Date: Fri 12-Feb-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

BPW-young-careerist-business

Full Text:

business / library

2/12

with photo

Ann LoBosco Named BPW Young Careerist

Ann LoBosco (left) has been named the Newtown Business & Professional Women's

Club's 1999 Young Careerist. She was presented with the award by Ginger

Humeston, the organization's co-president. -Bee Photo, Valenta

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Ann LoBosco has been named the Newtown Business & Professional Women's 1999

Young Careerist. The annual award recognizes young successful professional

women who live or work in Newtown and is part of a statewide competition.

A graduate of the University of Connecticut at Storrs with a degree in

business management, Ann LoBosco is an independent beauty consultant for Mary

Kay cosmetics and has a keen interest in child care legislation.

"I've been very lucky when it comes to child care, but that hasn't been the

case for a lot of my friends who work," she said. "The stress level of knowing

they have to be at the day care center at 5:30 to get their children can be

incredible. Women have a difficult time achieving their full potential when

they are stressed about day care."

After graduating from college, Ann LoBosco worked as the office manager of an

executive search firm in Stamford. In 1988 she married Charles LoBosco, now

director of sales for a White Plains, N.Y., company that provides maintenance

contracts for commercial office buildings.

"Our son, Charlie, was born in 1990," Mrs LoBosco said. "We were living in a

condo in Stamford and wanted to buy a house so we started to look around. I

came to Newtown to visit a friend and fell in love with the little town, the

General Store. We bought a house on Possum Ridge Road and moved to Newtown

when our son was two years old."

Ann was able to cut her work schedule back to four days a week and continued

to commute to her job in Stamford for another year and a half until her second

son, Michael, who is now 4, was born. Then she quit her job in Stamford and

stayed home with the children.

"I guess I was home for a year when I started finding that I needed to do

something else," she said. "I got a job at the mall, at Gap Kids, a couple

nights a week. I loved it, but my husband's schedule got busy and he wasn't

able to always get home by 6 pm."

That's when she began to decide that she needed a flexible job, one that she

could do from her home, setting her own schedule.

"I have been a Mary Kay customer for 12 years and was very familiar with the

company and the product," she said. "It is a very easy business to get

started. Seventy-one percent of the consultants work other jobs so I knew it

was possible to do with young children on a part-time basis. There are so many

different kinds of women in Mary Kay, all ages, all races, from such different

backgrounds."

Mary Kay has about 500,000 consultants in 27 countries, she said. The company

has been the top-selling brand in the United States for the past five years

with ten percent of the market. But while some consultants are satisfied with

just selling the product, many, like Ann LoBosco, also see an executive career

path, an avenue which is encouraged by the company.

"Mary Kay calls it team building," she said. "My group meets once a week in

Bethel. My director is in New Mexico but I have a local mentor, a sort of

adopted director, so I have the best of both worlds."

Mrs LoBosco attends training classes frequently, traveling locally or as far

as Dallas, Tex., for an annual four-day seminar in late summer. "The training

is there, almost every month, reasonable or free," she said.

Mary Kay also is known for its incentives. A team manager of 12 consultants

gets jewelry and the use of a red Pontiac Grand Am. Move up in the company and

you'll get a Grand Prix, a GMC Jimmy, or finally the trademark pink Cadillac,

a reward for directors who have 30 consultants and achieve a specific level of

performance.

"You get a new car every two years and they pay for your insurance. There are

a lot of incentives, like wonderful expense-paid trips. There are many

`million-dollar' women in Mary Kay," Ann LoBosco said. "Of course it's not

easy. You and your 12 consultants have to produce $4,000 worth of wholesale

sales per month for four months before you can get the first car."

All that is required to become a Mary Kay consultant was an investment of $100

for a showcase of products. But Ann LoBosco decided to get a business loan to

purchase an inventory of products.

"Customer service is the key to success. If I can sell a product and give it

to the customer immediately, that is much better than taking an order," she

said. "I treat my work like a business, which it is."

Ann LoBosco will attend the BPW District II Young Careerist speakoff in March.

Representatives from the Newtown, Bethel and Litchfield clubs will compete for

a chance to represent the district in the statewide competition. Last year,

Kathy Beals, a resident of Sandy Hook and member of Newtown BPW, was named

Connecticut's Young Careerist for 1998.

Newtown BPW meets at 6 pm on the first Monday of the month at local

restaurants for a dinner meeting and program. For more information, call

membership chairman Barbara Shohet at 270-8456.