Meet George Sagadencky of Pasadena and Valencia

Today we’d like to introduce you to George Sagadencky.

George , we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was a small business owner in Southern California most of my life. I sold my company, Under the Sun Promotions to Landsberg which was a large packaging company in 2008. It was never really a match made in heaven and in 2013 I was let go and had to walk away from the company I had spent years building with blood, sweat and tears. It left me lost and professionally devastated. I had bought a Minuteman Press franchise to start to rebuild. After a few years Minuteman grew almost 200% year over year. In 2017 I received a call from a recruiter from BBSI (Barret Business Services Inc.) and they were looking for someone to open a new branch in Pasadena. BBSI is a PEO (Professional Employer Organization) which I had never heard of but after some research I found out they helped small business owners navigate the challenges of HR, Risk, Workers Comp, Medical Benefits and payroll. Because Landsberg was such a bad experience I was skeptical of joining a large publicly traded company, but after meeting leadership and understanding the mission of BBSI I knew this would be the last step in my professional work journey. After a full year of training, I opened BBSI Pasadena in September of 2018 with zero clients and was tasked with building a branch. We grew every year and in November 2022 I took over BBSI Valencia and merged them into 1 branch known as the BBSI Pasadena HUB. The journey has been amazing because the people at BBSI are the most dedicated, talented and smartest people I have ever worked with. We are currently the 6th largest branch with over 250 clients and growing.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Smooth is not a word I would use, but every day is different. Our business philosophy is to partner with the owner and help them navigate the challenges of doing business in California. I would have to say the biggest struggle was navigating Covid. It was so unprecedented, and no one had a playbook or a roadmap on what to do.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am an ex-college athlete and value teamwork above everything. There is nothing more satisfying than leading a team of professionals and achieving a goal together, knowing it could not be accomplished by myself. I am most proud of the several coworkers that have been promoted and have moved on in the company to bigger and better roles than when they started with me. What set me apart from most is the ability to identify talent and taking that person to a level they may not have seen when they started with me. There is only one way to lead and that is “lead by example” and never ask someone to do something you wouldn’t do yourself.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Do what you say and say what you do. This is a rare quality in today’s workforce. And don’t be afraid to fail. We are not valued on the 9 out 10 things that go right we are valued on how we handle the 1 out of 10 things that go wrong.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bbsi.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-sagadencky-946a2411/