by Julia Paulus

When Bob Raeker, the founder of Bob Raeker Plumbing, died unexpectedly on a Saturday night, someone had to step up and run his business Monday morning. His daughter, Jennifer Raeker, who was only 27 years old, did just that.

Despite the fact that she had worked for the company in some capacity since her adolescence, taking over the company was the greatest challenge of her life. “I had no idea how to run a business,” says Raeker. “I never got into the finances. I had no idea what was in our savings, if $5,000 or $50,000 was a lot to have, or how to pay the bills.”

Raeker had worked only on project management. On top of that, her father was the only one who could sign the checks. “When supply houses found out what had happened, they assumed we were going to close and demanded payment in full,” she says.

Running the company as a young woman in the construction industry posed even more problems for Raeker. “When I took over, I had employees get up and leave,” she says. “I would walk into meetings that were full of 45- to 50-year-old males and have to hide my fear.”

But Raeker took on the challenges one day at a time and overcame her fears. “Now I have so much confidence that it’s probably too much,” she says.

And she has built the 54-year-old company into a multimillion-dollar business with 20 to 25 employees.

She says her employees have been the key to her success. “If your employees are happy, your business will work,” she says.
“About 10 years ago I learned that I can’t do it all myself. I learned to let my employees do the work and that they could do it just as well as I could.”