Welcome to the Spotlight, Diane! Please tell us about yourself
and how you got to this point in you life.
I am a
Brooklyn, NY girl, born in 1957 and lived in New York until
1980 when I ventured west to Las Vegas, Nevada. I was raised
in an Italian/Jewish household, Mom is of Jewish heritage and
Dad is Italian. My Dad was a public accountant with his own
practice for 35 years and I worked for him from as young as 8
years old until I graduated college. I have my BBA and MBA
from Pace University, NYC Campus which was a great experience,
learning business and industry from within inches of Wall
Street!
I do
believe that my Dad was my biggest influence in educational
studies, political studies, philanthropy and spiritual
guidance. No one could ever say I wasn’t the acorn that fell
very close to the tree! My Dad ran for Congress in 1968 and
therefore my speaking, teaching and mentoring runs deep in
family history. My Mom was always outspoken, courageous and
daring in her life and I think I picked up many of those
traits throughout my career in Corporate America.
Being a CPA gives you special insight into the financial end
of business. Where do you think that most companies go wrong
with their businesses and what advice do you have for small
business owners?
As a young
assistance to my Dad whose main practice was comprised of
small business, I was able to observe his ability to guide the
small business owner through the myriad of issues faced in
business every day. He gave them solid financial advice, based
on their business financial criteria, while never losing site
of the fact that this was not just a set of numbers, but the
life blood of a family business or thriving partnership
between two friends as the case may have been. Each time he
took on a client’s issues, he did it with the joy of giving
great value and guidance. My desire to do the same continued
throughout my career as a CPA, CFO and now Consultant,
Speaker, Teacher and software creator.
Small business faces its biggest challenges from fear; fear of
making the wrong choices, fear of listening to the wrong
family influences, fear of admitting that they don’t know
everything about business. What they do know is their talent,
their skill and their technical reasons for doing what they
do. It’s important to recognize the need for good sound
financial tools that will never lie to you about what to do
next – it’s all in the numbers. If you get the right person to
show you the numbers, the small business owner can pick the
right answer every time!
You now run a business, CKSystemz, with your husband, Michael.
Please tell us about it, how it all got started, and how it's
been going.
Michael and I met
while working together and along the way fell in love and
married (Yours, Mine and now we have ours, (she’s a dog, but
that works!).
We always knew we wanted to be in business together and one
day while his stylist was complaining about a late Tuesday
night schedule and still at least one hour of phone calls to
ensure her customers of the next day would show for their
appointment, he said “Why don’t you have an automated email
system for that?” She asked ‘Can you find that for me?” he
said sure, and set out to locate that solution. Three years
and many sleepless nights later, we had to create the solution
ourselves because Michael was never able to find the solution
she had asked for!
Michael’s background is in information technology, mine in
business and finance so we put these two together as we saw
the beauty professionals struggle using 20th century tools in
the 21st century. That’s what gave us Client Keeper for the
Beauty Professionals and our Cosmo Success Kit educational
system. I wrote the software and educational tools because I
did not see this need filled by any other tools. Everywhere I
looked products were taught, gave to and trained by salon
owners. I kept thinking “what about the individual?”
Michael and I searched out software developers and once the
product was ready, we thought “how lucky, now we can give this
to the beauty industry”!
Well, surprise to us, the individual never thought about
software so they didn’t realize Client Keeper was for them!
The individual used manual calendars, receipt books, index
cards and the salon owners used computers. No-one even thought
about automated email reminders, even the booth renter was
unaware of what we could do for them with this tool. The salon
owner controlled so much of the computer knowledge and
utilization – wow, rude awakening to us. We tried ads in
Modern Salon for big dollars, 4 internet web site companies
who promised to deliver visibility to the beauty professional.
I was even told by professionals to stay away because I was
not a beauty professional myself! The years of searching for
the vehicles to deliver the message were upon us.
Imagine my surprise! I would not take hair color advice from a
fellow CPA, why wouldn’t beauty professionals take business
advice from a business professional? Michael and I had so much
to learn about the industry – it took two years before we were
even sure that Client Keeper was truly ready for prime time as
they say.
So, now that we created something we realized was not out
there we thought: Patent! We met with legal and searched and
no-one had this technology anywhere – in 2008 the patent is
almost fully completed from pended to granted – we are very
excited to share this with future products but for now our
best and brightest are focused on the Beauty Professional and
Beauty Student.
I have always believed that the relationship between
your beauty professional and client is most sacred – in some
cases most trusted with the important issue of your looks,
your skin, your hair, nails, and wow – spa therapy – it’s a
dream come true!
Today, the beauty professionals are so talented, they deserve
to know their clients, provide great service and make lots of
money. Client Keeper tracks your customers, communicates with
them, and keeps your schedule full utilizing our patented
interactive/automated/email/schedule/calendar system (what a
mouthful!) and my favorite: reports on revenue for every
client every day, every process!
What future plans (without giving too much away) do you have
for your sensational software?
As the individual beauty professional turns to software as a
great solution for bringing growth to their revenue numbers,
Client Keeper will grow with them with specialties in spa
software, multiple user versions, shared email and calendars
to name a few enhancements on the horizon. Some of our
knowledge comes from working with important partners such as
www.sharambrosia.com
and industry experts like
www.thebeautyresource.com who have embraced the
progressive nature of our software and educational tools.
I love that you are so inspirational to those in the beauty
business. You have also created some fabulous marketing tools
for those that work in salons and spas. Please tell us more
about this side of what you do.
There are many
industries with tried and tested marketing tools that can be
shared with the beauty profession. My goal, through tools like
the Cosmo Success Kit, budgeting tools, articles emphasizing
the professional/client relationship is to bring as much
financial success to the individual as possible.
I believe that the professional is not dependent on the one
goal of owning a salon of their own. I believe they can have a
huge financial win using their own talent and skill without
the headache of owning the salon or spa (who wants to worry
about the power bill and the building rent!). I think its time
that the beauty professional be as talented a business
professional as they are skilled as an artist.
In these difficult economic times our beauty profession will
still thrive as long as we are able to share ideas on how to
market to each other’s clients (don’t want to give away too
many marketing secrets!). Seriously, in my heart I am a
teacher. This is my opportunity to share what I have learned
in business situations with those in the beauty profession and
I am thrilled to do so!
On top of all of this, you are an author as well. Your skills
just don't stop there, because you have created your own
publishing company too! Please tell us more about these
endeavors.
I guess, from this
reading, that you may realize I think I have a lot to say
(must be the Italian/Jewish thing).
In 28 years of Corporate America as a woman facing the glass
ceiling at every level, I felt the message of hope and the
path through that glass ceiling was something I had become an
expert at! So was born “A Woman’s Ladder To Success is Paved
With Broken Glass Ceilings”. The book was published in January
2007 under ESO publishing which I created for aspiring
writers. I am currently preparing to publish for two more
wonderful authors here in 2008. My goal is to bring women from
high school to mid-life career some humor (great cartoons in
the book), a sense of hope and steps to follow to break
through any glass barrier in their career and life choices.
Many different environments mirror the issues of major
corporations; from Wall Street to Main Street, all the way to
the White House, the Glass Ceiling rides again – the book is
my way of bringing the message to women everywhere.
With all of the hats that you wear, I'm hoping that you get
some time in for yourself. :) What are your hobbies and what
do you enjoy doing when you're not working?
When I am not
working, sleeping or kissing my husband, I am worrying about
my now young adult sons and have the most fun singing.
Whenever and wherever they will listen! My favorite spot is
Laguna Beach, California, which seems odd since I live in the
desert. The crashing of the waves reminds me of the purity of
nature and spirit in the world. My vision is to be writing
many more books, educational tools and fun stories from a room
with a view of that very ocean scene – someday.
Thank you
Sharon for giving me this great opportunity to share. You are
a wonderful interviewer! AND a very dear friend from a
distance….
Completely my pleasure, Diane, thank you!
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