I’m thankful to Anne-Marie Ditta, a career management coach and owner of First Impression Career Services, who besides promptly agreeing to meet with me for this interview, also encouraged me to keep going with this project and introduced me to other women business owners. This interview takes us through her experiences, the challenges of having to relocate and restart an established business, the need for support all the way through an entrepreneur’s career and the importance of surrounding oneself with a good team.

Background

According to Anne-Marie, there is not much difference between creating an advertising campaign for a business and developing a career transition strategy. She worked for many years as an advertising account executive and found the same tools she had used to help business owners promote their businesses are the skills she now uses to assist those in career transition.

In 1999 she was invited to work in a non-profit organization called the WISH Program. She helped displaced homemakers reenter the workforce by leading workshops and providing individual career counseling and résumé development. During this period, she reconnected with her passion for writing, which she recalls was something she had done since childhood.

Before she knew it, she was revising her friends’ résumés and they were recommending her services to their friends. Anne-Marie realized that her true path was to become a career coach, and she got training and the appropriate certifications to work as a résumé writer, a career management coach, and an interview professional. She considers herself a people person, who likes to use her creativity to help others.

The business – First Impression Career Services

The name’s idea came from her husband, who is also Anne-Marie’s greatest supporter. Anne-Marie notes how important it is to cause a good first impression in all stages and areas of a career transition: “With your résumé, you have 10 seconds to catch the employer’s attention. In these days when ASPs are scanning resumes, you don’t even have 10 seconds. Your résumé must contain the right information and key words.” Resumes, cover letters, thank you notes, and the ability to network and perform well on interviews need to be refined, so that one can have a chance of a second interview and a real job opportunity.

First Impression Career Services (FICS) helps clients with all aspects of a career transition, and it offers different coaching programs tailored to its clients’ needs. Anne-Marie mentioned that many of her clients say they aren’t sure what they want to do with their lives, but she inspiringly says that everybody knows it: “It is a matter of listening to your inner voice, and having someone to give validation, to say you can do it. Go follow your dream.”

Relocating the business

Anne-Marie started her business twice within a year, it started in Brooklyn in November 2001, and then when she and her husband bought a house in Westchester she had to relocate the company. In Brooklyn she got business right away because of her network. Only two weeks after the company opened, The Training and Employment Council in Brooklyn invited her to deliver a workshop to fifty job specialists on the art of résumé writing. That event allowed Anne-Marie to build a considerable clientele and she began receiving her clients in the living room of her apartment.

When Anne-Marie and her husband moved to Westchester on 09/29/02, she relocated the business and was able to have an office at home. However, she didn’t know anyone there, and it took several months for the business to get started. She joined networking organizations, associations such as the Eastchester Chamber of Commerce, local e-lists, and BNI to start meeting people. Meanwhile, her clients in Brooklyn wanted to meet her in person, so she became mobile, seeing them at first in Starbucks, until she decided to rent an office space in Manhattan once a week.

Business Plan

Anne-Marie had a business plan when she first started the business in Brooklyn, but she also hired a business coach, who advised her to write her “Credo” instead of a business plan. It took six weeks to write it, and it became her slogan. It helped her determine who her clients were, and if she was ideal for them. Anne-Marie said she didn’t feel the need to write a business plan, since she is a believer in goal setting, and she proves it. Her recent goal of organizing six workshops is happening, and when this interview took place in December 2003, she had already put together three of them.

Partnership

Although Anne-Marie has no partners, she considers her friend and colleague Jacqui Barrett, a true partner in her business. Jacqui is also a professional résumé writer, who lives in Kansas City, Missouri. They share an accountability relationship, where they speak once a week, share goals and support each other. “It’s a mutual relationship, I consider her very much a business partner, as if we entered into a legal agreement.” Anne-Marie recalls many situations in which Jacqui helped her, including when Anne-Marie’s mother was severely ill last year. She has also supported Jacqui in several circumstances, including Jacqui’s success in earning the Master Résumé Writer credential.

Difficult Gaps

Anne-Marie remembers that her most difficult gap wasn’t with the marketing of the business itself, but with her own self-confidence, trying to keep positive and keep going, and trusting that she wouldn’t take her family to financial ruin. Networking and setting up the website helped the business to become mobile and get to the next level. FICS also draws business from the web, and Anne-Marie has plans to improve the website, so that it can become a resource for everyone in a career transition, to get information, pull off articles, find relevant links and get help. (See link at the end of this article)

Another challenge Anne-Marie and many other entrepreneurs especially with home offices face is balancing work and family. She is a self-confessed workaholic, and she loves it. Yet, sometimes she feels guilty for not being able to give enough attention to family and friends, and she’s still trying to find an acceptable balance, especially since, and I quote Anne-Marie’s wise words, “the business needs to be constantly fed and nurtured.”

Advice

Anne-Marie advises entrepreneurial women to do a lot of research, and to understand the process of selling a product or service. In addition, she offers the following advice to those who are considering starting a business venture: “Look at what other people are doing, and what it takes for them to be successful and ask them how they did it. Put together a good team, and do something you love. It may take two to three years before you show an income. It’s an investment. Have the right strategy in place, do your research and contact an accountant.” Anne-Marie Ditta

Lessons learned

By having to relocate and start over, Anne-Marie realized she was too dependent on only one network back in Brooklyn, and she won’t do that again. She gave an example of companies that went out of business soon after a major client took its business elsewhere.

Nowadays, Anne-Marie constantly attends events and creates workshops to increase her network and promote her business. She summarizes other actions she has taken to achieve success and gives invaluable words of advice: “Treat your business like a turnpike, and know that you need to have different arteries feeding your business. Be prepared to take it mobile, in this age of e-commerce, there is no reason why you can’t do that. Be flexible and don’t be dependent to only one source!”

For more information about Anne-Marie Ditta and First Impression Career Services, visit her website at www.firstimpressioncareerservices.com.