Alumna’s company makes two fastest-growing business lists
University of Houston-Victoria alumna Christine Hollinden is celebrating her company’s 20th year by experiencing a 58.1 percent increase in business and landing her company on two fastest-growing businesses lists.
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| Christine Hollinden |
Hollinden | professional services marketing recently was ranked on the Houston Business Journal’s Houston Fast 100 list. The publication ranks the Houston area’s 100 fastest-growing private companies based on revenue growth from 2010 to 2012. The company also was ranked in the publication’s Top 10 Fastest-Growing Houston-Area Woman-Owned Businesses.
Hollinden, who was then known as Christine Hafernick, graduated in 1985 from UHV with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. While the campus has changed since she was a student, the one-on-one attention professors give to students is still the same.
“My UHV professors had real-life experiences and passion that they passed along to me,” Hollinden said. “Being from the small town of Lolita, I appreciated the personal attention the professors gave me and the confidence I needed to achieve greater heights.”
Hollinden started her company in 1993 after realizing professional service companies such as accounting, engineering, consulting and law firms were overlooked by marketing firms.
“I liked the challenge of working with intelligent, educated professionals who needed help communicating what made their firms unique,” she said. “These professionals are great at what they do but often struggle with getting new business and developing their firms.”
Hollinden said the keys to her success are staying relevant in her clients’ industries, embracing changes in technology, having a good business plan and being proactive in her firm’s finances. She also credits her firm’s growth to concentrating on her business plan and not wavering on supporting professional service firms during the economic slump.
Hollinden also surrounded herself with solid advisers, not just cheerleaders.
“The entrepreneurial women who serve as my own personal advisory board offer insight and hold me to the challenges I set for myself,” she said. “It is important to have people who support you, but it is vital to have people who challenge you.”
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 80 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.
