Their Journey from Monmouth College to 5-time Successful Business Owners: Jared and Rachel Kunkle
Emi Bigham, Anna Brunner, Rilee Lash, Mia Martino, Samantha Zigmant
Jared and Rachel Kunkle relationship has created such a strong foundation for their enterprises. “For us our relationship is the basis of everything because we own five businesses together, and we are both actively engaged in all five, so if we didn’t have a strong relationship we would not have these businesses,” Rachel Kunkle said.
Jared and Rachel Kunkle both graduated from Monmouth College in 2007 and since then have been opening their own businesses left and right around the town. They are current partners of the Land Management Partnership LLC, own their own farm management business, their own semi-truck for business gigs and opportunities, and an Insurance agency in Monmouth.
“It is a scary leap to work for yourself, and once you make that leap once, you realize that we could just do it again, so I think that helped evolve into other opportunities,” Rachel Kunkle said.
Their story started just like some Monmouth College students, hanging with friends in the lounge of Fulton Hall where their mutual friends connected them. “She said I wasn’t talking to her, made a comment to me, and then I never stopped after that,” Jared Kunkle said. They dated nine months, got engaged, and then married each other shortly after graduation, and their relationship is the foundation of their businesses.
Jared Kunkle is originally from Peoria and his grandparents owned a farm, which sparked his passion for farming and wanting to own one of his own. After graduation, they moved closer to Peoria where Rachel Kunkle worked at Caterpillar and Jared Kunkle worked for a corporate farm ground for about a year and a half, but they eventually came back where it all started. “We just felt the pull back here, and had some opportunities, so that’s what started the self-employment and really got the ball rolling,” Jared Kunkle said.
Rachel Kunkle is originally from Monmouth, so she didn’t mind the pull back home. Friends and graduates of the college, class of 2004, Michelle and Adam Carlson are still in touch with them. “We give Rachel a hard time that she is related to everyone here in Monmouth, but they see opportunities in the community from the perspective of both personal benefit and community benefit,” Adam Carlson said. “Jared and Rachel both have a business way of looking at and attacking farming that has led them to their other business interests,” Michelle Carlson said.
Both Rachel and Jared Kunkle said they hope that with the new college president being in place their connection to the college will grow. President Draves, they believe, will help create a strong relationship between the college and the overall city “to be involved in the community is a huge thing, or to want to invest in the community” Jared Kunkle said
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