remarkable things.”
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