Staff up

Karen Rehn's entry into the Florida temporary staffing industry was nearly a short-term job.

The culprit, back in 2009 when Rehn bought HH Staffing, then a construction day-laborer firm in Bradenton, was the recession. It crushed the job market of course, and Rehn, who relocated to the Gulf Coast from Wisconsin to buy HH Staffing, was unsure the firm would survive.
Rehn's salvation was a Florida staple: tourists.

Rehn shrewdly, and quickly, shifted HH Staffing's focus, from construction to hotels and restaurants. Rehn not only found a host of temporary employees, she created an internal training program that schooled workers in everything from how to carry a tray to how to show gratitude. Says Rehn: “There was no one else out there doing that.”