From Unemployed to Entrepreneur

In late 2013, I lost my job. Up until this point, I have not shared that with many people. I won’t go into the details of how it happened, but, I strongly believe that it enabled me to think long and hard about what I wanted to do with my career.

I knew that I could probably find a job in advertising as I had years of experience behind me. What I wasn’t sure of was – did I really want to do that? I had this constant feeling in my gut that I needed to do something meaningful. That I wanted the next step of my journey to have a great impact. But, what was it?

I thought about what I liked most about my past jobs and how I could use my strengths to help others. Then, out of the blue, it hit me. I had spent most of the past fifteen years working with employers on their quest to find the right people to fill open positions. In addition, I interacted with people looking for work and understood, firsthand, their desire to find a job and how important it was.

So, how could I help both employers and job seekers? I knew that newspapers were no longer the number one resource for jobs with the introduction of the internet many years earlier. I knew that the major online job websites were national ones that did not focus on local communities. What was missing?

The answer was a local solution to help Bucks County residents find jobs. Because where do most people want to work – close to home. In turn, employers needed to find qualified local employees. What did I really like about this? I was helping. Helping other people find a job that would enable them to support themselves or their family. It was the answer that would create peace of mind for them when it came to figuring out how they would afford the simple things we all need like food, clothing and shelter. Or maybe it was how someone was going to be able to buy a car or their first home. With employers, I would be helping them get what they needed – people that were qualified to work for them that lived locally.

It was an “aha” moment that turned me hard and fast into an entrepreneur. In a matter of two months, I had a business plan, company name, marketing materials and launched a website with the right technology to get people better matched with jobs. I reached out to employers that I had a relationship with first and then started letting people in the community know that they could find jobs with a new resource, RecruitmentQueen.com.
I have spent the past year buzzing around Bucks County at malls, colleges, networking events and hosting job fairs to let as many people know as we can that we are here to help.

I can’t say it hasn’t been hard transitioning from the corporate world to being a small business owner. In fact, it has been hard. But, it also has been very exciting seeing everything work out and people discover who RecruitmentQueen is.

I used all of my own money to fund the business and took a huge risk at becoming an entrepreneur. There have been times this past year when I have wanted to quit. There are times when I thought maybe I should go back to working for someone else. But, I don’t want to quit. I know that there are too many people without jobs and I know I love helping them find one.

Along the way, I have been surprised by the many people who have believed in what I am doing. Others have offered to help without anything in return.

We were honored to be nominated in our first year in the Lower Bucks County Chamber of Commerce “Champions of Commerce” program in two categories – Workforce Investment & Entrepreneur. It has been amazing that so many people are so supportive. I can’t wait to see what our second year brings for our goal to help get Bucks County back to work.

In fact recently, I was nominated for the 2015 Bucks Happening List under the category of Entrepreneur. While I may not win the title, it again has been wonderful that people are seeing what I am trying to do and positively reacting to it. I look forward to watching our company grow so that we will be able to create opportunities in Bucks County by adding more jobs within our own organization.

If you’d like to support RecruitmentQueen and vote for me, go to http://bit.ly/votejenniferschultz. Thank you for your support.