She Owns a $12 Million Staffing Franchise

After watching her mother run businesses in Indonesia, Josephine Suryono knew she'd one day do the same-just on a different continent.

- CARL STOFFERS

→ ATWORK AT WORK Josephine Suryono (front, left) with her team.

Josephine Suryono moved far away from home, but never escaped the lesson she grew up with. As a child in her native Indonesia, she watched her mother manage multiple automotive dealerships—and it inspired this lesson: “Deep down, I always knew I wanted to build something of my own,” she says.

At 18, Suryono came to America for an education. She earned a degree in industrial engineering from Oregon State University and an MBA from University of California, Davis, then spent nearly a decade working at Hewlett-Packard. But the entrepreneurial drive stayed with her. So in 2007, she left the corporate world and bought her first franchise (an indoor children’s entertainment center). In 2017, she opened her first AtWork Group, a staffing and recruiting franchise, followed by a second location in 2023. Here’s how she’s generating millions of dollars from those businesses.

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