Marri Aviza, co-president of Rumors LTD, a company that manages Rumors Salon and Spa and Rumors IV Men, both in Latham, has been awarded the Enterprising Women of the Year award by Enterprising Women Magazine, a national publication that recognizes female entrepreneurs.
Jennifer Fair, a public relations director for MMI Associates, Inc., a company that represents the magazine, explained, basically [the women are] selected based on their business growth and community involvement.
According to Aviza, she was considered for the award among thousands of female business leaders nationwide after a friend from a local women’s organization encouraged her nomination.
`You submit an application and then you’re nominated, and after you’re nominated you go through another kind of application process,` Aviza said. `They want to know what things you are really doing in the community that sets you apart.`
Aviza said Rumors, which has been in business for 22 years, has given more than $1 million in services and products to health-related or charitable organizations. Aviza is co-president of Rumors, along with Lisa Norgrove.
In the past year, Aviza said, Rumors had raised more than $35,000 with their Pink Hair Tour, a fundraiser that takes place during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in which customers can purchase hot pink hair extensions, the proceeds going to the treatment and awareness of breast cancer.
Aside from fundraisers that promote treatments of diseases like breast cancer, Rumors help families who have may be unable to afford or too busy to have the time to enjoy full makeovers at their locations. For instance, on Father’s Day last year, Rumors IV Men gave an entire family a day of beauty after a wife wrote an e-mail to the salon explaining that her husband deserved a makeover because he had been taking care of their family for months after she had leg surgery.
Shortly after Aviza’s interview, she received word that she and seven other women in her category of women who had raised a certain amount of money in charitable efforts had won the title of Enterprising Women of the Year. The women she was honored with hailed from places like Washington, Las Vegas and New York City, but Aviza was the only woman from the Capital District, she said.
Aviza’s name will now be featured in the magazine ` a publication she said she is inspired by.
`It’s kind of a magazine, which if you are a woman entrepreneur today, you really must get it,` she said. `It’s a totally different magazine and it’s really about women ` it’s not about men.`
The magazine covers topics that range from critical issues confronting women’s businesses and lives to perspectives and anecdotes from entrepreneurial women.
All of the women of the year, including Aviza, will be featured in a later publication of Enterprising Women, on top of a three-day tribute at the Disney Yacht Club in Florida in March, where the women will attend business conferences and be able to network with one another.“