How a Temp Worker Became an Accidental Entrepreneur --- Staffing and Technical-Services Firm Is Founded on Serendipity and One Big Client's Business
INDIANAPOLIS -- Kathy G. Reehling is the accidental entrepreneur, running a $30 million-a-year temporary-staffing and technical-services firm essentially because she keeps saying yes to one very big client.</br></br>Keeping that client, Eli Lilly & Co., the big pharmaceutical concern, happy the past 10 years has been all-consuming for Ms. Reehling and her firm, Crew Corp. But now, with 130 employees and facing her first recession as a boss, Ms. Reehling is being forced to confront her overdependence on Lilly and consider whether the worker-friendly policies that helped build Crew can survive in a downturn.</br></br>About 85% of Crew's revenue today comes from Lilly. "They're an absolutely fabulous customer," Ms. Reehling says, but "Lilly's too big a piece of our business."</br></br>That realization, and the recession, are forcing Ms. Reehling, 42 years old, to attempt to think and act strategically about her business -- as opposed to merely reacting to her dominant customer's needs. The work for Lilly remains strong. But can Ms. Reehling attract other customers to diversify Crew's revenue base? Can she avoid layoffs and thus maintain Crew's high worker-retention rate in an industry plagued by turnover? Should she sell the business to one of the many temporary-services firms looking to merge that come calling?</br></br>Many entrepreneurs come to such a crossroads after a long run of growth. And which road they take can make or break a successful company. It's easier, of course, when the business was actually started with a plan and a vision. Ms. Reehling wasn't thinking of starting a temp business when she went to work for Lilly.