School's in for two ex-business owners.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: SMALL biz

Cyd Szymanski is a full-time student at the University of Denver, pursuing a degree in developmental cognitive neuroscience. Debora Hankinson is close to wrapping up studies at the Denver-based Nutrition Therapy Institute after three years of taking classes mostly part-time.

What's notable about both women is that they had reached the supposed pinnacle of the American workplace, at least the way it's idealized--running their own successful businesses.

Szymanski, 51, operated Nest Fresh Eggs for 15 years before selling it in October 2006. Hankinson, 43, headed up LS Planning Group, a Boulder-based architecture firm, for eight years before completing the firm's contractual obligations for clients and shutting down in December last year.

As business owners they were role models of sorts; now they're sources of inspiration for anyone contemplating a career change but fearful of making the leap.

"A lot of people get to their 40s, and they have what everybody calls a 'midlife crisis,' Hankinson says. "I call it a midlife awakening. It's a point in your life where you do stop and you assess where you are and decide where you want to go. And I think if you're not happy where you are, have the courage to make a change.

"I did not dislike architecture and the planning I was doing," says Hankinson, who has bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture. "The initial creating of a company and putting ideas into action are what most entrepreneurs enjoy so much, I think. The first couple years were great, and then it just became a machine. And I was in charge of feeding the machine. That part of it wasn't fun anymore."

At the time Hankinson started classes at the Nutrition Therapy Institute, her architectural firm was growing. She had 12 employees, and her revenues doubled from 2005 to 2006. But a couple of events combined to convince her to pursue her other passions.

First, Hankinson's older sister, a non-smoker, died of lung cancer at the age of 46. "It was sort of a trigger in my mind that, you know what, food really does affect your heath," Hankinson says.

Meanwhile Amgen, a client with major operations in Boulder County, scaled back plans when one of its drugs was linked to increased cancer deaths. "I had lined up about 40 percent of my revenues to come from Amgen," Hankinson says. "That pretty much came to a halt."

With other contracts with Genentech and...