Road To Seven

“The human side of your team and business can sometimes be the hardest to manage.”—  Shelagh CumminsLaura Tolhoek grew up in a family that owned a small business, so from an early age she was familiar with the tenacity, resilience, and hard work that go into growing a livelihood. After going to school for HR, she worked for large companies in hospitality and food service.She desired a healthier work-life balance and requested that her role be made part-time — a request that her then-employer balked at.She looked at different part-time opportunities, but realized that she was already doing a lot of unpaid consulting work.So, she decided to strike out on her own.Laura realized that many small businesses can’t afford or don’t need a full-time HR person on their payroll, but could still benefit from having someone they can turn to for HR support.She started her own agency offering flexible and customized outsourced HR options.It wasn’t an instant success.When she first launched her business, it took some time to