Career Links Vol 3 No 5 April 2004
Creating a New Career:
An Interview with Donna Duffey,
Professor and
Career Program Facilitator,
Entrepreneurship
Interviewed by Kit Gorrell Frankenfield
Employment Systems Technician,
Career Services Center
Donna Duffey is a full-time professor and Career Program Facilitator for
the Marketing Management and Entrepreneurship programs at JCCC. The
Entrepreneurship Program helps entrepreneurs launch new ventures as well
as strengthen their managerial and business skills. Students in the
business entrepreneurship program learn the fundamentals of starting and
operating their own business. Coursework covers preparing a business plan,
obtaining financing, financial management, market research, marketing a
product or service and developing an accurate accounting system. Students
also complete internships in small businesses.
Students can earn an associate of applied science degree or complete the
business entrepreneurship vocational certificate or business plan
certificate. For more information on this program, visit the department
website at http://www.jccc.net/home/depts/1247
or contact Donna by email at dduffey@jccc.edu or by telephone at
(913) 469-8500 Ext. 3475.
Career Services Center: What do you do at JCCC?
Donna Duffey:
My official title is Professor and Career Program Facilitator for
Marketing Management and Business Entrepreneurship. I work with the
faculty who teach in these programs. Currently, we have nine adjunct
instructors teaching Business Entrepreneurship classes. All of these
adjunct faculty are entrepreneurs themselves, which is delightful. I work
with the faculty and the advisory board, and each of the career programs I
manage has an advisory board. The advisory board for Business
Entrepreneurship is particularly energizing. I find it challenging keeping
up with them. I think that’s because of who they are and their passion
towards entrepreneurship and educating others in the field
Career Services Center: What classes do you teach at JCCC?
Donna Duffey: I teach a course in Business Entrepreneurship and a
few courses in Marketing and Management. I also teach some Fashion
Merchandising classes.
Career Services Center: What is your educational background?
Donna Duffey:
My undergraduate degree is from Wisconsin State University—Stout, a
B.S. in Fashion Merchandising. I also have two master’s degrees—a Master
of Science in Management and an MBA, both from Baker University.
Career Services Center: Describe your career path.
Donna Duffey:
I spent 18 years in the fashion industry and retail before I came to
JCCC. The majority of those years I spent working for Macy’s. I was an
assistant buyer, a buyer, a merchandise administrator, a general
merchandise manager and then a store manager. I worked at Macy’s for 14
years. I left in the middle and went to work for Hall’s Merchandising,
Inc., but then I returned to Macy’s. I have since been at JCCC for 18
years. I think that [people who own their own business] need to remember
the issue of the importance of the customer—what that customer represents
to that particular business; and it absolutely is their livelihood. So
while from a management perspective, I do believe that everybody can have
something within that operation that becomes what they do best, everyone
is still focused on the customer and that becomes the first, primary goal:
customer service and customer satisfaction.
Career Services Center: How did you make the transition from retail
management to teaching at JCCC?
Donna Duffey:
I taught a fashion fundamentals course here one night a week as an
adjunct while I was working full-time at Macy’s. It was just a couple of
semesters prior to Dillard’s acquisition of Macy’s. I had been a store
manager for a few years and I knew that a lot of what I was doing [in that
capacity] was teaching, but it wasn’t in 50-minute segments. I knew that I
enjoyed that part of my job a great deal, so my motivation was to see if
teaching at JCCC would meet my satisfaction level and would make me feel
that I was contributing. Certainly teaching and learning is the primary
focus of JCCC, so it met my clear focus that whoever I worked for, I would
be doing what was important to them. So it worked!
Career Services Center: Did you have an interest in the fashion
industry when you were growing up?
Donna Duffey:
Yes. All through elementary and junior high I won a number of art
contests. I think initially I wanted to be an illustrator or designer.
My mother was a home economics teacher and she taught me to sew when I was
six or seven years old. I still enjoy sewing. In fact, it’s relaxing for
me. I still have a little note an eighth-grade teacher put on a garment I
had sewn in a clothing and textiles class. The grade was A+. It said,
“Donna, I think you have great talents in this field.” It’s just this
little sheet of paper, and it’s been in my jewelry box since eighth grade.
I think it was not only my art teachers and my mother, but my eighth-grade
teacher who also said, “You, young lady, have got it.” That made a real
difference in my life. That’s why I went after a fashion merchandising
degree. On the other hand, my dad is very much a business person and his
focus was on how I could make a living doing what I loved to do. That’s
what influenced my business sense.
Career Services Center: What do you love most about your job?
Donna Duffey:
It’s always changing. What I love the most is the student
interaction. Secondly, I enjoy working with the advisory committees.
They just keep me hopping. If I’m not on top of something they think is
going on out there, I feel like I’m behind. They energize me.
Career Services Center: What degree or certificate options are there
for students in the Business Entrepreneurship program?
Donna Duffey:
We have two certificates and an Associate of Applied Science degree
program. Interestingly, all three of them have tremendous opportunity for
meeting a variety of different students’ needs. The Associate of Applied
Science program is a 64-credit hour program. Within that there are courses
in business entrepreneurship, business administration, accounting, and
general education. We also have a 32-credit hour certificate in Business
Entrepreneurship, and this certificate is appealing to students who
already have a bachelor’s degree, but perhaps their bachelor’s degree has
nothing to do with business. For whatever reason, they are looking to
redirect their life and do something on their own. The third is a
mini-certificate program—a Business Plan Certificate program that involves
just a few courses. That particular certificate is part of what we’re
trying to promote through the Kauffman grant that we received.
Essentially the idea behind the program is that successful entrepreneurs
first of all have that passion. But besides having passion, they need to
have a well-honed skill to deliver their particular service. If that is a
student who has gone through any or many of our career programs, (for
example, HVAC, auto mechanics, hospitality management or interior and
fashion design) and they have worked hard to develop that skill, many of
them want to take the skill into a business of their own. So what we want
to encourage them to do is to add some business entrepreneurship courses to
what they have. One way to do it is with the smaller certificate. Another
thing we are pursuing at this point is developing some very specific
entrepreneurial certificate programs that directly connect with a specific
career program, such as a hospitality entrepreneurship certificate. So I
think there are possibilities moving forward that we might be doing even
more certificates. We want to encourage students to use courses we have
that really tailor to what they need and what their business idea is. We
want students to add and continually build upon whatever their original
intent was.
Career Services Center: Tell me more about the grant that was
received for your program.
Donna Duffey:
The grant was a $50,000 award from the Kauffman Collegiate
Entrepreneurship Network. As part of the grant, the college’s for-credit
business entrepreneurship program and the Small Business Development
Center located on campus joined forces to develop a joint program
emphasizing “3 Steps for Entrepreneurial Success at JCCC.”
As steps 1 and 2, students and community members who master a skill
through one of JCCC’s career programs, such as interior design or
automotive technology, are encouraged to add entrepreneurship courses to
their schedule to help them develop the business acumen needed to start -
and grow - their own business. Once they graduate and go into business for
themselves, the students and community members can take advantage of the
services offered through the Small Business Development Center, housed on
the college campus as part of the Center for Business and Technology, to
expand their business skills - that’s step 3.
We are elated with what we’ve been able to do with it. Hopefully there
are a meaningful number of students that we’ve touched or have received
information. From last spring to this spring, there has been a 30 percent
increase in the enrollment. I think one would have to say that whether the
marketing efforts were successful, or that entrepreneurship as a “buzz
word” is growing, I think our efforts have paid off. And I want this to
continue.
Career Services Center: How many students are in the Business
Entrepreneurship program?
Donna Duffey:
132 this semester.
Career Services Center: What is the average age of students?
Donna Duffey:
I think the student mix tends to be a little bit older, but not
dramatically different from the college’s average student age.
Interestingly, while on one side of the coin this is appealing to people
who have been “displaced,” and those persons might be of any age, also
what we are seeing is that high school students today are more interested
in entrepreneurship education or thinking that they want to be their own
boss. I think this is a result of a few things—issues that relate to
corporate ethics, there are some young persons who see that and they don’t
want to be a part of it. Also an extended or immediate family member may
have known someone who has been displaced and their life has been changed,
as a result of mergers, acquisitions or layoffs. When you put all of that
together, there are more young people who are thinking, “Why can’t I do
something of my own?” While the younger students are the audience we are
interested in targeting, we also need to realize that successful
entrepreneurs are ones who master a skill, who also have some business
acumen, and are willing to continually learn and develop.
Career Services Center: How could a person combine a degree or
certificate in Business Entrepreneurship with one in another academic
area?
Donna Duffey:
First of all, there are over fifty career programs here to help you
master a skill. Most people enter those programs because they feel they
have a talent in a particular area and a passion for it. We really want
to help them master their skills so that they can be marketable. While
they are working on their skills, or afterward, they can add some business
courses. Then they may choose to open their own business or at least be
working towards that goal.
The opportunities we also offer have to do with our Small Business
Development Center, which is one of the eight small business development
centers in the state of Kansas. It’s been here since 1983, and what the
Center offers are on-going workshops and one-to-one counseling sessions.
The audience they target is people who are interested in starting a
business, may be looking for further direction, thinking about expansion,
or need to correct some action. Community colleges here and across our
nation offer excellent opportunities for entrepreneurs, if you believe
that an entrepreneur needs passion and in order to be successful, needs to
do it well. We provide an opportunity to add some business skills and help
the person through the Small Business Development Center on an ongoing
level. Very few baccalaureate graduate institutions have the ability to
partner with a small business center such as ours. If we can help
students be more successful when they start their business, that is, 90%
of the time they stay in our community; therefore it is going to directly
affect our own economy. So it is truly a community service.
Career Services Center: So an entrepreneur is someone who wants to
own their own business?
Donna Duffey:
That’s clearly the general idea involved with being an entrepreneur,
although entrepreneurship is a skill set that most people embark upon
because they do want to “do their own thing,” manage their own career and
their own life. One of the interesting things that is occurring right now
is that major corporations are interested in students who have
entrepreneurship skills. The logic behind this is that every business, no
matter how big it is, needs that particular skill set as part of their
organization. They need someone who has the ability, the desire and the
passion to be more innovative and think “outside the box,” with a very
“can-do” kind of personality. These individuals tend not to be stuck on
organizational structures as much as they are an idea, and why an idea
needs to move forward. So to answer the question, yes. People are
dominantly interested in this sort of academic arena because they want to
do something on their own; but this skill set is useful within existing
organizations of any size. Every company was once a small company.
Typically, students enrolled in this program have one of two goals. Some
are interested in potentially starting a home-based business working by
themselves. Others are interested in something significantly larger. They
are looking for a way to start it, but their intent is to grow their
business. There are all sorts of different student motivations as with
any program. Some very much relate to the issues, concerns and
responsibilities that are in their lives.
Career Services Center: What personal characteristics are helpful in
being a successful entrepreneur?
Donna Duffey:
It’s kind of interesting when you think about some of the
characteristics that are necessary for success. Passion is certainly
one—about a specific skill, product or service. But you really need to be
passionate about something. Sometimes that passion might be interpreted
by some people as stubborn or myopic, but when you listen and talk to
them, you can feel their energy about whatever it is—a dance studio, spa
or any number of things they have in mind to do. Another characteristic
of a successful entrepreneur is self-confidence. They tend to be people
who feel strongly about their passion and themselves, and their
self-confidence is fairly apparent. Tenacity is another characteristic.
They believe in something and they don’t tend to be shy about finding the
answers. They don’t particularly like to find the answers outside of that
particular arena. I think that self-confidence and self-determination is
quite important. I think many entrepreneurs recognize that risk is
involved in what they’re thinking about doing. One of the things that we
try to teach throughout the program is that while there is risk, what we
need to be able to do is respect and manage that risk. To accept it in a
positive kind of way…I’d rather think we are teaching risk management as
opposed to risk taking. Entrepreneurs tend to embrace change. They find
change a positive thing, and I think that’s one of the characteristics
that makes corporate employers interested in entrepreneurs today. We do
offer them something that might be unique to the typical graduate.
Career Services Center: Would you also say that someone needs to
have a lot of energy to be successful as an entrepreneur and be able to
give a lot of time to their own success?
Donna Duffey:
It goes back to that kind of self-starter, high energy level and
determination that someone needs to have, but yet it’s not necessarily the
amount of time that we spend but how well we use the time that we spend.
So, I do think entrepreneurs become good at networking and multi-tasking.
It is true that people who end up in entrepreneurial ventures become so
enveloped that the rest of their life might not be well-balanced.
Career Services Center: But how much more fun to invest your time in
yourself rather than in someone else’s company…
Donna Duffey:
And your return is for you!
Career Services Center: What tips do you have for people entering
this field?
Donna Duffey:
First, identify what it is that you really like. Within the
structure of the courses [in our program], we’ll help you analyze the
feasibility of creating a business around your interest and develop a
marketing and business plan. Share with us what your passion is, and
we’ll help you work through discovering the business opportunity that can
evolve.
Career Services Center: What is a typical day like for someone who
owns their own business?
Donna Duffey:
It’s change, it’s opportunity, it’s challenge—it’s YOURS.
