Getting laid off was the best thing that ever happened to Barbara Rosenblum.

It was the 1990s, and Rosenblum, a registered nurse, was running a home health care pharmacy, an in-home service for patients with chronic illnesses such as AIDS. After she lost her job, she went back to school and founded Santa Barbara-based Strategic Healthcare Programs, a Web software company that has expanded to $10 million a year in revenue and 27 employees.

Rosenblum has been named a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in the greater Los Angeles area. But Rosenblum said she might not be where she is today if she hadn’t lost her job.

“I was very comfortable in a job that I had with a larger corporation,” Rosenblum told the Business Times. “They downsized, and I was one of the people who got downsized. I was devastated, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I thought, ‘Well, Barbara, this is your opportunity to go back to school and take risks that you wouldn’t think about taking.’ It’s really what catalyzed me and kicked me in the butt.”

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