Female Entrepreneurs Take Risks and Start All Over

Written by Katrina Daniel Saturday, January 16 2010

Article Index
Female Entrepreneurs Take Risks and Start All Over
2 of 3
3 of 3
4 of 4
All Pages

Jennifer Iverstine was ticked off, scared, and humiliated. After 20 years as a successful pharmaceutical sales representative, she knew her job was on the chopping block as her company downsized at an alarming rate - hiring younger, cheaper sales reps. She was anxious, wondering when the ax was going to fall on her job and her life.

It fell.

Today she’s her own boss, selling a product she is passionate about and not worrying about whether she’s going to get fired.

Bentley DeGarmo wasn’t sure where to turn. She was burned out of her marketing/advertising job and not sure where her career path was headed. Today she’s running her own high-end consignment shop.

Vickie Fowler worked as sales and marketing director at an upscale retirement community until the economy ended up on skid row. Blamed for diving sales, Fowler lost her job.

On top of her shock and depression, she worried about how she would support her family. But the single mom of twin 15-year-old boys didn’t crawl off into a corner to lick her wounds. She upped her community profile, using the latest social networking techniques, and, well, the ideal job found her. All those sad stories are last year’s news. The new year finds these women having benefited from networking, seizing opportunity when it knocked, and thinking out of the boxes they found themselves in.

Here are the stories of how they put on their big-girl panties and started from scratch, using a combination of guts, contacts, and creativity.

Pillow Talk
“I had won several sales awards and had the respect of my managers and peers,” Iverstine says. “I worked for three different pharmaceutical companies. Each time I moved it was for a better paying position.”

While 44 -year-old Iverstine didn’t love her job selling pain medications, the money was good and she was reluctant to leave a high-paying job that she knew inside and out. Then, the decision was made for her.