Cheryl's Bio
Qualifications
BackgroundMy business experience began, much to my chagrin, at the age of 14 in my parents' dry cleaning business. As children of entrepreneurial parents often are, I was enlisted to help out on weekends and in the summers wherever I was needed. I learned to make change, process orders, inspect clothes (not a wrinkle or a missing button got past me - unlike most cleaners today!), and most importantly how to keep customers happy. Since my mother handled all of the bookkeeping, she eventually taught me everything she knew. That aspect of the business I really enjoyed! Without any particular career goal in mind, I attended Southern Methodist University, majoring in Business Administration and Psychology. Life and reality set in and I was thrust back into the working world. After a brief stint in the accounting department of an large insurance agency, I went on to become a service representative for the telephone company where I learned patience, tact and compassion dealing with all types of people in all types of circumstances. I then moved on to manage a local interior accessory shop, handling sales, orders, displays, decorative consulting and the bookkeeping. Always looking for better opportunities, I became the receptionist for a prominent business complex leasing office, also putting my bookkeeping, secretarial and customer relation skills to use. Later I became the receptionist for the publisher of a housing magazine, also acting as the assistant director for their housing information center (once again, utilizing and honing my secretarial and customer service skills). From that position, I moved on to become the secretary and project director of a market research firm. The whole process of evaluating new products and advertising campaigns was very interesting to me as I began learning about marketing, consumers and what works and what doesn’t in advertising. As that company came to a close, I was able to secure a position with a management consulting firm. It was a natural transition for me since they also conducted market research studies, evaluated data and produced reports of their findings. I enjoyed interfacing with clients, coordinating the projects, gathering and processing the data and producing the reports. As the office manager, I also assisted with hiring and training of office support staff. It was during this time that I was first introduced to computers. Much to my surprise, I was fascinated with them and with the help of the consultant who had written the software we used, I learned very quickly. With his guidance, I learned not only how to use various programs, but learned about operating systems as well. A whole new world had been opened up for me. I became the unofficial IS manager of the office and loved it! Hoping to advance my computer skills and professional career, I took a position as the office manager for a local financial software company. Unfortunately, all was not as it appeared and this became my shortest employment in history. Subsequently, I accepted a position as the Personnel Administrator and Executive Assistant to the President and Vice President of a power supply manufacturer. This was a rewarding position which I enjoyed but it greatly underutilized my computer expertise. By this time, my husband, who had started his own computer consulting company, had written a software program for real estate appraisers which he had begun marketing nationwide. As a one-man operation, he was somewhat limited, so the natural thing seemed to be for me to join him in his business. What began as helping out for "just for a few hours a day, leaving plenty of time for shopping ...." quickly turned into a full time effort. I started out answering the phone, processing customer orders and, of course, handling the books. I gradually began handling customer technical support, sales and marketing. We hired a part time secretary/order processor. We were remarkably successful considering neither of us were "sales" people. We advertised. If customers called in and wanted to order, that was great. We didn’t actively pursue sales. We decided to find out what would happen if we hired a real sales person. Sales doubled! We hired more employees and finally faced the fact that to go to the next level we had to move our home-based office into real commercial office space. Sales continued to grow. I gave up the roles of customer technical support and sales and took on other roles including office manager, trade show and travel coordinator, documentation manager, advertising director and personnel administrator. By 1993 we had grown to 25 employees, and had reached the multi-million dollar sales level. We were recognized by the Dallas 100 as one of the top 100 fastest growing privately held companies in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. We ranked 47 out of 100 which, to us, was nothing short of amazing! By most measures we were highly successful. However, the rigors of running our business began to take their toll. We found all of our time and efforts being spent "running" the business rather than "doing" business. We decided to sell the company. In the fall of 1996, we did sell to a competitor and took some well-deserved time off. Realizing that what I really enjoyed doing was helping people with computerization, bookkeeping and various administrative support functions, I started another company, Star Tech Solutions, offering my expertise. Mark joined me, adding his strong technical expertise. By keeping up with the latest technology, it is our goal to provide timely, accurate office support services. Word processing, transcription, proofreading, editing, database management, bookkeeping, web site creation and computer training are among the services offered. Total hardware and software solutions are also available. With the technology available today, projects can be faxed, e-mailed, downloaded, uploaded and yes, even Fed Ex'ed. Regardless of whether a client is local or in Hawaii, we can quickly and easily communicate with them. By utilizing the services of Star Tech Solutions, clients save the expense of hiring a permanent employee with paid vacation, holiday and sick time, insurance, social security, payroll taxes, workers comp, training costs and equipment costs. Clients pay only for specific projects, whether it’s a simple business proposal, a monthly newsletter, quarterly financial report or annual report. How can I help you? |
