After decades of delays and detours, Karen Argus finally achieved her dream of owning and operating her own business.
Amazingly, its opening in the middle of a national nightmare—which looked like the worst possible timing—proved perfect.
Karen finished her training as a new franchisee of PuroClean on Feb. 28—one year to the day after leaving a long career as a nurse—and planned her grand opening for March 16.
By then, the virus was systematically altering everything.
“We thought we were dead in the water and that was the end of that,” says Karen, whose Stuart-based business primarily services Martin and St. Lucie counties.
A nurse for 20 years in acute care, Karen worked in California, New York, Virginia, Connecticut and Florida, moving from location to location with her husband’s military career as a Marine Corps pilot. Upon retirement, he prioritized the realization of her passion, conducting copious hours of research into finding the right fit for a franchise.
They kept coming back to
PuroClean
, which performs home and business restoration after fire, water, mold and biohazard damages.
Karen’s father served in the Army and met her mom in Germany, where she was raised. She arrived in America as an adult and worried how she’d make a living. She’d long admired her grandfather for managing a successful business as a butcher, but feared taking an entrepreneurial risk.
“I knew that no matter where I went and what was going on,” she says, “people would always need a nurse.”
