New focus

Michael Corley was content working 70-hour weeks to help build Progressive Employer Services into one of the largest employee-leasing firms in Florida.

Then, in 2009, Corley lost his job during a corporate restructuring of the Bradenton-based firm, a professional employer organization that had nearly $50 million in revenues in 2007. The job loss hurt Corley, both from a psyche standpoint and his wallet. “It was very painful,” says Corley. “It was a tough time.”

But Corley rebounded rather quickly, to a field he first thought was the butt end of a joke: being a business consultant. “You don't have a job,” quips Corley, “so you go consult for others.”