Cristina Calvet-Harrold started her own successful consulting business, CCH Marketing & Events Inc., before the age of 30.

And in her spare time, she volunteers with a host of local nonprofit organizations.

Orlando native Calvet-Harrold, now 31, graduated from the University of Central Florida with bachelor’s in marketing and a master’s in business administration. Shortly after graduating, she got married and began working for Wyndham Vacation Ownership in 2003.

When the company began going through a series of layoffs, “I was already considering leaving and asked myself: ‘Why not start my own business?’ ” said Calvet-Harrold, Orlando Business Journal’s 2010 Women Who Mean Business Up-and-Comer.

Calvet-Harrold spent $2,500 of her own savings to found CCH Marketing & Events in late 2007, providing small businesses in the Orlando area with marketing, public relations and event planning. “There really aren’t a lot of people providing promotion services to small businesses.”

Today, Calvet-Harrold works from her home and oversees five sub-contracted employees. She has 17 active clients, including Springs Food Service LC, Enova Power LLC and Verde Construction Managers LLC. She declined to reveal her annual revenue, but said it has grown 6.5 percent in the past 12 months.

Calvet-Harrold also has been involved in the community since she was in junior high, said Frances Connor, board member of Frontier Civitan Club, one of the organizations in which Calvet-Harrold is involved.

Frontier Civitan serves organizations such as the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, Special Olympics Florida and the Salvation Army’s family focus program. “It’s a joy to see that Cristina has pursued the betterment of the community with such vigor,” Connor said. “I’m impressed that a young woman has such a strong commitment to community service.”

In addition, she’s a mentor in the Take Stock in Children program at Edgewater High School and helped raise nearly $400,000 for the American Heart Association as auction committee chair of the 2010 Orlando Heart Ball.

Calvet-Harrold also works with the Down Syndrome Association of Central Florida, as her sister-in-law has Down syndrome, and she’s on the board of the Boys & Girls Club of Central Florida Inc.

Gary Cain, president and chief professional officer of the Boys & Girls Club, has worked with Calvet-Harrold for three years and said she exemplifies an up-and-comer. “Cristina’s a very dynamic young professional,” he said. “She’s got good communication skills.”

Christina Pinto, a managing member for financial planning service firm Moreno, Peelen, Pinto & Clark LLC, became a client of CCH Marketing and Events in 2009 because of Calvet-Harrold’s impressive list of marketing contacts.

Pinto said she believed in Calvet-Harrold’s ability to remove the stress from planning the firm’s open house last October. “During our open house, I was so confident in her abilities that I didn’t even check the room prior to our event starting,” Pinto said. “I was one of the first ones to go upstairs to the party with Mayor Buddy Dyer and just knew it would all be perfect — and it was.”

Calvet-Harrold said she most enjoys seeing her clients succeed. For example, she had a client, Padrino’s Cuban Bistro, that came to her as a last-ditch effort to survive. The restaurant owners gave her four months to promote the business to success or else they would be forced to close their doors. “I was able to increase their revenue by 30 percent and they are still open today.”

Source: Orlando Business Journal | View article