HIGHLANDS – Carol “CJ” Stafford of High
lands, the owner of Stafford Communications Group, suddenly lost nearly all of her clients in the economic downturn in 2009. After decades of representing pharmaceutical, food, beverage and beauty care companies, she had to rebuild her small business from scratch.
Her strategy was to look
for businesses poised for
growth, and to grow with them.
Also, an initiative to build
high-end customer call centers to represent her clients’ products through 1-800 numbers on product labels has proven successful. Today, Stafford employs 100 people at the company’s New Providence head- quarters, some of whom have come through the company’s college mentoring program. The company also supports local breast cancer charities.
On March 29, Enterprising Woman Magazine awarded Stafford one of its Class of 2015 Enterprising Women of the Year Awards in the $2 million to $5 million annual revenues category.
“It’s good to be recognized after so many years,” said Stafford, 60, who opened her business after 20 years in public relations and marketing at Johnson & Johnson. “It is really risky to open a business. It takes guts and they recognized it, and it felt nice.”
– By Christina Johnson
