Award-winning women - Avon Products and the United States Small Business Administration's 1991 Women of Enterprise Awards

Home Office Computing, Nov, 1991 by Pamela A. Toussaint

Avon Products, in association with the Small Business Administration, celebrated its fifth year of honoring women entrepreneurs at its 1991 Women Of Enterprise Awards. The five award winners, selected from hundreds of recommended contestants from more than 300 business organizations, have battled enormous personal and professional adversity in their quest to achieve their entrepreneurial goals.

Noel de Caprio, president, Noelle The Day Spa, Stamford, Connecticut. Neither growing up poor nor fighting a five-year bout with cancer could keep Noel de Caprio from realizing her business dream. Her 12-year-old full-service spa boasts $3 million in annual sales and offers special seminars and videotapes on grooming and beauty for women cancer patients.

Evie Hosking, owner, Pasco Realty, Pascagoula, Mississippi. Evie Hosking has bounced back from many devastating events to run a thriving real-estate firm. Her firm, Pasco Realty, specializes in taking on high-risk customers that others may reject.

Assunta Ng, president, Seattle Chinese Post, Seattle, Washington. Born in China and raised in Hong Kong, Assunta Ng always had goals much loftier than her rigid, traditional upbringing dictated.

Her newspaper, the Seattle Chinese Post, which has a readership of more than 30,000, serves as a voice for the Asian-American community.

Fran Raglin, president, Elite Travel Services, Cincinnati, Ohio. Born to teenage parents in Chicago's inner city, Fran Raglin worked her way through college and graduate school while suffering physical abuse at the hands of her father and first husband.

After remarrying and relocating to Ohio, Raglin opened Elite Travel Services in 1983, and today her firm is a successful full-service agency.

Ella D. Williams, president, Aegir Systems, Camarillo, California. Ella Williams, a divorcee who received sporadic financial support from her ex-husband, sought the assistance of the SBA and took out a $65,000 second mortgage on her home to make an entry into the aggressive defense-contract business. Her company, Aegir Systems, analyzes the reliability and safety of defense equipment.

For entry information for next year's awards, send a 75-cent, 9-by-12 SASE to Women of Enterprise Awards, Avon Products, 9 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019. Applications are available November 1, 1991. Each winner receives $1,000 and a Tiffany trophy at the awards banquet held in New York City. The deadline for entries is January 31, 1992.