This month, Tracy Cole is retiring after more than twenty years leading Focus HR.
For hundreds of small businesses across the country, she’s been the steady voice on the other end of the phone during crises, recessions, and once-in-a-generation challenges. For nearly forty employees, she’s been a mentor, leader, and friend.
For me, she’s simply been Mom.
Sitting down to write this feels surreal because, growing up, Focus HR and my mom were basically the same thing.
The Scrappy Beginnings (And The Fight to Keep It)
If you know Tracy, you know she doesn’t do anything halfway. Fueled by sheer determination (and her mandatory daily Starbucks run), she had a realization after a solid career in HR management and proving herself as the top salesperson for a large PEO: “I know how to do this, and I’m really good at it.” So, she bet on herself. It took a lot of courage to walk away from a comfortable corporate job, but in 2003, Focus HR was born.
Those early days were anything but glamorous. She ran the business from our dining room table, hand-writing workers’ comp policies, or standing out in the dirt, her high heels by the way, helping construction crews fill out new-hire paperwork from the tailgate of her pickup truck.
But the real origin story of Focus HR is how hard she had to fight to keep it. To get things off the ground in the early days, she brought on two different financial investors. When the business started taking off, they both tried to push her out and take what she had built.
Big mistake.
They underestimated who they were dealing with. She fought for the company she’d built. Her clients never hesitated—they stayed because they knew she was the reason Focus HR worked. In the end, she refused to back down, and Focus HR became 100% hers.
What She Built
Over the next 20-plus years, we all watched the humble beginning transform into an industry powerhouse. She built a team of nearly 40 professionals who support more than 500 small businesses across 47 states.
That kind of loyalty doesn’t happen by accident. For fifteen straight years, client retention stayed above 97%—a figure most service businesses would consider near impossible. Clients stayed because she showed up when it mattered most.
People talk about the “blood, sweat, and tears” of entrepreneurship, but it hits differently when you see it up close. For me, it meant watching my mom navigate the tough trade-offs of running a business. She was incredibly present for us, but I also saw the quiet sacrifices—starting her day long before the sun came up or eating a cold dinner after stepping out to rescue a client in crisis. Even with the weight of a company on her shoulders, she was never absent; she was just constantly navigating the balance. She never let us feel like we came second. For every volleyball game she had to miss to handle a work emergency, she made it to ten more, cheering the absolute loudest from the bleachers.
It also meant growing up with the Focus HR team and clients feeling like extended family. Because of her, my childhood was populated by “colleagues” who felt more like aunts, uncles, and cousins. They were deeply woven into the fabric of our lives, drawn together by my mom’s generosity, loyalty, and fierce dedication to the people she cared about.
Anyone who has worked with her knows she has a rare gift. She tells it like it is—even when it’s not what you want to hear—but somehow you always leave the conversation feeling better. She has a way of making impossible situations feel manageable, whether it was an employment lawsuit, a difficult termination, or a business owner convinced the sky was falling. She’ll fight fiercely for her people, but she does it with honesty, integrity, and a level head that earns respect rather than resentment.
She’s just as comfortable walking into a boardroom dressed to the nines as she is pulling on a pair of overalls at the ranch. She has always stayed incredibly grounded in what matters most: her people. If my mom was in your corner, you knew she had your back. That’s why so many clients became lifelong friends, and why so many employees built careers—not just jobs—alongside her.
She never chased being the biggest HR company. She just wanted to be the one people trusted most.
“Tracy never separated good HR from good business. She believed that if you took care of people the right way — compliantly, consistently, and with genuine care — the business results followed. Twenty years later and 500+ clients say she was right.” — Clint Parry, MBA, SHRM-SCP
Watching her build Focus HR shaped the way I think about business. She never cared much for corporate buzzwords or flashy promises. She believed in showing up, solving problems, telling people the truth, and treating employees like family. She taught me to fight for what I believe in and gave me the confidence to run my own business—which I do now.
Passing the Torch
My mom’s retirement comes about a year after Focus HR joined OneDigital, and if you know how fiercely she protects her people, you know that timing isn’t an accident. She spent her final chapter making absolutely sure her team, her clients, and the company’s heart would be in the best possible hands before she finally took a step back.
It pleases us to know that Greg Stutz, a family friend who started at Focus straight out of college, is the one leading the team now. After years of standing by my mom’s side as her COO and right-hand man, Greg and the incredible team are moving forward, operating with the exact same heart and hustle she taught them.
“Tracy spent twenty years carrying the weight for other people’s businesses. She’s earned every quiet morning on the ranch, every trail ride, and every day she doesn’t have to answer a single compliance question. We’ve got it from here.” — Greg Stutz, Regional Vice President of Operations
A Note From Tracy
We’ll let her say the rest herself:
“To our clients: thank you for standing by me through every chapter—cloud computing reshaping how small businesses operate, the 2008 housing collapse, the Affordable Care Act, COVID, and the most stubborn inflation we’ve seen in decades. You trusted Focus HR through all of it, and that trust is the thing I’m proudest of.
To the team who stood by my side for decades—Greg Stutz, Alma Parra, Sue Foster, Scott Thomson, Karina Cordova, Sonia Robles, Constance Berry, Jessica Croft, Sandra Garcia, Clint Parry, and Karen Maginnis—I will miss your faces every single day.
I’m endlessly grateful for what Tucson and our clients have given me over all these years, and for all the happy times we’ve shared along the way. I wish OneDigital / Resourcing Edge all the best as they carry Focus HR forward.
I’ll be spending more time on my ranch with my horses, and a lot more time with my family.
Mighty obliged. And remember—it’s the way you ride the trail that counts.”
— Tracy Cole
Cheers, Tracy.
To the woman who hand-wrote policies at a kitchen table, fought for everything she earned, and built a company that hundreds of small businesses came to depend on—thank you.
Thank you for showing me what resilience looks like. Thank you for proving that integrity isn’t just good business; it’s the foundation of it. Thank you for giving me a front-row seat to watch someone build something extraordinary from nothing.
Now it’s time to trade compliance questions for trail rides, client meetings for grandchildren, and early morning Starbucks runs for quiet mornings on the ranch.
You’ve earned every minute of it.
Want to wish Tracy well in her next chapter? Leave a comment on our Facebook post here to wish her well or to share your favorite memory of working together!
