Victoria Lowe: My Business Journal

CBN.com

IT'S NOT JUST BUSINESS AS USUAL

Victoria Lowe knows the highs and lows of business first hand. In 1995, she started her company Alert Staffing and earned 3-4 million dollars in the first year. In February of 2001 the Los Angeles Business Journal wrote that Victoria’s company, Alert Staffing, “Made the top of the list of the largest women-owned businesses in Los Angeles County, with revenues of $200 million in 2000 – a 37 percent increase over 1999.” 

Victoria had partnered up with industry giant, Adecco, which owned a 49 percent stake. Victoria credits her business success to entering the staffing business at a good time and having God's favor. 

She had contracts with many Fortune 500 companies – Sprint, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Proctor & Gamble, Motorola Corp., etc.

She walked in the principles of God and was open with her walk.  She proclaimed Jesus and walked in integrity, worked hard, and had the Spirit of excellence. Also, the people she chose to hire were people who bought into the vision God gave her and operated with passion. Unfortunately, in a business dispute, Adecco sued for breach of contract in a damaging lawsuit that ran from 2006-2008.

THE MAKINGS OF A CHRISTIAN ENTRERENEUR           

Victoria had a good example in her parents who owned the largest minority trucking firm in the Midwest. It would take 12 years for Victoria to open her own company, but along the way she learned some valuable lessons which would pave the way for Alert's success: perseverance, optimism, belief in service to God and community, and strategic planning.

She grew up a Jehovah's Witness and didn’t truly know who God was. Her parents worked hard but had no spiritual principles to really follow. They were hard working people of integrity.

After college Victoria lived in Chicago. But it was in college where Victoria began a major search to find God. She started attending a church in Chicago and accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior. She grew at that church for one year. After a time, Victoria moved to Los Angeles to live with her sister who was expecting a baby and to be with Victoria's then boyfriend. 

She made a professional transition in LA and got a job with a staffing company, Remedy Staffing.  Here she learned a lot about business, recruiting and placing the right people in the right jobs. Victoria also learned she was a good salesperson. For many years she was a top seller and taught others how to win.            

Victoria grew spiritually and professionally. After eight years of working with Remedy Staffing, she went through another life changing transition. By this time, she was married and pregnant, and during this pregnancy had a life altering moment. 

At about three months she went into early labor and as a result, had to spend the remaining months off  her feet and out of work. During this time, God placed on her heart that He had work for her to do and that the baby would be fine. Also during this time, God told her to start her own staffing company.  After the birth of her daughter, Victoria quit her job and started the company in her living room a few months later.            

Before her pregnancy, Victoria describes herself as a babe in Christ, a "Sunday Christian."  She underwent a real spiritual transformation during the pregnancy – there was an anointing and calling on her life. God ministered to her. This was an auspicious time as she had a new house, a new baby, new company – it was truly a leap of faith. 

She borrowed $10,000 from a Jewish friend, $10,000 from her in-laws, and maxed out her credit cards to start Alert Staffing.

One of the Bible passages that Victoria clung to during this time was 1 Corinthians 2:9, "...No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”  

Her associate did the operations and Victoria sold their services. EDS became their first big contract.  In the first year her company got more business than they could service. After one-amd-a-half years with business steady, Victoria sensed that God told her to go national with the company.  Her company ended up partnering with the largest staffing company in the world, Adecco. Victoria handled the minority arm and one of her first contracts was for $12 million. At this time Victoria lived in LA and commuted to Dallas.            

Victoria spent two years in Dallas building the company and securing new contracts. The business boomed, and they got contracts of $20 and $30 million dollars. The company had $80 million in contracts in about two years. After about the third year of business, Victoria's partner company went through a leadership change, and her company and that company had a battle over a big contract. The partner company tried to take away the contract and destroy Victoria's company. The companies negotiated for three years to try and settle the matter.

In 2002, Victoria's company had to file for bankruptcy for $20 million. By a miracle of God, the company came out of it, which most companies rarely do – and they did it in eight months. While she was in the midst of this bankruptcy battle, Victoria wrote her book, 10 Spiritual Principles of Successful Women. 

Unfortunately, one of the casualties of the battle was her marriage before starting over. She started a new company, New Co., and bought assets from her previous company for under $100,000.  New Co. ran for one-and-a-half years before Victoria shut down the company in 2006. She sensed that God was telling her it was time to leave the staffing business and go into full-time ministry. God directed her to move to Frisco, Texas (a town outside of Dallas) to start it.   

Her new ministry will help develop Christian businesses and business people for God's purposes.  She is also in the process of writing a new book and launching her first conference, “The Entreprenurial Experience 2008" (March 26 – 30, 2008) at The Founders Inn & Spa in Virgina Beach, VA. A first of it’s kind all inclusive three day, four night spiritual business conference.

LESSONS SHE'S LEARNED

Victoria says there are many highs and lows in every success story. In her story, she's fought major battles ... many, many battles, and the greatest lessons come from many struggles. Victoria believes that God will put you in battles to be a light for others. Some powerful principles that helped her through her battles are prayer, and her faith and trust in God. Obedience to God and doing things with integrity are other elements that have helped her. 

She put these dreams and visions  that God gave her in motion by developing a “strategic action plan,”  which consists of a vision statement, mission statement, goals/objectives, and action steps.  She places all of the steps on a calendar along with the name of the person responsible for accomplishing the task. She updates her action plan every quarter. It’s amazing how much can be accomplished when you have a plan.