Connie Worrell-Druliner is the founder of a locally owned business, Express Employment Professionals, offering human resource solutions. Express can help your organization, by finding qualified workers, solving your retention needs, and providing knowledge based training to your workforce.

It was a bad day for Express Employment Professionals in Bend, Oregon. A “good” client has left town in the middle of the night and combined with several other accounts who could not pay their payroll obligation, I was left with over $115,000 of other company’s payroll which was a fortune for me to pay at that time on a client’s behalf. Our timber-based economy was faltering and the prospects were bleak.

I visited my banker, my accountant and my attorney that morning and they all advised the same course of action — cut my losses and close my doors. I left those meetings feeling like I had just been TKO’d in the first round of a championship fight. I passed the Express office, not able to go in and face staff, and drove west toward Mount Bachelor and the ski area. I parked my car and got out. I wondered in retrospect what those skiers thought of the woman dressed in her business suit and high heels standing in line for a lift ticket. I suspect they thought I might jump.

I rode the chairlift to the top of the mountain and prayed all the way. I prayed that I would be given a sign so I could make the right decision. I had never asked for “a sign” before and wasn’t sure what, if anything, to expect. Should I take the advice of all the experts and throw in the towel or should I go with my instinct and fight? The chairlift returned to the bottom of the hill, I got off and headed toward the parking lot. I looked up to see Bend’s most successful and powerful businessman standing in the parking lot with his ski gear on, entertaining clients.

Though he was clearly puzzled by my presence (and my attire!), he said, “Gee, I’m so glad I ran into you today. We have several positions we need to have filled and I’d like Express to do the job. Call me on Monday.”

I had my sign. I still have that lift ticket in my wallet and it still reminds me of that day and the decision I made. It was the right decision.

Years later I was able to thank that businessman in a public setting where he was honored, and to share with him what a difference he had made in my life without even knowing it!

Knowing I wanted the business to continue to stay in the family, that legacy was given to me with that same sign on the ride to Mount Bachelor.

At the age of 68 and still owner of our family business — Express Employment Professionals, an International Franchise of which I was the 20th in the network and now there are more than 800 — I knew it was time to think succession. The natural move was to pass the legacy on to my daughter, Stephanie Miller, who has worked with me for 19 years.

Before my daughter and I started the process of succession, I needed to develop a strategic plan of what our specific legacy would look like. Since 1983, over the past 33 years, our company has put the people of Central Oregon to work at every level of employment in Oregon and beyond.

We have always viewed our mission as a vehicle to put America to work.

I had the heart, but needed the guidance to bring my daughter and our new partnership together in a fair and equitable way. We only hired one set of professionals to accomplish the process, which we understood by all standards that to not each have an accountant, an attorney and a banker was a unique approach, but we wanted to give it a try.

Although at times the tasks seemed like a steep walk uphill, we ultimately reached a richness and new depth in our relationship and have happily never looked back.