Women to Watch slideshow<\/a> — are inspiring, and their business savvy is impressive. Read about how they followed their passions, then go follow your own.<\/p>\nShelly Sun, Founder and CEO BrightStar Care<\/h2>\n
Shelly Sun and her husband, J.D., struggled to find good healthcare professionals with whom to entrust J.D.\u2019s aging grandmother. The couple lived in Illinois, while \u201cGrandma Pat\u201d lived in Florida. The distance made it especially difficult to determine what services she would need, as well as the best providers, level of care and cost.<\/p>\n
That experience led to the blueprint of BrightStar Care, which the Suns launched in 2002 in Lake County, Ill. The company provides a variety of home-healthcare and medical-staffing services. Initially, Shelly spent a great deal of time interviewing caregivers, healthcare professionals and even competitors to find out how the company could differentiate itself from others in the space and gain prominence among potential referral sources. Soon she saw they had tapped into a need. Within three years, BrightStar opened additional locations in Chicago and McHenry County, Ill.<\/p>\n
Around that time, Shelly\u2019s mother-in-law, who was investing in two hotel franchises, asked Shelly to accompany her to a training session for new owners and managers. Shelly came away with the idea that BrightStar could work as a franchise, expanding much more quickly than if the Suns were opening new locations on their own. They had thoroughly documented each process as they opened and ran their McHenry and Chicago locations, giving them a head start in ensuring that the business model could be replicated. They sold their first franchise location in late 2005.<\/p>\n
From there, it was a wild ride. Revenue grew to $25 million by 2007 and doubled the following year. \u201cWe had these periods of time —\u00a02008, 2010 —\u00a0where literally every year or two years, we were doubling revenue,\u201d Shelly says. \u201cIt was just tiger-by-the-tail craziness.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, expenses continued to grow. In addition, she says, employee turnover was high in such a fast-paced growth environment. So she began to spend more on salaries to hire people who could grow with the company and also contribute to that growth.<\/p>\n
Shelly estimates that today she spends about 20 percent of her time mentoring other business owners, helping them develop franchise concepts. She also invested roughly $100,000 in self-publishing a book,Grow Smart, Risk Less,<\/em> tapping both her own experience in forming a business and her background as a CPA to help teach business owners how to grow their companies with less risk.<\/p>\n\u201cIt was kind of my investment back into other entrepreneurs,\u201d she says, \u201cso they could potentially enjoy the same path and be well-educated.\u201d<\/p>\n