The award-winning Essential Data Corporation, which provides technical writing and documentation expertise to more than 300 clients nationwide, is not only holding its own; it is thriving and growing in a weak economy that is rivaled only by the Great Depression.

In a year when many small-businesses have ceased to exist or experienced significant loss of jobs and revenue, EDC’s revenue has increased by more than 50 percent, according to Antoinette Allocca, founder and president of Essential Data. Allocca anticipates similar growth this year.

 “We are not recession proof. We are recession resistant because of our business model,” Allocca said. That is reflected in the company’s bottom line and in EDC’s pursuit of talent to add to its teams at more than 30 locations throughout the country.

 “I am offering jobs in this economy,” said Allocca, whose company was recently named to Inc. magazine’s list of America’s fastest growing privately-owned companies. EDC is among only .01 percent of small businesses recognized by Inc. 500 magazine from about 30 million such businesses in the U.S.

 It’s not just the company that is thriving. EDC is creating opportunities for its staff. Even in this economic climate, many of EDC’s managers in many of its markets continue to earn between $200,000 and a half million dollars.

 Allocca said she plans to double the number of producers EDC currently employs. “Attracting and retaining a sales force is critical to our business,” said Allocca, who interviews candidates every day. “The ability to attract and retain the best people is the cornerstone of our success,” she said.

Allocca believes that is one of many factors which contribute to the success of her company. EDC is also doing better than most in a down economy because Allocca has made sure it is diversified, that it has a local presence, it serves the public and private sectors, and because its business model includes quality of life incentives that are attractive to the top talent that EDC recruits for its writers and sales staff – the latter of which Allocca calls engagement managers.

Another factor is Allocca’s foresight to take her company national at a time when similar companies were scaling back. “Had I not gone nation-wide we could have faced possible bankruptcy,” Allocca said. “You can’t afford to be local. You have to diversify to stay in business, to succeed,” she said.

Also enhancing the company’s growth is its specific service and the broad need for such a service. “This is a service which any company in any industry in any geographic location potentially needs. We’re a specialist and a generalist. We can work in any company, in any industry or vertical, in the public or private sector,” she said.

EDC helps develop for its clients the user-friendly documentation for new technology.

“We provide resources that come in and document critical systems and applications for clients. If it’s an IT project it might be a regulatory issue that they need documented. It might be a new system, it might be a training program developed for their people. We provide the resources with the skill and expertise to create that for them, thereby maximizing their profitability, their efficiency or their security,” said EDC Vice President Tom Walsh.

“Growth or change feed a need for our documentation services. The public sector is growing and the private sector is changing,” Allocca said. “Technology is not going to go away. It just changes form. Everybody uses technology. We might be the bridge between the folks that develop the technology and everyone using the system,” she said.

Change within a company can also lead to growth, according to Walsh. “We’re bearing the fruits of changes we put in place years ago and have been working on over the last decade. Antoinette fosters an environment that is very adaptable. Some companies, particularly big companies get very set in their ways and very rigid. They do things the same way year in and year out. We don’t. We’re always asking ourselves what we can do different, what can we do better. We’re not afraid to implement new things,” Walsh said.

Allocca abandoned an earlier trial and error approach to the company’s hiring practices, which relied heavily on in-house training, to instead recruit professionals with specific backgrounds: sales experience in staffing, technology or consulting. Successful candidates’ background coupled with Allocca’s training program allows them to transition very quickly, hit the ground running, and produce more quickly.

 “That’s what has contributed to our explosive growth,” she said.

The need for adaptability and flexibility is hard-wired into Allocca’s business philosophy. “If you’re not moving forward you’re moving backward,” she said.

Essential Data is also a woman-owned business, and recently has received 8 (a) set-aside certification from the federal government. EDC is the only technical writing company in the U.S. to have such designation. As a result of that, EDC was awarded a $3.5 million project in which EDC partnered with Computer Science Corporation, a government contractor, to provide documentation services for EDC’s client, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.

Under Allocca’s leadership and direction, EDC has grown into a multi-million dollar business with offices and employees in more than 30 locations nationwide. EDC has won the Outstanding Employer Award and was recognized as the fastest growing women owned business by Working Woman Magazine for two consecutive years. She was also honored for her success as one of the top 500 business owners in the U.S. at a White House dinner.

The rundown:

A DVR operating instruction manual. An assembly manual for a coffee table. A how-to guide for using the latest smart phone. What do all of these have in common? They are the results of the hard work of a technical writer. For those who are tech savvy and keep a copy of a MacBook instruction manual handy for their bedside reading, a career as a technical writer may be the right fit. Your job as a technical writer would be to translate difficult-to-understand information into layman’s terms (think: operating instructions, how-to manuals, assembly instructions, and online help information). You may work in engineering, scientific, or healthcare fields, simplifying highly specialized information for the average Joe. Also, you’d work with computers and electronic publishing software, including graphic design, page layout, and multimedia software. Some technical writers who are self-employed or work for a technical consulting firm do freelance or contract work.

The outlook:

Future employment for technical writers looks bright, especially for those with strong Web and multimedia skills, according to estimates by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Technical writing positions are expected to grow by more than 18 percent, or 8,900 jobs, by 2018. There will be an increasing demand for technical writers who specialize in law, science, or technology. Keep in mind that technical writers will prosper only to the degree their industry does—so jobs in healthcare, for instance, may be more secure than jobs in other fields more vulnerable to downsizing or offshoring.

Money:

Median pay for technical writers was $62,700 in 2009. The lowest-paid technical writers earn less than $37,000, and the highest-paid positions earn more than $100,000. In some industries, offshoring may put downward pressure on pay.

Upward mobility:

Advancement for technical writers entails working on more complex assignments, leading or training junior staff, and getting enough work to be a full-time freelancer. Keeping up with the latest technology is essential. It helps if you’re comfortable working as a contractor, since companies increasingly prefer to hire that way.

Activity level:

Relatively low. With continued advances in laptop computers and wireless communications, technical writers can work from virtually any location with Internet access.

Stress level:

Moderate to high. Expect to work early mornings, late nights, and weekends to meet deadlines or coordinate with clients in different time zones. These deadline pressures and work hours can often lead to stress, fatigue, and even burnout. Extended time spent in front of computers can lead to eyestrain and back pain.

Education and preparation:

You will need a college degree, some knowledge in a technical subject, as well as Web design and computer graphics experience. Employers look for technical writers with a bachelor’s degree, preferably in communications, journalism, or English. It is becoming common for technical writers to have a degree in a specialized field, such as engineering, business, or science. Also, familiarity with Web design, electronic publishing, and computer graphics is becoming more valuable in this digital age.

Real advice from real people about landing a job as a technical writer:

“The key is to be able to talk to the technical experts—be they engineers, auto mechanics, food specialists, or doctors—then interpret what they say and write it down in clear English that other people can understand. One way to get started is to write non-fiction wherever and whenever you can. Write articles for local newsletters (everybody has a newsletter), websites, or blogs. Write instructions, training materials, or safety procedures at your current job. Even learn to write a book. In all cases, keep a copy of everything you write so you can show people what you’ve done.”—John Hedtke, owner of JVH Communications in Eugene, Ore., and author of 26 books and nearly 200 magazine articles

Following the old adage “follow the money,” Allocca shifted her company’s primary focus from the private sector to the public sector. The federal stimulus money being poured into the economy was too much for her to ignore.

As a result, Fairfield base Essential Data Corporation is headed for its biggest year yet. The company, which Allocca founded about 20 years ago, specializes in technical writing and consulting. Most of Allocca’s technical writers and sales staff – or engagement managers, as she calls them work in offices within the markets they serve. She has people working for her in more than 50 locations throughout the U.S., including an office in Norwalk.

“The economic stimulus plan is helping us tremendously,” Allocca said from her Easton home office. “Money is being pumped into the public sector. The federal government is our best friend. I’ve never said that before.”

Allocca said there is help out there for small businesses. Being a woman-owned business opened even more doors for Essential Data Corporation, but the company’s latest certification will take that to the next level, Allocca said.

She found out this month that Essential Data Corporation has been certified by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program. The certification makes her company eligible to receive 8(a) business contracts.

In other words: “It’s the gold seal,” Allocca said. “It’s the most exciting thing that’s happened to my business. We’re eligible for government set-asides, not just government goals. This certification levels the playing field for small businesses”

According to the Small Business Administration, the 8(a) program is to: “assist minority, women and service disabled veterans with set-aside contracts for federal projects”

“In the public sector the government enforces compliance and goals,” she said. “Those companies have to partner with diversity-owned businesses. Government contractors are exploding and business is thriving in that area.”

Allocca said it took her company a year and a half to receive the certification. She said she was ecstatic when she heard the news from company vice president Tom Walsh.

The certification will mean more work for her employees. That, she said, is what the economic stimulus plan was designed to do.

“As a small company grows, its people make more money and the economy as a whole improves,” she said.

By entering the public sector, Essential Data Corporation works with government agencies, military bases, government contractors and public companies with government contracts, such as AT&T. She said there are upwards of 80 major government contractors and her company is targeting 25-30 of them.

She sensed that her business was beginning to slow in the private sector and last fall made the decision to jump into the public sector with both feet.

The public sector now accounts for 60 percent of Essential Data Corporation’s business.

“If I stayed in the private sector, we would have been going through the same tough times as everyone else,” she said.

The switch to the public sector actually started in 2006 for her company when two of her employees suggested the move. By 2007, the company had already closed a few public sector deals.

“I knew I was vulnerable. I was too heavy in the financial industry, so I wanted to go nationwide,” Allocca said. “All this started in 2006. If we started now, we’d be way behind. Timing in business is critical.”

She admits the public sector can be “painstaking” to work with, endless paperwork and certifications to achieve. But she’s glad she changed the company’s focus.

“The economic recovery can’t start from the private sector. They don’t have money,” Allocca said. “The money has to come from somewhere. The answer is the government has to spend more. Eventually it will come from the private sector again.”

The average length of a contract in the private sector, Allocca said, is less than one year. In the public sector, contracts last about five years.

“You have to learn more, but it’s a lot more stable,” said Mark Greenspan, Essential Data Corporation’s chief financial officer and Allocca’s husband.

The basic philosophy of the company will not change, however, said Greespan.

“We won’t let a job fail, ever,” Greenspan said. “We have a long track record of that.”

Technical writing is a burgeoning business, Allocca said, because it transcends what the average person thinks the profession entails. Software manuals, disaster recovery plans, and Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPPA compliance reports usually require a technical writer. Health care reform would open even more doors for technical writers, she said.

“Technical developers usually don’t like to write and often don’t have time to write,” Allocca said. “Technical writing may not be a glamorous type of writing, but it’s necessary.”

Peter Majkowski and his wife Barbara recently visited colleges with their son, Michael, a high school senior in the Lehigh Valley, and watched the talented young musician perform in a concert at one of the schools. When Majkowski routinely put in 12 hour days as regional vice president of a city financial firm five years ago, many experiences like this were lost. He is now the satellite manager of Essential Data Corp.’s Lehigh Valley office.

“What Essential Data has really done for me, is it allowed me to have both the time and the money to afford to send him on these programs,” Majkowski said of his son, who plays the trumpet and guitar.

While Majkowski still drives into the city twice a week to meet with clients, most of his work is near his home, something that is not unusual for an Essential Data executive.

In fact, the technical writing and consulting company’s founder and CEO Antoinette Allocca has been expanding her technical writing business toward its goal of becoming a national corporation. Allocca is managing to avoid time consuming road trips and long lines at airport security checkpoints by hiring satellite managers like Majkowski, who independently operate close to home in offices located in target states, and by staying in constant communication with them and valuable clients via a satellite phone system. Her strategy has allowed Essential Data to open offices in 30 states.

Essential Data Corp. (EDC) takes talented executives, who are feeling burned out and under-compensated in their jobs, and breathes new life into them by providing the opportunity to make presentations before top executives in some of the nation’s biggest firms, giving them the independence of setting their own hours for a comfortable work-life balance, and by paying them a salary that is significantly higher than the industry standard. Allocca said consultants and managers are paid up front, adding Essential Data’s managers, on average, quadruple their annual earnings within their first two years with the company.

“I couldn’t have gotten a better salary if I were running my own business,” Majkowski said.

But, then again, Majkowski said becoming a satellite manager for Essential Data is like starting your own business without investing your own hard earned money into the venture. “It gives you the enjoyment of the work you do and the feeling of freedom and empowerment from running your own business,” Majkowski said, “and you can avoid the risk but reap the rewards. Essential Data Corp. takes on the risk.”

Allocca said the playing field is tilted in her satellite managers’ favor from the start. “Clients are desperate for our services,” she said, “and there is not a lot of competition.”

EDC’s managers receive ongoing training, access to other managers, and support from EDC’s executive team, which includes Allocca, Chief Financial Officer Mark Greenspan and Vice President Tom Walsh, who works out of EDC’s corporate headquarters in Stamford, Conn. Once a week, EDC’s satellite managers participate in a teleconference with the entire team.

EDC’s rapid growth and nurturing of its talented employees has not gone unnoticed. The technical writing company has earned the Outstanding Employer Award and was recognized as one of the fastest growing women owned businesses from Working Woman Magazine in 1999. EDC has been featured over 25 times in national and international publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Der Spiegel and USA Today.

Antoinette Allocca, who now lives in Easton, leaned on the executive’s promise to hire Vital to document all of the systems in his department if he passed the audit with their help. The potential reward would be great, be cause CitiGroup could become a lucrative client. And Allocca also banked on the executive’s desperation over what a second failed audit would mean to his job status.

Allocca went to her company’s president and said, “What if I show you what we can do?”

She made a presentation with John Lieberman, a “superstar” technical writer, and got the green light from her boss. And after completing their jobs….

“We passed the module to the auditor and he said. “This is the best piece of documentation that I have seen in my career,” Allocca recalled proudly while sitting in the living room of her Easton home on Friday afternoon.

It was this kind of forward thinking that propelled Allocca’s own company, Essential Data Corporation to become the biggest player in the technical writing field years later. With a Stamford headquarters and a new office sprouting up every week, Essential Data is well on it way to becoming a national company.

Essential Data Corp. is capitalizing on the growing need for companies to provide accurate documentation of procedures, systems, and programs for their employees and outside auditors.

“Clients are desperate for our services,” Allocca said. “Documentation allows their systems to be more efficient and profitable.”

Allocca founded Essential Data in 1987 when the company produced $1 million in sales. Three years later sales grew to $20 million before peaking at $25 million in 2000.

Profits dropped steadily during the recession, but Allocca prepared her company for a massive expansion effort once the harsh economic times passed. Now Essential Data is back on track, and Allocca projects $30 million in sales by the end of this year.

And most of the expansion has taken place from her home office. Essential Data now has satellite managers in New York, New Jersey, California (the Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Orange County), Arizona, Illinois, Minnesota, Washington, Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. She expects to have 50 offices by 2007.

Antoinette’s transformation

In 1988, Allocca married Mark Greenspan, who also worked at Vital and is now chief operating officer at Essential Data, and she became pregnant with their first child, Simone. By that time, Allocca was the top sales producer at Vital and was elevated to partner – but, professionally, she felt unfulfilled.

For one thing, Allocca’s promotion did not include as increase in her salary. “It dawned on me: “I’m doing all the work and they are keeping most of the profits,” she said of her two partners. “Even though my income was a quarter of a million dollars, it was a quarter of what they were earning off of me.”

Allocca quit her job and devoted her time to her new company, Essential Data, and in 1995 she took a course at the Women’s Business Development Center to learn how to grow her business.

“They made some suggestions to me about hiring people who are experienced, so I hired someone from the Senior Placement Center if Stamford, which finds jobs for people age 55 and up.”

Allocca salaries that were higher than the industry standard. Within six months, Allocca said her new employees earned a six-figure income.

“After this guy took off, I put in an ad and I had guys that were ex Wall Streeters who wanted to work for me,” Allocca said.

Allocca had discovered an opportunity. By hiring older employees who fell victim to massive layoffs during the era of corporate downsizing, she benefited from wisdom gained through years of experience.

Essential Data had shared office space in Stamford but now Allocca was able to mover her company into a large eight-desk office within the building.

“I interviewed a guy with an MBA from Villanova,” she said “and I thought, “He’ll never take this job. We’re a little company.”

But Allocca was surprised when the prospective job candidate called her from his cell phone. “He said, ‘I though about it on the way to the car and realized I should have pounced on this.’ I hired him. Now I had two guys.”

The economy picked up in 1996 and Allocca filled up all eight desks, before relocating to an office with 14 desks at 45 Church Street – which she promptly filled up with a hungry staff.

From sea to shining…..

Essential Data was riding high in the ‘90’s, but it was no immune to the economic downturn in the national economy. By the year 2000, profits steadily dropped and some of Allocca’s older executives, whose annual earnings had climbed to a high of $500,000 started to retire.

“Now I found myself not going to the office in Stamford,” Allocca said. “I was more energized. I could see the whole picture.”

Allocca promoted recruiter, Tom Walsh, to company vice president and started to work from home. While taking walks and reflecting on her past experiences, Allocca remembered a conversion she had had with a former employee over coffee, which reminded her of her original plans for Essential Data.

“She said, ‘What’s your vision of this company?” Allocca recalled. “And I said, ‘I wanted to be a leader in technical writing and be a nationwide consulting company.

After 9/11 tragedy, American’s way of life, including the way the do business, changed forever. Seeing the World Trade Center’s twin towers crumble to the ground forced companies to plan more for unexpected disasters – and an opportunity for technical writers emerged.

Companies now had to devise disaster plans in the event of another attack. That, coupled with state and federal regulations, as well as corporate planning and programs, caused a dramatic increase in demand for written documentation.

Allocca initially assigned each one of her salespeople a state, but the effort failed. She realized she had to have people on the ground and had to become more involved in the hiring process.

Allocca wanted to expand without constantly flying out of state, so she hired satellite managers who opened home offices in other states. Managers communicate with her, the technical writer and their clients via satellite phone system installed in her house.

John Dolan, who opened an office in Boston six months ago, already had Fidelity Investments and State Street Bank as clients. Dolan said joining Essential Data is alike opening a franchise for free.

“It gives you a feeling of ownership of what you do,” he said.

Striking a balance

By having a home office, Dolan said he is able to spend more quality time with his wife Suzanne and their two young children, Bridgette and Peter, when he’s not pounding the pavement and working the phones for new clients in Boston.

Working form home has also make Allocca’s family closer.

Greenspan said he does not miss the long commute he used to take from northern Stamford to New York every day. And, Allocca added, she now has more energy when she is home.

“I’ve become a very involved father because of this,” Greenspan said, “because I don’t have to commuter four hours a day.”

Allocca and Greenspan built their dream home in Easton and moved into it in 2003. Their daughter Simone, who is now 17, is enrolled in a boarding school, and their daughter Judy, 15 is as well. Allocca said their son Joey, who goes to Helen Keller Middle School in town, and their youngest daughter Olivia, 8, a Samuel Staples Elementary School third grader, are always happy to see their parents when they come home from school – adding there is no shortage of hugs.

Greenspan is proud of his wife’s success with Essential Data.

“She’s a genius,” Greenspan said. “She is. She has incredible foresight and strategic ability. She’s a very persuasive, inspirational leader.”

Allocca said her husband has supported her business venture every step of the way, adding, “It’s a big difference when you have a spouse who says, “I believe in you.”

That year she was hit with a double whammy-the economic ramifications of Sept. 11, 2001 and a serious illness that nearly took her husband.

The experience spurred Allocca, 52, entrepreneur, wife and mother of four, the “rethink how to rebuild (my) business and (my) family life.”

Today, the 10-year Easton resident works from her multi-million dollar “retreat” with her husband, Mark Greenspan.

Allocca is the founder and chief executive official of Essential Data Corporation (EDC), a technical writing firm based in Stamford,

Greenspan is the Chief Operating Officer.

In the early 1980’s, while working for Vital Software Company in New York City, Allocca began conceptualizing a service that would make businesses amore efficient and profitable.

“I saw an untapped market in older workers,” Allocca said the ones who were getting laid off. The ones who had lots of professional experience.”

Programming itself can be a demanding job. “To have to write the accompanying manuals, maintenance and test procedures make it even more so,” Allocca said.

“Writing does not come easily to some of these programmers.”

After a promotion to Vice President of Marketing in Vital’s technical writing division excluded an increase in salary or bonuses, Allocca made the decision to go it alone.

Although Allocca and Greenspan, an attorney, were both seasoned professionals with sizeable incomes, the challenges of launching a new business were daunting.

“It was difficult,” Allocca said. “We had a big mortgage. It takes a lot just to get a company off the ground.”

Through EDC, Allocca answered the need for technical expertise by providing companies with writers (or “consultants”) to convert their programs into lucid prose.

EDC’s first office opened in 1988. It was a 200-square-foot space with eight desks.

Slowly but steadily, the company increased its work force and its clientele.

Then there was the “aha moment” when Allocca attended a workshop sponsored by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council.

“I realized how much potential there was in the ‘mature ‘ worker,” Allocca said.

Most of Allocca’s key staff re already in their 40’s or older.

“There were lots of reasons they were drawn to me, “ she said. “One important component was that they felt undervalued in their current jobs.”

Being older, Allocca said, they had achieved a certain level of professional success – buth there wasn’t a lot of “new things” to discover.

In 1997, EDC became a million-dollar company and moved to a new 3,000-sqaure-foot space.

By the next year, it was worth $10 million. In 1999, revenue doubled to $20 million.

Then, amidst her professional ascension, everything began to fall apart.

In the awake of 9-11, the American economy endured a nasty shake-up. Business began to decline.

Allocca remained optimistic. The world around her, however, continued to cave.

Despite her verve and insight into the changing marketplace, Allocca began undergoing several personal crises.

In 2002, Greenspan was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The couple was in the middle of building their “dream home” on a 10-acre parcel in Easton.

“We loved Easton’s rural feeling, despite being so close to New York,” Allocca said. “It reminded me of my childhood.”

She was one of five children raised by a single mother in Long Island and New Jersey.

“I wanted to get away for the intensity of the city,” she said. “My husband and I wanted a place where we could literally retreat.”

The Frank Lloyd Wright inspired, 12,000-square-foot home epitomizes modern, minimalist style.

“We were over-budget,” Allocca said. “The project dragged on and on. EDC wasn’t doing as well as it had been. My husband was very, very sick.”

Greenspan underwent aggressive chemotherapy and a double stem cell transplant.

He now is in remission.

“It’s clichéd but true,” Allocca said. “Having gone through all that I can honestly say that the dreams we’ve achieved are that much sweeter.”

Today, EDC’s client list reads lid a Whos’ Who of Fortune 100 companies, including Aetna, American Express, Dow Jones, J.P. Morgan, General Electric, Exxon, Time Warner and United Technologies.

EDC now is worth about $25 million.

The decision to work at home has rejuvenated her.

“After going through all that with (Greenspan) and building the house, there was a time when I needed to stop and reflect,” she said.

At that time, she began taking hour-long walks down Easton’s long, winding roads.

She befriended several other mothers, many of whom also were professional women.

“I became known as ‘the walker lady,” Allocca said.

Working from home is the essence of achieving the all-important” work-life balance,” she said.

She’s there when her two youngest children, Olivia, 8 and Joey 11, return home from school.

To Joey, finding his mother home in the middle of the afternoon is still something of a novelty.

“It’s great to have her here,” he said.

Olivia said spending time with her mother is important, and she loves her mother’s company.

“It’s really nice,” she said.

Allocca maintains contact with her employees through daily phone conferences.

She credits her success to her ability to “constantly evolve, adapt and be willing to take risks,” to have the “courage” to try new things but “to admit my mistakes.”

Executive managers know about and expect business cycles, “the good times” and “the bad times.” However, when a recession comes along, most companies are unprepared and may be vulnerable. Once weak companies start dropping off, feelings of apprehension and panic set into the business community. Some companies think they are “lucky” just to survive.

More than luck, it takes astute management and diligent planning to steer a company through recessions. Smart managers see opportunities in a recession, and are ready to seize opportunities and ride the waves. That is exactly what Antoinette Allocca is doing.

Learning From The Recession

“I learned a lot about my own company during the recent recession,” say Antoinette, Founder, CEO and President of Stamford-based Essential Data Corporation (EDC), an eighteen-year technical writing and documentation firm based in Stamford.

“Business was booming up until four years ago, and then things started receding,” she says. “This past year was the worst, and finances were tight. We cut our sales staff and closed our national locations,” she continues. “We were worried and very uneasy about the economic recession.”

“Then it occurred to me,” say Allocca, “that the company was changing for the better. We weren’t losing ground. We were gaining it. I realized that my own leadership skills were sound, and that EDC was on its way to a prosperous future,” she states. “Then recession forced changes in EDC that made it ready for the ‘boom’ times. And now I am preparing the company for the next downturn.”

A profitable History

Antoinette Allocca was an entrepreneur from an early age. Raised by a single mother in Long Beach, NY, Antoinette was the oldest of five children. Her first venture was created at age eight when she recruited her siblings to shovel snow for neighbors to earn extra money. Antoinette would knock on neighbor’s doors and ask if they wanted their driveways and sidewalks shoveled for $4.

After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from Hofstra University, Antoinette worked as a salesperson for companies such as Burlington Industries and Vital Software Company in Manhattan. She quickly became the top sales producer at Vital, and later proved her managerial prowess by launching and managing the company’s technical writing division.

An Untapped Market

In this role, Antoinette recognized an untapped market. When companies change computer platforms or software programs, there are no instructional manuals to educate end users on how to effectively and efficiently use the new technology. Upper management usually delegates the tasks of documentation and teaching end users to the company’s programmers.

This is a problem, because programmers are more “engineering types” than trainers or writers. Employees and managers get frustrated when the programmers are unable to deliver training sessions and written materials that are easy to understand and use.

Even before Antoinette was promoted to Vice President of Marketing at Vital, she had already conceptualized much needed services that would make businesses more efficient and profitable. When the promotion excluded an increase in annual salary, it was an easy decision for Antoinette to create her own company. In 1988, she opened EDC for business in Stamford.

In 1997, EDC earned $1 million in sales. The following year sales grew to $10 million, and in the 1999 to $20 million, a 1,900 percent increase over a three-year period. “With a solid long-range plan in place, we project the company sales to be at $100 million within five years,” says Allocca.

Today, EDC is the largest technical writing firm in the country, and services over 200 clients nationally and internationally. The majority are Fortune 500 companies. EDC positions itself by providing the highest quality technical writers available, hiring only the top one percent in the industry.

In recent months, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) have been driving more business into the company along with disaster recovery.

Strength For The Future

“EDC had enjoyed long-term success, and the stress we witnessed during the recession was a ‘wake-up call,” says Allocca. “The recession gave me time to re-think who we are, what we do, and what strategies are appropriate for the future,” she says.

“I have acquired a revitalized vision for EDC,” asserts Allocca. “Going forward, EDC will improve on client service, reinforce our internal structure and create reserves for difficult times.”

EDC is currently hiring new salespeople, and is ready to expand into all major city locations around the country in 2005.

“Our senior salespeople are taking more active role in supporting the new salespeople,” Allocca says. “We have also implement a more solid selection proves for writers and salespeople, installed a more comprehensive sales training program and have an aggressive PR program in place.

Helpful Management Hints

Client Centricity: Know your customers’/clients’ needs and challenges. Always strive to exceed their expectations.

Stay Focused: Don’t let negativities distract you. Keep your vision and priorities straight.

Rethink Strategies: Examine and re-examine your internal structure and resources. Be ready and flexible for the environmental factors you cannot control.

Human Capital: Hire wisely, retain and reward good performers, and foster employee loyalty.

Stay Lean: Even in the “boom times,” keep costs and expenses low. When cutting costs, make sure you cut the right ones, diverting resources to activities that actually create value.

Technology: The latest information systems and computer modeling software gibe you an edge over your competition.

Take it from a sharp CEO. “Well-positioned companies do better than expected in a good economy and have plenty of reserves for a recession,” says Allocca.

Recent studies show that savvy executives who manage a recession and strategically align their companies gain market share, acquire more new customers and strengthen their product and service offerings. They build a platform for profitability and future growth, even in the wake of a recession.

Colleen Hennessey is the owner of Aquila Marketing, a strategic business and communications consultancy, www.aquilamktg.com (860) 648-4609.

Over the years, competitors have fallen by the wayside. “There have been two major competitors in the past,” says Allocca. “They went out of business because they did not make the right decisions in the recessionary climate. Smaller competitors have also failed due to lack of vision and financial resources.

In an economy that has been tough on high-tech companies, EDC has survived. “The recession has been good for EDC,” says Allocca. “It has given us time to reflect, plan and re-engineer for the future. We are ready to move forward in the boom times, and have time to prepare for the next recession, she continues. “The recession actually allowed us to diversify by geographical location and industry, “ she says.

In the Beginning

There are thousands of women-owned businesses out there. So, what distinguishes the wife and mother of four from other women entrepreneurs? After earning a degree in marketing, Allocca started her career by selling textile samples to dressmakers in Manhattan. After that, she worked in retail and insurance, then landed a sales position with a software company, where she quickly became top sales producer, and later proved her managerial prowess by launching Vital Software’s technical writing division. It was at this time that Allocca became aware of an untapped market. When companies changed computer platforms or software programs, there are no instructional manuals to educate end users on how to effectively and efficiently use the new technology. Upper management usually delegates the task of teaching end users to the company’s programmers. This is a problem, because most programmers are more “engineering types” than trainers or writers.

Balancing work
and family
is not doing it all,
it is having it all

Even before Allocca was promoted to Vice President of Marketing at Vital, she conceptualized a service that would make businesses more efficient and profitable. When a promotion excluded an increase in salary or bonuses, it was an easy decision for Allocca to “go it alone” in 1988.

In 1997, EDC was a $1million company. By the next year it was worth $10 million-a 1,900 percent increase in revenues! In 1999 revenues doubled to $20 million. The firm serves 200 Fortune 500 clients and “we project the company to be a $100 million within five years, “says Allocca.

Balancing a Family and Business

While at Vital Software, Allocca met Mark Greenspan, then a project manager for Paine Webber. The couple married and bought a home in Stamford. Mark, a lawyer and computer systems consultant, now serves as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

As any working parent knows, the pressures of work and family life are many. When both parents are at the helm of a growing, prospering company, maintaining equilibrium is an even greater challenge. Although the family has a nanny, both parents are always involved in the children’s activities. Time is set side to talk with their children and there is no shortage of hugs.

“Balancing work and family is not doing it all, it is having it all. Having it all is when you have achieved flexible office hours and have help at home. You structure your company into a hierarchy and oversee the operations. You have the luxury of directing and delegating. This frees up your time to do those things which are most important in life, such as spending time with your husband and children, “Allocca says.

Formula for Success

“Forming a company is hard. It is definitely not easy, and anyone who thinks it is, will soon find out through their mistakes and mishaps. For example, because I place technical writers, I assume a great deal of risk and liability in my business. The writers I hire have to be highly qualified, efficient and accurate. I only recruit the top one percent of technical writers in the industry, and will only hire them on a referral basis.

“Every company has challenges, successes and failures. If you learn from your experiences, especially the failures, you and your company will grow beyond expectations.”

Allocca offers, “If you don’t change, you die. Change perpetuates growth. If you don’t grow, you die. Also, know that timing is everything. An entrepreneur needs to know what to do and when to do it to ensure the continuation and profitability of the business.”

Entrepreneur’s Prescription For Success

Antoinette Allocca of Essential Data Corporation (EDC) Stamford offers this list of essentials for women owners of business large, small or somewhere in between:

1. Ask yourself: What business you are in? It has to be cutting-edge business that satisfies a unique need for the market?
2. Make sure there is a great demand for the products and/or services you provide.
3. Know who your competitors are and how much market share they have.
4. Continually measure profitability, taking into consideration all possible expenses.
5. Know how to market your products or services effectively and efficiently.
6. Have vision; “think outside the box.”
7. Expand or modify products and/or services in response to the demands of the market.
8. Thoroughly know your businesses.
9. Be passionate about what you do.
10. Always meet and exceed the expectations of your clients/customers.
11. Recognize threats and opportunities.
12. Plan for and embrace change.
13. Dream big.
14. Take risks.
15. Be persistent; never give up.
16. Be resourceful.
17. Be creative.
18. Establish a unique corporate culture.
19. Be able to identify talented people.
20. Ensure that your employees are well trained and knowledgeable.
21. Provide a relaxed yet professional a productive work environment.
22. Empower your employees and provide them with good compensation.

Allocca, founder of Essential Data Corp. said her now multi-million dollar business lived off of personal savings and month-to month receivables for years before she became fully established.

“I couldn’t get a loan from the bank,” Allocca, who started the business in 1984, said. “I kind of skirted by.” In fact, Allocca didn’t land a bank loan until 1995.

Essential Data, which provides technical writers to businesses, had revenues of $30 million in 1999.

Though Allocca’s business growth has blown the majority of competitors out of the water; her start-up program is far from unusual.

Women owners of fast growth businesses are more apt to turn to business earnings and personal credit lines to finance their firms than fast growth men, who rely more on commercial loans, according to a survey out today by the National Foundation for Women Business Owners.

“The men are able to access capital to a greater extent,” Bruce Rosenthal, a spokesman for the foundation, said. “I think it’s an opportunity for the financial institutions.”

While seven out of ten fast-growth women rely on their business earnings as their primary source of capital, only about half of their male counterparts do the same, the survey of 602 women and 592 men business owners, said.

The study concentrated on fast growing firms that achieved revenue or employee growth of 30 percent or more over the past three years.

Women were also more likely to use personal credit cards to finance their businesses. In fact, one-third of fast-growth women entrepreneurs use personal credit, while only 21 percent of their male counterparts did the same.

Accounting Resource Management, a women-owned New Haven accounting consulting firm, was born on plastic, founder Sandra Glick said.

“Initially, it was really the credit card,” Glick said, on founding the business 13 years ago. “I didn’t even bother asking for capital.”

It wasn’t until 1996 that Glick went to the banks simply to set up a line of credit. Her firm has revenues in excess of $1 million.

The female founder of Connex International Inc. in Danbury borrowed more than $100,000 off of a

relative to buy the expensive technical equipment needed to start her own teleconferencing firm.

“We were ten people in search of a business,” Bobbi Heyel, president of Connex said. That was in 1981; Connex now employs more than 100 people and has revenues of more that $10 million.

“We broke even in six months,” Heyel said.

Financial institutions are missing out on fantastic business opportunities with fast-growth women-owned firms, said Teri Cavanagh, senior vice president of FleetBoston Financial, which helped underwrite the study.

Cavanagh said banks should reach out to women business owners if only to access a wider range of business opportunities.

“They’re not getting there naturally on their own,” Cavanagh said of women.

If you had asked Antoinette Allocca 18 years ago if her business would take off, she might have expressed some doubt. But Allocca, not one to give up easily, has since been honored as a prime up-and-comer among the top 500 women-owned businesses in the country by Working Woman Magazine.

Last year her company placed 461 on the list. This year it jumped to No. 381.

Essential Data Corp. which provides technical writers, documentation and training services, was recognized by the magazine last year for reaching revenues of $20 million. This year, Allocca anticipates her sales to go well beyond that number.

“You have to dream big and take a risk, that’s what I did. I saw an area that was underdeveloped and it still is, but it is a field which is booming,” Allocca said.

Never a technical writer herself, Allocca served as a sales person in the information services consulting industry for 20 years. She discovered, while working in the industry, that clients often needed tech writers more than programming consultants.

Some were trying to make do by having programmers, do the technical writing, but programmers are not writers, she said.

Allocca decided to start her own company to fill the need. “I wanted to do my own thing and technical writers were in demand,” said the 46-year-old Stamford resident.

Since launching in 1982, Allocca has grown her company from 10 writers to more than 100 in the Fairfield County, New York and New Jersey areas. She also has 14 sales associates who contact prospective clients and link them with writers.

Having worked with clients such as Perkin Elmer, Unilever and Pitney Bowes, Essential Data expanded its services to 20 states and has additional offices in Pennsylvania and California.

The business’ main focus is on documentation through Web sites or printed manuals, for a company’s computer system. It also provides instruction for the company’s staff.

“A company can become vulnerable if you don’t know how to use the system,” Allocca said.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job market for tech writers will experience increasing growth through the year 2008. Writers typically find employment in computer software firms, manufacturers of aircraft, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and computers and other electronic equipment, as well as in the federal government. The BLS also reported that California, Texas and the Northeast are hot spots for employment in this field.

Allocca suggests that there is a certain appeal to being a tech writer, including more flexible schedules since their work is done on a project basis. They also can earn from $100,000 to $200,000 annually, she said.

“Some of the people that I work with are artists and musicians. They might work six months out of the year in order to pursue their other interests and this allows them to do that,” Allocca said.

Maurice Martin of the Society of Technical Communicators agrees.

“About 25 percent of STC members call themselves independent contractors. They tend to have more flexibility than someone who works at a particular company with regular hours. They might have the ability to work out of their home or work on locations for a given time on assignment. They’re selling their service on a job-to-job basis and can either get another assignment or decide to take time off”, he said.

Looking ahead, Allocca expects her company to record $50 million to $100 million in annual sales within the next two years. She also plans to open two more offices next year.