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The following article was published in the Charleston Post & Courier's Business Major, a featured monthly column in the Business Review Section on November 29, 1999. Hard work at root of business successBy DOROTHY P. MOORE Special to the Post and Courier Businesswomen come to entrepreneurship and corporate positions in a variety of fascinating ways. The stories below are from multi-million dollar operations. (The names have been changed. The stories are true.) The first African-American to be hired by a major securities firm, Alana trained for nine months, was recommended from the highest levels, and became a registered representative. But she didn't like the work. Following instead her interest in fashions, she took a position with a major department store, then moved on into media. She was soon recognized for her on-stage presence as a commentator for fashion shows. After seven years and more than 800 shows she decided to go into business for herself, but then learned that the couturiers already had their own commentators. Unable to get into the fashion business by the front door, she entered by the back door, literally, organizing a company that manages backstage operations for high profile designers. Clarion was the first woman hired on the executive track at a major New York bank. They put her in an area nobody knew anything about, mergers and acquisitions. She moved on to five different companies over a period of 22 years, creating corporate finance departments that started new business centers along the way. Her last corporate position was at a major bank where, two and a half years into a major change, a new 33-year-old boss shocked the staff by saying he wanted to replace everybody. "We're not on the first team anymore," Clarion whispered to a friend. She then took out her business Rolodex, networked, and was soon contacted by a headhunter who told her they had a position tailor made for her. It needed someone who could supervise a large team of financial researchers, talk with bankers and attorneys, and knew what a financial deal looked like. That was Clarion's introduction into the field of background business research. She now runs her own, all female, business investigating agency. A corporate fashion consultant, Loren did so well that she started her own freelance business. It was successful, but she soon tired of having to be on call for multiple clients; it was impossible to be in more than one place at one time. So Loren went back into the corporate world with a major firm. Two unsatisfactory years later a headhunter steered her to a brand name company looking for someone with fashion sense to head a division. She took the company's clothing specialty from zero to over two million dollars in the first year. Eight years later, starting a family and renovating a house, she left that job. After turning down the offers to do free lance consulting that poured in, she ultimately accepted a position to handle fashions of a division for a major retailer. After college, Saline had to decide between a cubicle in a bank or managing three agents in a music-booking agency. Three months later, in an act of blatant discrimination, she was told the booking agency wasn't ready for a woman agent yet. By then, however, Saline had made contacts in New York, and that led to her being hired by several top heavy metals bands. When she found out men were being paid twice her salary for the same work in that industry "because they had families," she picked up a copy of MS Magazine and read it cover to cover. Sensitized, she quit the music business to help run a non-profit organization dealing with domestic violence awareness. After being held up at gunpoint, she decided to take a vacation. There, she discovered the Web. After a couple of classes, to a friend she pitched the idea of an internet media company to produce websites, resources, and other tools for women and girls to enable them to learn about technology and computers. Her friend provided the backing, and her business was born. Katakana was born with a tremendous singing talent and worked hard to refine it into a career as an opera singer. The problem was that husband and home were in San Diego and her aspiring career in New York. She traveled back and forth three years, and then got mugged. Escaping unhurt, she decided enough was enough. Back in California, she went to a businessman she had known a long time and asked for a job. "I can't do anything except sing in three languages in front of anybody," she said. He hired her in marketing, and she did that for two years. Spotting an idea for a business of her own, she went to "some guys who owned a moving and storage company." They asked her to come to work for them and set up the operation. She elected instead to incorporate. "How much do you charge?" she asked the attorney to whom she was referred. "I'm $150 an hour," he answered. "Talk fast," she said. Her successful relocation services company, built on her earlier stage presence, was a pioneer in the field. After 20 years experience in San Diego real estate, from sales to sales management to director of all sales and marketing activities, Galena identified a neglected market in the area of tenant improvement construction. She connected with a former colleague, now a contractor, who had identified the same opportunity. They set up shop with a simple plan: He would build it. She would sell it. They hired another friend, a graphics designer, to create a logo and letterhead for instant name recognition. The company today touts a client list that reads like Who's Who in Southern California's development and property management industry. Along the way, Galena married the graphics designer, a decision that later required supervision of the completion of a construction project from her hospital bed after giving birth to her first child. Is there a pattern here? Yes, it is all wrapped up in a combination of incredible ability, hard work and internal motivation. Six talented and able women, each ready to learn what they needed were all willing to work hard. They were self-confident from the start, or acquired confidence along the way. They were not afraid to jump to something new when it was important for advancement, but the jump was never a leap in the dark. Whether able to make choices from opportunity or forced to choose by necessity, each found herself well prepared. For Questions/Comments about this site, contact dot.moore@comcast.net. Site designed by Jackye Cocoros. |