Networking - Kim Houlne

Kim Houlne is student of different psychological management styles, having experienced good and bad.

As an employee at several companies and later a consultant, she’s run the gamut, from fiercely competitive workplaces to detached management to leaders who do right by people—her preferred style.

From the start, Houlne sought to establish “a high degree of emotional intelligence” at Working Solutions.

Being emotionally engaged

The company has 150+ employees today, along with thousands of independent agents. Agents are part of a North American-based network, which includes stay-at-home parents, military spouses, seniors and change-of-career professionals.

Houlne describes being emotionally engaged with them this way: “If you show and feel genuine interest for your team or community, immediately you find the level of respect for clients and other team members increases. You also will find business results increase and the team is honestly happy with each other’s success.”

It’s about hiring good people who really care. “No matter the role or the discipline, that’s all it takes,” said Houlne, summing up nearly 30 years as founder, president and engaged leader.

In business, some things change. Like goals and initiatives. And other things don’t. Like the reason why you started your company in the first place.

A case in point: In preparing for a recent talk, I found a forgotten piece of paper in my office.

Dated 1998, it lists the corporate mission statement, a few business goals and a handful of initiatives for Working Solutions, the company I’d founded two years earlier for home-based contact center agents.

Before 8-to-5 became 24/7

Though common today, work-at-home was a brave new world back then.

Basically, Working Solutions took the U.S. government’s 1938 definition of the workday and made it into a virtual workplace for independent contractors. This is before 8-to-5 became 24/7.

Almost 30 years ago, the company’s goals were simpler:

Earn $60,000 in revenue the first year in business.
Contract with at least two “home agents.”
Work with at least five clients on a regular basis.

The results, in order, were: Achieved it. Did it. Continue to do it—plus more.

Now, I have to admit that I smiled when reviewing the initiatives. By today’s standards, they’re small in scope.

The thinking behind them, however, still applies:

Tell as many people as possible about the business.
Join as many hot links as possible—HotBot, Yahoo and more.
Join two local professional business associations to network.

Today, we’re still telling people about the company. Leveraging the “hot links” of social media. And reaching out to clients and their customers.

Virtual proved viable

And what about Working Solutions’ original mission? Become widely known for home-based agents being a viable business alternative.

Well, virtual proved viable. These days, we call them on-demand agents. They’re part of a registered network that’s 150,000+ strong and operating in North America.

The one-page idea for Working Solutions helped pioneer homeshoring and the remote workforce industry, now supporting tens of millions of workers nationwide and generating billions of dollars in revenue.

It’s funny how a piece of paper, decades after the fact, can bring it all home. And instead of filing it away afterward, I plan to frame and display the page at our offices. It’s good to remember your roots—and let others see them as well. Keeps things in perspective, after all these years.

Plano, Texas – Building a business is a lot like getting ketchup out of a bottle. To succeed, you got to coax it, shake it, and even, “windmill” it. But once flowing, there’s no stopping it.

Kim Houlne, president and chief executive of Working Solutions, uses that analogy to describe how it felt in 1996 starting her company, now recognized as a leader in remote workforce services across America.

“It was slow at first. Much anticipation, like the Carly Simon song that Heinz once played in its commercials. And then, bam, things start happening. The ketchup flowed and business boomed.”

Her Plano-based company celebrates 20 years this month. So it’s fitting Houlne is sharing her growth strategies at the Chase for Business Conference in Dallas.

You can read more about the Kim’s participation in the Chase for Business conference 2016.

Contact Center Solutions Leader Featured

KERA’s CEO series features Working Solutions chief executive Kim Houlne this Friday. She will talk about the company’s leadership in remote workforces and virtual contact centers, an idea Houlne turned into an industry.

Her interview occurs the same week that Working Solutions celebrates 20 years of leadership in providing on-demand workforce solutions nationwide.

Timing is everything. Houlne says that was true when she started the business in a one-woman office in Omaha, Nebraska. And it’s true today as the company marks two decades of business here in Plano, Texas.

Working Solutions’ beginnings coincide with Internet’s commercialization. To keep up, the company adapted as the technology advanced. Houlne knew, however, IT by itself wasn’t enough.

Business Model for Any Industry

From the start, she developed a virtual model for business processing solutions. Its fast-flex scalability adjusts to any organization, no matter the industry. It works for customer care, sales and technical support.

Houlne combined proven processes with the best professionals, creating a remote workforce in a client’s image. Industry-skilled agents, who work from home, are educated in a client’s business, becoming one with the brand.

From scratch, she built her virtual contact center services company into one of the world’s largest remote workforces, with 110,000+ independent agents registered across America today.

Advocate for American Workers

Twenty years in this industry offers a unique vantage point, said Houlne, a champion of the work-at-home model and an advocate for American workers.

As more companies outsourced call center and contact center services near shore or offshore, Working Solutions instead stayed the course in the United States, seeking agents from across the country.

As Houlne often says: “Why look elsewhere for talent when it’s already here? Homeshore is hometown.”

Event: KERA Interview
Time: 7:30 PM
Date: Friday, October 7, 2016
Location: KERA STUDIO
Address: 3000 Harry Hines Blvd. Dallas, TX 75201

It’s not often you can hold a life’s worth of work in your hands. Working Solutions president Kim Houlne recently did, winning the 2015 Stevie® Awards for Women in Business for Lifetime Achievement.

“From our start in a one-person office in Omaha, Nebraska, to being recognized worldwide in New York City celebrates Working Solutions employees and agents,” said Houlne, who pioneered the idea of remote contact center services into an industry.

“For nearly 20 years, we’ve taken great care of our clients and their customers,” emphasized the company’s founder, whose firm today is a recognized leader in business process outsourcing.

The Stevie Awards add to the honors garnered by the company. Earlier this year, remote workforce expert FlexJobs ranked Working Solutions as #13 of its Top 100 Companies out of 30,000+ in 2015.

You can read more about the Kim’s award here

A Day of Insight and Inspiration at Executive Women’s Day

At the AT&T Byron Nelson Golf Tournament, you’ll find pros on the greens and in the green. On the course, top PGA Tour golfers will compete. Off it, senior executives will share their business insights.

Sponsored by Astellas, the Executive Women’s Day will feature Molly Fletcher, nicknamed “the female Jerry Maguire.”

With her at the event will be a panel of successful executives, whose businesses range from global sales and solutions to Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas to the work-anywhere workforce.

The panelists will be:

Anne Chow, senior vice president, global solutions and sales operations, AT&T Business Solutions. Chow leads a team of more than 2,000 industry professionals worldwide responsible for enabling customers and sales teams across all of AT&T’s business markets.
Kim Houlne, president and founder of Working Solutions, recognized as a leader in virtual contact center services—with a network of 110,000+ U.S. agents. Ahead of its times, the company’s forward-thinking business process outsourcing model reflects today’s more mobile, independent workforce.
Nancy Vish, president and chief nursing officer, Baylor Jack and Jane Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital. Vish has instituted successful practices that propelled Baylor Jack and Jane Hamilton Heart and Vascular to achieve numerous awards, including the Texas Award for Performance Excellence (TAPE).
Colleen Walker, chief executive officer, Perot Museum. Walker most recently served as CEO of Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas, where she successfully led the staff to become the first U.S. council to complete and implement a three-year-strategic learning pilot.

Event: Executive Women’s Day
Time: 9:30 am – 3:45 pm
Date: Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Location: TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas
Address: 4150 N. Macarthur Blvd. Irving, TX 75038

What Our Clients Teach Us

School is always in session when it to comes to serving clients and their customers well.

And lessons learned should be lessons applied to run the business better, believes Working Solutions president Kim Houlne.

A case in point: What partnership truly means.

As much as the word “partner” is tossed around in business these days, sharing data and best practices—as you would in a strong partnership—can be difficult, especially in a client/vendor role.

In the early days of Working Solutions, sharing our “secret sauce” wasn’t something that came naturally or easily.

As a privately held company, we were concerned that a client, or another vendor working alongside us, might scoop up our coveted processes and ideas. We feared they could dedicate resources and money and do it themselves.

Real or not, the fear was there—that our revenue could be at stake if the sharing was too one-sided.

Learning a valuable lesson

This all changed when Microsoft, one of our most important clients, taught us a valuable lesson about what it truly means to be partners.

Microsoft takes a progressive approach in working with vendors. That’s not an easy job when you have thousands of them worldwide.

Such an approach aligns with what author and educator Kate Vitasek believes: “Any vested relationship flourishes best in a culture in which the participants work together to ensure their mutual success.”

Routinely, Microsoft brought their partners on campus to share best practices and engage in the true spirit of the word. Through these meetings, the lessons learned on how a successful partnership operates were immense.

Rarely did we hear Microsoft place its interests ahead of ours, nor did it take our ideas with an ulterior motive in mind.

Creating greater valueMore importantly, we heard a lot of:

“What can we do to help you?”
“What support can we provide you to make working with us easier?”
“What ideas do you have that will help us to improve our partnership?”

Microsoft invests in their partnerships. They do what they can to strengthen their relationships.

Working Solutions brings this same thinking to the table. We know true partnership creates greater value for those served, a client and their customers, and benefits all concerned.

Before the web became the business wunderkind it is today, Kim Houlne capitalized on its potential in 1996.

Back then, she developed a simple website to recruit independent professionals to do virtual services for companies. Her pioneering work set the stage for what became a multimillion-dollar business, Working Solutions, and a multibillion-dollar homeshoring industry in the United States.

Today, Houlne continues to engage Working Solutions’ on-demand workforce by leveraging the web and the explosion of social media evolving with it. Through them, she reaches out to a 150,000+ agent network across North America.

Conversations never end

“Omni-channel strengthens our presence,” she said. “Digital gives us immediacy and reach. With it, we are more responsive. And through it, we build stronger bonds, connecting better with agents and clients.”

Social media fosters open communications.

“Positive comments reaffirm what we’re doing right,” Houlne said. “Negative ones alert us to what we need to address.”

All of the channels are out there for everyone to see and say. It’s in a company’s best interest to master the media and connect with audiences.

“Because the conversations never end—and we need to be a part of them.”

Quick question

What do you get when you combine “Shark Tank” savvy with several sharp women executives?

A business-and-networking event that will make you smarter for the experience.

Sponsored by Chase, the Women’s Business Symposia will feature entrepreneur Lori Greiner, inventor and part of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” where entrepreneurs compete for investor buy-in.

With her at the event will be a panel of successful executives, whose businesses range from stylishly comfortable chemo headwear to taste-of-home international foods to the work-anywhere workforce.

The panelists will be:

Angelle Albright, vice president of marketing, public relations and co-founder of Chemo Beanies, founded as family business after two sisters being diagnosed with breast cancer.
Carmen Montalvan, vice president and co-founder of Montalvan’s Sales Inc., fine food distributors—with the slogan, “bringing you the taste of home.”
Kim Houlne, president and founder of Working Solutions, recognized as a leader in virtual contact center services—with a network of 110,000+ U.S. agents.

Looking forward to the event, Houlne said: “We should all come away smarter, better-connected businesspeople.”

Event: The Women’s Business Symposia
Time: 4:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Date: Tuesday, March 10 2015
Location: George W. Bush Presidential Library
Address: 2943 SMU Boulevard in Dallas

Space is limited so RSVP early to www.chase.com/biz. Afterward, there will be a book signing with Lori Greiner—plus interactive experiences, networking opportunities, and food and drinks.

Becoming self-sufficient can have many benefits—from continuing an education to buying a home to achieving economic independence.

Success in all three takes planning, discipline and smart life choices. Such thinking aligns well with Kim Houlne’s philosophy of being self-reliant to succeed in life and business.

As president of Working Solutions, a Plano-based virtual contact services company, Houlne served on the city’s Self-Sufficiency Committee.

Serving two-year terms, members work with the Plano Housing Authority, overseeing the Family Self-Sufficiency program for residents to improve their financial security and quality of life.

Achieving independence

“The charter of this program marries very well with our business beliefs and one’s ability to make responsible choices toward home ownership and independence,” said Houlne.

With the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the city program helps residents pursue regular employment while participating in the Low Rent Housing Program.

“As their earnings rise, their rent increases,” said Houlne. “HUD deposits the increased rent into an escrow account, which may be withdrawn after five years for the targeted intent of homeownership. Families may use the funds for other reasons, including transportation and financial emergencies.”

Offering opportunities

Families, often with single mothers, are offered financial planning and career advice. “It goes to the whole idea of helping someone earn a living, take care of kids and manage their lives,” she said.

Houlne knows that balancing all three can be hard, but achievable with the right job opportunities. It goes to the heart of the work-at-home business model, which she pioneered, that gives persons job flexibility and income they might not have otherwise.

Residents who commit themselves to the self-sufficiency program can get ahead. “I do see it working with the families I’ve met. They are engaged, really wanting and willing to do it.”