ENTREPRENEURS
Consultant builds a business and a legacy for her daughter

by Lisa Antonelli Bacon
For Virginia Business
August 2005

Twenty years ago, as a minority, first-generation business owner, Rita Ricks blazed a trail into the dense landscape of the good ol’ boy network that once ruled Virginia industry. Now 58, Ricks is turning over her successful professional development company to daughter Kim Walton.

The image-consulting business Ricks founded in Richmond in 1988 has grown into a multi-faceted enterprise with revenues of between $600,000 to $1 million a year, four full-time employees and some subcontractors. The vision and hours spent building Mirror Enterprise Inc. are an important part of Ricks’ personal legacy. And, she says it’s a legacy that is as important to future minority entrepreneurs as it is to her daughter.

“We’re now in the second generation [of minority business owners], so a lot of hurdles have been crossed,” notes Ricks. “Those of us in the first generation have begun to enter and understand the political process, policies and procedures. That will help this second generation go a little faster than we did.”

Ricks has led several professional lives. In 1985, after 15 years teaching in Hanover County schools, Ricks took a splash into the fashion business as co-owner of a women’s clothing boutique. It was quite a leap; one that led to the creation of her company, which develops customized training for schools, corporations and individual clients.

Back then she had no idea about how to run a business, Ricks says. “But my teaching skills helped me in selling and managing people.” To Ricks, peddling fashion wasn’t just a sales job. She loved matching clothes with customers’ personalities and, in a couple of years, realized that she wasn’t just in the clothing business; she was in the image business. She also realized that she “really could run a business.”

The next step seemed obvious. After some training and fine tuning, in 1988 she started Mirror Enterprise, a soup-to-nuts training camp to prepare clients for their future: how to dress appropriately; how and when to present a business card; how to shake hands and leave an impression; how to leave an effective voice message; and even how to dine properly in a professional setting. “We can present to Ethyl Corp. or to sixth graders,” says Ricks.

In recent years, Ricks has expanded Mirror to include a broader range of services, from hiring and writing procedure manuals to doing personnel file audits and creating human resources divisions for clients, which include the Virginia Department of Corrections, Wella Corp., and Verizon Communications Inc. “I’ve branded us more as a personal and professional development company,” she says.

In that capacity, Ricks stands out as someone who helps others fulfill their potential. “She is always looking for a way for someone to get to the next level,” says Tracey Jeter, president of the Virginia Minority Supplier Development Council. “Most entrepreneurs are trying to grow their businesses. Rita is doing that, but she is eager to do that for others. When people walk away from her, they feel like they can do anything.”

Who better, then, to train women in the Welfare to Work effort? For seven years, Mirror has teamed with Interim Personnel and the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce to help women lift themselves into paying jobs. “We helped them understand who they are; why they are where they are; and how to go forward,” says Ricks, who has seen 2,700 women graduate from the program.

Although as chairman Ricks will be less involved in day-to-day operations at Mirror, it has prepared her for her next career. For the moment, she is calling it Rita Ricks LLC and plans to focus on being a life coach and professional speaker. “I say that this is my fourth mid-life crisis,” says the breast cancer survivor. “It probably won’t be the last.”