Rec Letters

Recommendation letters are always somewhat problematic for individuals who own their own businesses. Depending on the size and type of business, some options are board member, advisor, client/customer or employee. Of course, all of these options need to be evaluated case by case to determine whether they will be written by a credible source and whether they will provide the right insights.

If none of these options from your current company will work, you should consider someone from your extracurricular activities - from Americorps, Mayor's council, etc... This person should be able to comment on your leadership skills in the same way that a professional recommender would.

The BAS recommender may be important as one of two or three recs, to add a solid brand name to the group, but you definitely want to mix it up with more recent insights. Even the BAS recommender should be from someone that you have kept in touch with so that they can comment on you as a person today and your development since leaving that job.