Only if you meet these two sisters from Cape Cod, MA, Amy and Lisa Cole, do you notice the synergy between them and understand the power of their business. They have an incredible ability to make anybody feel at ease immediately. In this article you will learn how their experience in the corporate world helped them open their business, how the business has grown and changed, and how their knowledge of New York and their natural capacity to help others are their business core competences. We also contacted one of Amy and Lisa clients to find out her experience with Acquaint New York.
Lisa and Amy Cole
Background
Amy Cole, while pursuing her degree in physical therapy in Boston, had an internship in fashion. After she graduated, she moved to New York to work in the swimwear industry. Lisa Cole was an English major in college in Los Angeles, and when Amy was in L.A. for shows with the swimwear company, Lisa would help her. After she graduated, the president of the company Amy was working for asked if Lisa would like to work for him, and she accepted and moved to New York. The company was mainly the president, Amy and Lisa.
Entrepreneurial Experience
Both Amy and Lisa recognize the impact working at the swimwear company had on their entrepreneurial lives. Every two years they would go after new clients, while keeping previous ones, and they would ask if the clients wanted the swimwear company to license and create new swimwear for them. Therefore, they had to create a new team, hire a production manager, a production assistant, and constantly put new businesses together. Ten years working for this company made them realize they had acquired the knowledge to build a business from the ground up and gave them the confidence to consider starting their own company. Before they resigned, they met every other Wednesday to discuss what kind of business they would like to run and to perfect their idea. Lisa quit in May and Amy in August, and they registered Acquaint New York in October 2001.
Acquaint New York (A.N.Y.)
While still at the swimwear company, according to Lisa, they were often considered the “big sisters”, helping young women in the office find housing, adjust to the city or evaluate their careers. In addition, a career director in a college outside New York often recommended that students contact Amy and Lisa with questions about housing and employment in the city. By consistently helping others and being asked valid questions regarding housing, neighborhoods, and employment, they realized the knowledge they had acquired from living in New York City for over 15 years was valuable and could be the basis of a successful business.
During the business planning process Amy and Lisa took classes, participated in small business seminars, met with small business coaches, talked to attorneys and accountants, and traveled around in order to create an effective business model and marketing strategy. Acquaint New York offers personalized services to young women such as:
- Networking: Connecting diverse and young professionals;
- Events: Monthly events in which they invite people from different fields to speak to members of the A.N.Y. network;
- Housing: They work with their clients and with building managers to find affordable housing and the right neighborhood;
- College tour: They give seminars about relocating to New York and other urban environments, keeping their costs low by traveling by car;
- Employment: Services include revising resumes and tailoring them to a particular job or industry, mock interviews, tips on thank you notes, and then, they call everybody they know in that particular field to see if they are hiring;
- Recruiting: Companies are getting to know the quality of the service provided by Acquaint New York, and they contact Amy and Lisa when they need to hire.
Even though A.N.Y. has competitors in different areas of its business, none of them offer all services in one. Amy emphasizes the fact that for realtors, clients are just a number, but at A.N.Y. their personality, financial capabilities and desires are taken into consideration to help clients make a good, affordable decision before signing a lease.
Knowing the faces and names of everyone in their network, understanding their needs and wants, and being able to help them by tailoring their resumes, giving advice on interviews and appropriate follow-up protocol, matching their personalities with a suitable neighborhood, and creating relevant networking events are some of the areas which best define Acquaint New York.
“The whole business model is based on two sisters taking young women under their wings.” Lisa Cole
Family Business
Amy and Lisa are two years apart, and they were always close growing up. They have a mutual respect and admiration. Since the first year they worked at the swimwear company they realized they could work perfectly well together. They understand their differences and draw from one another’s strengths to define their roles. Their personalities are complementary; Amy is the motivator, great with people, and Lisa takes care of the back end of the business, creating the written material, researching schools, and contacting building managers.
Business Evolution
* Time Management
Two and a half years after they started A.N.Y., Amy and Lisa better manage their time. Lisa has a child and another on the way, and she feels that their work is more efficient, compared to when they started, when they were working late at night, going out and networking 5 nights a week, and volunteering their time to institutions without generating business. Amy agrees and adds that their lives are definitely more fulfilling now.
* Contacts
In the beginning, they counted mainly on personal networking to help them with employment opportunities for their clients. After a while they realized they couldn’t keep calling the same people, and they had to grow their network. Now they have business relationships with companies that have hired A.N.Y. women, are happy with them, and when they need to hire again they contact Amy and Lisa, and that has been a new and growing relationship. Lisa recognizes that it is fair to get help from friends at the start, but then the business needs to find other ways to grow.
* Target Market
When they started they knew they would work with women, but their target was too broad. Later they realized that by focusing on a well-defined niche, A.N.Y. could really flourish. For example, they were targeting women at any age and experience, and they realized the scope of work when trying to help someone with over 20 years of experience find a job is very different than helping recent graduates look for a position. One of A.N.Y.’s secrets to success has been to focus on women one to ten years into their careers.
Rewards
Amy and Lisa always thought of having their own business, and doing it has been the greatest reward. Furthermore, the feedback and appreciation they receive not only from their women clients but also from their families are incredible. They gave an example of a client from Wisconsin who contacted them and within a 3-month period was established in New York, with an apartment and a job, and she thanked them for helping her dream come true.
Advice
Amy’s advice is to follow what she and Lisa did before jumping out of the corporate world: “Put it on paper and answer the question: Is it really of interest to the person on the other end?” Lisa reminds Women and Biz readers that there is risk involved and that an entrepreneur needs to be a risk taker. She mentioned that they were fortunate to make a profit in the first year, however she insists that they kept their costs low, they invested their own money, didn’t have overhead costs and had home offices. Amy commented that financially owning a business is a different world than working for a corporation, and they watch their personal and business expenses carefully.
Lessons
Having a niche and staying focused are lessons Amy and Lisa learned by keeping an eye on what was going on with their business and analyzing what they could do differently in order to maintain their high-quality customer service.
Plans for the future
Amy and Lisa’s plans for the future include hiring full-time employees that would represent A.N.Y. in a way in which both sisters would feel proud. Ideally, they both want a person to head each unit of their business while maintaining their trademark “personal” style, which is what Amy and Lisa consider to be A.N.Y.’s major strength. They are also planning to have offices in other major cities in the United States to represent Acquaint New York, as long as they can find the right people with enough knowledge of each city.
For more information about Acquaint New York, Amy Cole and Lisa Cole and to join their network, visit www.acquaintnewyork.com.