THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 26, 1995 TAG: 9506240253
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JANET DUNPHY, BUSINESS WEEKLY
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 120 lines
Lynn Riggs remembers the first morning she didn't rush to work in a frenzy, hurrying her daughter Jessica out of the house to day care.
The toddler just couldn't believe that she was eating breakfast at home that day.
Mornings are easier now for Riggs since she resigned from her job and opened Leading Management Resources, a consulting firm she operates from home.
Like thousands of other Hampton Roads families who depend on two incomes, Lynn and Mike Riggs' relied on her corporate salary. Once she left the company and launched her own venture, though, she managed to get her business up and running by staying in touch with her colleagues. If there's a walking testament to the necessity of networking, it may well be Lynn Riggs.
Leading Management's revenue exceeds its costs, and Riggs can enjoy Jessica. She makes her own schedule and often does her best work at about 10 p.m. when the house is quiet.
``I miss the corporate theme, but I absolutely love the flexibility and the opportunity to be creative in what I feel is important,'' she said. ``And I get to spend more time with my daughter.''
Jessica was actually the motivating factor in Riggs' decision to resign last September as human resource director at the Naval Air Federal Credit Union. The 2 1/2-year-old was hospitalized with kidney failure and took months to recover.
``We almost lost her,'' said Riggs, sitting in her home office in Suffolk. ``Then I went back to work as soon as I could, but something just wasn't right. I realized there was another way for me to be successful.''
The decision to quit her job wasn't made lightly, said Riggs. Her responsibilities included overseeing a $100,000 training budget, recruiting employees, wage and salary administration and developing compensation programs for Naval Air's 300 employees in three states.
``I worked really hard to get up to that level,'' she said.
After Jessica was well, Riggs returned to her 60-hour work weeks and tried to resume a normal routine with her husband Mike, an assistant vice president at Commerce Bank's operations center in Chesapeake. But she worried after doctors warned that Jessica's immune system would be weak for one year.
``When I'm at work I give 150 percent and I expect the same from others,'' said Riggs, remembering the discussion she had with Mike during lunch one day. ``We decided it was just the right time for this venture.''
The salary and benefits were relinquished and Leading Management was born in September '94. ``It's not easy to go to nothing. Plus, I'm very much a people person. To go from having at least one person in my office all the time to being alone here wasn't easy either,'' said Riggs.
Naval Air wanted Riggs to stay. ``They tried to work something out with me but I'm very stubborn. I had already made up my mind,'' she said. Once she resigned, Riggs worked under contract until the position was filled.
``Lynn was definitely an asset to the credit union,'' said Al Chambers, executive vice president of Naval Air at the Virginia Beach headquarters. ``She brought us up to that next step where we wanted to be, from a personnel department to a human resources department. She's a very capable person.''
The minimal start-up costs for Leading Resource, about $4,000, mostly bought office equipment. Riggs remembered her husband was appalled after they installed her fax machine and she admitted she didn't know how to use it.
``I had always had someone do those things for me,'' she said, laughing.
Burt Whitt, who heads the labor and employment section at Kaufman & Canoles, a Norfolk law firm, worked with Riggs while she was employed at Naval Air and, previously, Cenit Bank for Savings in Norfolk.
``You don't see many people take that leap to do it on their own. She's obviously taken a risk, but if industry and effort have anything to do with it, Lynn will make it successful,'' said Whitt.
Riggs's first job as a private consultant was helping another consultant do market research for a Michigan company. She often works with the same circle of consultants on a single project, each adding their own area of expertise.
Networking, both with former associates and potential ones, is a mainstay for the business just as are mailings and speeches for trade association meetings. Riggs said many small credit unions don't have the luxury to staff a human resources manager and department.
``Outsourcing,'' as Riggs calls it, is another way for a company to accomplish extra work without having to burden full-time employees or hire more. A recent talk for a trade association netted Riggs a job implementing an employee incentive program for a credit union in Waynesboro.
``I love to give information to a group that's going to better their organization,'' said Riggs. ``I like to talk and I also like to write. I never knew how much I like to write until I left the corporate world. I never had the time.''
Riggs wrote an article for the May and July issues of Credit Union Management, the publication of the Credit Union Executives Society. The topics were ``The Evolving Role of Human Resources'' and ``Pay for Performance.''
``If I don't have a client to see or a project to work on I write articles. I don't get paid but the exposure is worth it,'' she said. ``I try to keep busy all the time. I have list after list of things to do. If you're haphazard you're not efficient.''
One thing Riggs will not do is make cold calls. She said people are too busy to see people who don't have an appointment.
While most of Riggs's consulting is for credit unions, her knowledge and advice is applicable to many other businesses.
For example, employee incentive programs benefit customer and the company, she said, and mystery shopping evaluates the success of employee training programs. And fair compensation packages keep the employees happy, which benefits the business in the long run.
Another workplace issue is child care, said Riggs. ``Working moms can't feel chastised when they have to do something for the family,'' she said, adding that many women in Hampton Roads have to juggle work and family while the husband is away at sea for long periods.
Riggs recommends implementing an IRS code section 125 plan, which allows pre-tax earnings to be allocated for child care and medical expenses. Businesses may also arrange group discounts at some local child care facilities, she said.
The most difficult thing for Riggs in the beginning was learning to project her confidence.
``You really have to be willing to take a risk and put yourself at risk,'' said Riggs. ``You have to be confident in your abilities and know that you've got something that others can benefit from.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Lynn Riggs operates her consulting business out of her home.
Formerly with a credit union, she switched careers to be closer to
her daughter.
by CNB