Betty Brigade hires 5, preps to expand across state

Sharon McRill's path to entrepreneurship was fairly typical. She got laid off from her project management job at Borders in 2004 and then started her own company, Betty Brigade, to pay her bills. Before she knew it, Betty Brigade grew into her full-time job.

"I took the project management skill set and applied it to residential," McRill says. "We started managing people's lives. I created a company I would have liked to use when I was in the corporate life."

The Ann Arbor-based business is a concierge service that now employs 15 people after hiring five in the last year. It specializes in everything from help smooth corporate relocation of top talent into the region to managing Michigan’s growing fleets of Zipcars.

The company has grown its revenues 28 percent over the last year and has averaged 25 percent revenue growth over the last five years. One of the primary drivers of that growth over the last year was helping local corporate human resources directors recruit and relocate talent from outside of Michigan by making them feel comfortable in the Great Lakes State.

"It's about their spouse," McRill says. "It's about the schools. It's about the environment they will be living in."

Betty Brigade has enjoyed such a steady growth in recent years that McRill is looking into franchising the business across Michigan. In the meantime, she is refining her business model so its a simpler, turn-key operation.

"We're looking to perfect the system in 2014," McRill says.

Source: Sharon McRill, president of Betty Brigade
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.