Like Mom, Like Sons

Like Mom, Like Sons

ENTRPRENEUR by Janet Leiser | Senior Editor

There'll be no extended vacations to re-charge for entrepreneur Pamela Kauten, who sold Florida CareerLINK.com last month to a New York company.

Kauten, 48, who built the Tampa Bay area site to more than $1 million in revenue over the past 10 years, plans to start a new dot-com venture with sons, Nick, 26, and Adam, 23.

But she's remaining mum about the project, proposed by her youngest son, until July 1, when she unveils the site.

The past six months were hectic for Kauten as buyer Eric Straus of Poughkeepsie, N.Y.-based RegionalHelpWanted.com completed the due diligence process.

"It was extremely difficult and stressful," says Kauten, who wasn't looking for a suitor even though a sale was always part of her exit strategy.

"You have to still manage the company while you're going through the process," she says. "You have to keep your eye on the ball."

What made the process even more difficult was that Kauten couldn't tell her seven employees about the sale until it was imminent.

Kauten's employees, who were with her for more than five years, were guaranteed a bonus when she sold the business, she says. And she plans to rehire the four employees not hired by Straus.

Kauten (profiled in the April 7, 2006 Review) declined to discuss what Straus paid for Florida CareerLINK's assets. The company's primary competitors are the daily newspapers in the area, including the St. Petersburg Times, which recently teamed up with Monster.com.

RegionalHelpWanted.com, founded in 1999, claims it's one of the five largest employment destinations on the Web. It was named one of Entrepreneur Magazine's top 100 fastest growing companies in 2004. It has job boards in 321 markets in the United States and Canada.

Kauten still owns Peak Connections Inc., the parent company that operated Florida CareerLINK. She proudly points out it's one of the few that survived the 2001 dot-com bust.

"My job, I felt, was to bring quality candidates into our community for the employers that were struggling," Kauten says. "I felt my Web site was the vehicle to do that."

She attributes her success to tenacity, persistence and passion for the community.

As for the new venture, she says her son, Adam, came up with the idea months ago. She promised to help once Florida CareerLINK, located in Clearwater, was sold.

She plans to support her sons in the venture, overseeing them as they make it happen, she says, adding, "I want them to experience being an entrepreneur and learn from my mistakes."

Kauten, whose husband and mentor, Neil N. Kauten, died in 2002, says one of the hardest parts of running a small company is paying for growth.

"It gave me great pleasure when I sold the company and now banks are trying to get my business," she says. "Before they wouldn't give me the loans. You have no idea what I had to go through."

She's not talking about startup capital.

The company had a proven track record when she tried to get a loan three years ago, she says.

"It just baffled me," Kauten says. "The female branch manager told me, 'I know some day they're going to fight over you for your business.' Entrepreneurs are struggling every day to make ends meet and the only way to be successful, to hire more people, is to get a loan."

She says she has made sure that the proceeds from the recent sale are in a bank that plans to be helpful when she needs money again.