YOUR IMAGE WORKS in The News

55th ANNUAL BUSINESS & INDUSTRY REVIEW

Day 3 - Family-Owned Business

Special Supplement to the WEST CHESTER DAILY LOCAL NEWS

www.dailylocal.com

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Image Consultant Helps Bring Out the Real You
By Ted Trevorrow
Special to the Local News

Over 20 years ago, Beth Strange received image training as a college student. Since then people have been asking her about ways to improve their look and better their image. After raising seven children and teaching at a girl’s boarding school, she decided she wanted to make a career out of helping people improve their image. So she set out to working on her certification in image consulting from the Association of Image Consultants International, and attended the Conselle Institute, to learn all she could about being an image consultant. In 2007 she opened Your Image Works in Oxford and became a full-time image consultant. Strange thinks many people have the wrong impression of what an image consultant does and who image consulting is for. “There’s this stigma or misconception that working with an image consultant is only for high profile people,” she says. “People in the public eye higher image consultants because it works. Why shouldn't everyone else have that?” The process of image consulting starts with an initial interview designed to find out “how do you want to be perceived at home and at the workplace.” Even more, the interviews are designed to help people find out “why is the inside not showing on the outside,” Strange says. She believes many people are not in touch with themselves and their current image is “hiding who they really are inside.” Once the interview process is done and the client has figured out the image they want, then she begins helping them change. She uses four areas to focus her efforts. Clients can address their wardrobe, grooming, etiquette, and speech and body language to help improve their image. “We don’t change who you are,” Strange says. “Image consulting is about fine-tuning, enhancing, and improving your image.” Strange’s biggest groups of clients are professional business women, corporate clients, and women in transition. “Many mothers going back to work need help putting their best foot forward,” she says. Strange helps women with image evaluation , color analysis, and personal shopping in order to make sure they are prepared to re-enter the workplace. For her corporate clients, Strange emphasizes the importance image can have in the workplace. She says, “Image can absolutely increase productivity.” She conducts image seminars for businesses and using the trademarked Style Scale can help businesses select the appropriate image for their workers to maximize productivity and sales for their specific business situation. She also stresses that image consulting can affect almost every aspect of a person’s day, even people’s home lives. “I had one client who told me that once she improved her image, she got a huge increase in respect from her child,” Strange says. Strange’s motto is “Improve your image, improve your life.” She is even working on helping people entering the dating scene to improve their results. She uses what she calls the four A's to make sure people are getting the right image for them, Authentic, Appropriate, Attractive, and Affordable. By using these principals and teaching her clients how to use these tools, Strange feels she teaches them how to control their image, not just now, but in the future. “If I just help them buy new clothes, what happens in the future when styles change? I have some clients who lose 30 pounds. By giving them these tools they can adjust their image in the future as needed.” To make sure the average person has access to image consulting, Strange has worked hard to make sure her fees are accessible. For Strange, the best part of the job is when her service helps people. “Their life changes and that’s the part I love.” She especially enjoys when people say, “I know who I am.” When people know who they are, Strange says, “That puts them in control of their lives.” To learn more about image consulting, visit www.yourimageworksconsultant.com.