Personals Work!

By Anne Harding, GLOBE CORRESPONDENT - Globe Staff Photo/Bill Greene

Her business: togetherness

Susan Fox helps clients meet Mr. or Ms. Right

usan Fox is getting personal.  As a matter of fact, she's made a business out of it, and today she is working on Jane.

"So, let's talk about style," she says.  "Do you like someone who wears Armani suits and gets manicures, or does that level turn you off?"

Jane, 37, an arts administrator who has come here for precisely this sort of question is ready.

"I don't mind an Armani suit," she says, then adds, "The manicure might get me."

Fox and Jane (who didn't want her real name used) have been sitting in Fox's South End brownstone for about an hour, talking about who Jane is, what she does, her likes and dislikes, and what she is looking for in a man and in a relationship.  Their conversation will last nearly two hours and cover issues from fashion to fundamental philosophies of life.

Fox asks Jane about her heroes (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Katharine Hepburn), her musical taste ("If it's blues it has to be really good blues.  Show music raises the hair on the back of my neck.") and her ideal weekend getaways (Quebec City, the Caribbean).  The goal is to help Jane find someone to share her life.

Fox's business is called Personals Work!  She helps men and women like Jane write and place personal ads.  She coaches them as they sort through responses, meet people and launch relationships, while offering advice on safety and consultation against burnout.  Her clients generally are professionals, and about 65 percent are women.  Most are looking for a serious, long-term relationship.  They range from their 30s to their late 60s, and they come from all across the country.  Some are gay men and lesbians.  Fox estimates she has consulted with hundreds of people since launching Personals Work in 1992.

"It's sort of like looking for a job," she says of the process of meeting someone through the personals.  "Hopefully, a job that they will have for a very long time.

But like searching for a job in today's economy, she cautions, finding love can take time.

"We have people who have met at the very first phone call," she says.  "We have people for whom it takes two years."

More and more people are looking to the personals to find a mate.