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Like Father, Like Daughters
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Business New Haven
9/18/2000
By: Priscilla Searles
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The idea of starting a full-service limousine service is hardly unusual, but something about Marquis Car Service, LLC is.
Located at 512 Foxon Boulevard in New Haven, it is owned by four sisters: Alicia Lakomski and Dori, Mary and Paula Maher. And until five years ago it never occurred to them to go into business together, let alone one that rents and leases limousines.
The idea to start a limousine service was brought to the table by the sisters' father, Phil Maher, about five years ago. A chauffeur for the Bayer Corp., Maher first got the idea of starting a company when a Bayer CEO left the company and suggested that if Maher bought a limousine, he could provide service to the executive. Maher brought the idea of buying a limousine and starting up a company to his four daughters.
“We didn't have any money,” recalls Lakomski, “but we said 'yes.' We got a loan for a 1988 Mercury Marquis limousine. That's how we came up with the name of the company. We worked out of the spare bedroom in my parents' condo. We even took over their phone number. After about a year, Mom kicked us out of the bedroom but we took the phone number with us. We still have it.
“We rented a store in a small shopping center and bought a garage next to it for the vehicles,” Lakomski explains. “We now are a full-service limousine service; we have four limousines and five [Lincoln] Town Cars. When we first started, Dad drove the car and I pinch-hit. Of course, first I had to learn to drive it, so Dad taught me and I got my public-service license.
“All four of us are hands-on in the business as well as Dad. We started by doing mailings to travel agents and making presentations to corporations. A lot of the business was word-of-mouth. My two sisters wrote a business plan that we needed in order to purchase the garage, since a loan was required.
“Last year I took a 13-week course at Gateway [Community-Technical College] sponsored by [the then] Bank of Boston, the city of New Haven and Gateway,” explains Lakomski. “It was an entrepreneurial program and I took what I learned and ran with it. Then there was a follow-up at the Regional Business Resource Center. They have made us look at aspects of our business that we never thought of. Our approach to marketing has changed as a result of the training, [as well as] our accounting procedures.
“I'm more persistent in marketing than I was before,” says Lakomski. “I was very aggressive before I took the course, and that can sometimes work against you. The Resource Center showed me how to turn that into assertiveness, which works better. I learned not [to focus on] what is in it for me, but what is in it for all of us [vendor and client], which is a win-win situation because we're partners. I'm the most aggressive of the four of us.”
Lakomski has learned that while assertiveness sells, service is what turns first-timers into loyal customers. “With our business you always get a live body [when you call] - no answering machine - and we take a lot of time with our customers, especially people who have never used a limousine service. People want to talk to people, even in this age of computers.”
How difficult it is for four sisters to be partners? “It isn't as difficult as most people think it is,” says Lakomski. “Sometimes we have disagreements and if it doesn't get settled, one of us has to leave to cool off. This can happen anywhere and sometimes in business you have to do that - step back.”
As to areas of individual responsibility, Lakomski says, “They sort of divided themselves up. I do all the public relations and marketing, oversee the licensing, insurance and necessary paperwork to keep the vehicles in regulation. Dori handles the finances - a much bigger job than we ever thought it was going to be. Mary, the faithful one who is always in the office by 8 a.m., waiting for the rest of us, handles the office and makes reservations. Paula, the baby, also does reservations and handles phones and takes care of payroll and special promotions. Dad still does some driving and is our dispatcher. He handles the maintenance on the vehicles, making sure they are in good condition. He's fanatical with the cars.”
The sisters manage to get along in spite of being business partners and spending so much time together. “After five years in business we're not only still close, I think we're closer,” says Lakomski. “We're a family that works together and it works for us. We've come a long way from that first car five years ago.”
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