First appeared in WORKING WOMAN in June 1996
Reprinted with permission of WORKING WOMAN Magazine
Written by Suzi Parker
Copyright c1996 by WORKING WOMAN Magazine
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The three rooms are the nerve center of a thriving enterprise. From morning to night, a full-time staff of five, supplemented by as many as four part-timers during peak periods, handles the five phone lines, operates six computers and generates enough paper to keep two fax machines and a copier humming. The CEO keeps a firm grip on the operation, opening each piece of business mail, reviewing all bills and signing every check. That may sound control-obsessed, but hey, her name's on the door: HELOISE.
Heloise is both a brand name and a living person (real name: Ponce Kiah Marchelle Heloise Cruse Evans), and the household-hints maven really is CEO of her own business, Heloise, Inc. She took over when her mother, the original Heloise, died in 1977. Like many executives, Heloise, 45, is fascinated by the communications potential of the Internet. In February, she inaugurated her own Web site (www.heloise.com). She still offers tips on stain removal and cooking the perfect souffle, but now she's just as likely to advise on fax etiquette (don't use full-page cover sheets--they're wasteful) and setting up the perfect home office (after you've recorded your voice-mail message, check it from an outside line). "Going on the Web brings Heloise, Inc., full circle," she says. "This invites everyone in cyberspace into my kitchen." Interactive media now joins the six other divisions--books, lectures, newspapers, magazines, radio, TV--of the Heloise empire. "It's not my mother's era anymore," Heloise explains. Maybe not, but it seems there'll always be a market for practical advice, whether you read it in the paper or download it to your hard drive.