Entrepreneurship, Integrity Fuel Alumna Success
The Tampa Bay Business Woman of the Year for 2006 credits much of her success to lessons learned while she was an undergraduate at Baldwin- Wallace College. Holly Tomlin '83, was singled out for the honor from a field of 42 finalists in seven categories. Tomlin is the owner and president of Tomlin Staffing, an employment agency that places both temporary and permanent office staff.
“I had great teachers at B-W,” said Tomlin who was a business major with a focus in marketing. “My marketing teacher inspired me.” Tomlin particularly remembered a class that focused on case studies. She said that the students visited small businesses and wrote business plans for companies.
“It was a wonderful training ground,” she recalled. Because of that experience, she has invited students from the University of Tampa to come into her firm.
“They take a look at my business to see what they might do to make it better,” she said, noting that she welcomes fresh ideas. She realizes that sometimes those intimately involved in the day-to-day running of a firm may have trouble looking at the business from a different perspective.
Before her husband was transferred to Florida more than 20 years ago, Tomlin worked for Standard Oil in Cleveland. Once in Tampa, she looked for human resources positions but found that the salaries offered were not acceptable to her. That's when she decided to start out on her own.
Instructor Ralph Trombetta is a management educator with over 25 years of business experience across a diverse set of industries and a senior blue ocean strategy expert in the Value Innovation Network. He is the founder and a managing partner of Value Innovation Associates.
“I was 25. I thought the worst thing that could happen was that I would go out of business,” she said. “There
are only a few times in your life that you can do this. I had no children then. When you're young, you can recover.”
Twenty-one years later, Tomlin Staffing is still going strong. That is not to say that it has always been smooth
sailing. Tomlin said that when her first child was born, three years after she launched her business, she thought it might be the end.
“We've been through a few challenging times,” she said, but the fact that Tomlin Staffing was named a “Small Business of the Year” finalist a year ago attests to her continued success.
In a feature article in the Tampa Bay Business Journal Tomlin described her basic business philosophy. “We take their trust [companies and candidates] in us seriously and pledge to them that we will do things right or not at all. Our reputation has been built on the consistent effort to always exceed the expectations of our clients and associates.”
Among her core values, she said in the article, are: “treating people with honesty, fairness and respect; appreciating diversity of skills, talent and cultures of clients and workers; and fostering an environment of continuous learning that is also professional, friendly and fun.” This is a basic, common sense mantra to be sure, but one that certainly has proved to work for this successful alumna.
275 Eastland Rd.