S03-E04 Heather started her own company

Heather worked in IT after community college then decided to start her own business using no-code / low-code tools.  Hear what it’s like to run your own business after earning a community college degree. Heather talks about the technical and soft skills she uses to run her business and bring value to her clients. Heather’s journey is inspiring and shows how far you can go with a 2-year degree.

The Talking Technicians podcast is produced by MNT-EC, the Micro Nano Technology Education Center, through financial support from the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education grant program.

Opinions expressed on this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the National Science Foundation.

Join the conversation. If you are a working technician or know someone who is, reach out to us at info@talkingtechnicians.org.

Links from the show:

The Micro Nano Technology Education Center (MNT-EC): https://micronanoeducation.org/

A-B Tech: https://abtech.edu/

Hybrid Strategies Inc: https://hybridstrategies-inc.com/

Episode Web Page: https://micronanoeducation.org/students-parents/talking-technicians-podcast/

Transcript

Peter Kazarinoff  0:02  
From MNT-EC, the Micro Nano Technology Education Center, this is Talking Technicians. The podcast about technicians: who they are, what they do, and where they come from. I'm your host, Peter Kazarinoff. I teach technicians and engineers that Portland Community College. In each episode, you'll meet a working technician and hear their story. That means real interviews, with real technicians, about real jobs. At the end of each episode, you'll hear actions you can take if you want to be a technician too.

In this episode, you'll meet Heather. Heather is a digital process engineer and owner of Hybrid Strategies Incorporated in western North Carolina. Heather, welcome to Talking Technicians.

Heather  0:54  
Thank you, Peter. I'm glad to be here.

Peter Kazarinoff  0:56  
Heather, you live in Western Carolina? Exactly where and how long have you been there for?

Heather  1:03  
I've lived in - I live in Asheville currently. And I've kind of lived here off and on for most of my life. So I consider it my hometown, even though I wasn't born here.

Peter Kazarinoff  1:14  
Is there anybody else in your household right now?

Heather  1:17  
No. Well, except for my foster daughter currently. And then we have two German Shepherds.

Peter Kazarinoff  1:23  
Well, it sounds like a pretty full household. So tell me about where your work. First, what is hybrid strategies? And then what does a digital process engineer do there?

Heather  1:37  
Yes, sir. So hybrid strategies is my business that I own, I work from home currently. And what we do is ton of different ways that I tried to describe it. But in general, I build operational systems for organizations, so either nonprofits or businesses, and we basically build the portals that help them manage their day to day processes.

Peter Kazarinoff  2:00  
And how many people right now work in the organization?

Heather  2:05  
Currently, I'm the only full time employee, but I do have a team of contractors. And there are a total of nine of us altogether.

Peter Kazarinoff  2:15  
And can you give me an idea of what's kind of the ballpark salary? For somebody working in a similar role? What do people get compensated for, for doing the kind of work that you do?

Heather  2:27  
Well, that's, that's a good question. This with the tools that I use, it's kind of a newer tech field, I use no code, low code software, primarily. And so I kind of had to research collectively several different roles between Project Management Process Engineer, developer, and it's anywhere, you know, between 70,000 and double that, so up to 150,000, depending on the organization and who the clientele is. So there's a lot of room for growth.

Peter Kazarinoff  2:58  
That sounds like a pretty good living. So you are a business owner, how did you get into entrepreneurship?

Heather  3:07  
It was I kind of stumbled into it. I actually used to say, I didn't think I could ever run a business. Life has a lot of irony. But I actually started out as an IT intern. During my when I was getting my degree in school, I started out as an IT intern, and I did a lot of grunt work, spend a lot of time under people's desks restarting computers, and kind of started there. And then I had a very wide range of assortment, if you will of jobs or roles within that same organization that progressed from there. And then I started this business last year.

Peter Kazarinoff  3:47  
Is this the first business you've owned? Or you've owned other businesses before?

Heather  3:51  
No, this is this is my first one. And a couple of personal goals are what kind of led me and prompted me to kind of take the risk and start this business. And so my hope was that in the in a growing field, that it was the right risk. And so it's currently set to grow exponentially over the next 10 years.

Peter Kazarinoff  4:14  
Can you compare and contrast your role when you are a technician intern to what you do now? What's different of being an entrepreneur compared to when you were underneath those computer desks?

Heather  4:26  
Yeah, so I'm in the organization definitely starting out. I did a lot of more it based elements. So anything from network management, to running cables, you know, anything and everything to helping people with simple items on their desk, desktop. So it kind of started out there and it's really switched to more of process management and project management. So while I do use a tech tool, most of what I do is process development using you know tech Nishan skills to pull it off for digitizing those processes. And that was something that I fell into accidentally. In that organization, we were looking for a solution to a problem, we found a tool and it exploded into a full time role. So and that's what I based my business off of.

Peter Kazarinoff  5:18  
Are there opportunities for professional growth? Since you are a business owner? Where do you feel like the growth is going to be in the next few years?

Heather  5:29  
What I'm hoping is that this this tool, or the concept of no code, low code, which is where what we're I specializes implementation of that will expand, especially in the small to medium sized business industries. And so hopefully, that'll open up a lot of opportunities to work with just about anybody, at any level, anybody who's looking to digitize what they're doing.

Peter Kazarinoff  5:55  
You've mentioned low code, no code a couple of times. For listeners that aren't familiar, what are those terms mean? And how do they compare to what you might consider as regular coding?

Heather  6:06  
Yeah, so most people are familiar with getting custom systems built for organizations or even if they're using out of the box software, a lot of customization is required for that to fit the existing processes in your organization. So no code, low code is basically kind of a drag and drop interface for creating the applications which represent processes. In instead. So in other words, instead of hand coding everything, you're kind of starting with this baseline tool that lets you start. And it lets the subject matter, matter experts further for those roles, create the application, so then you're having the expert do it, versus a programmer who may be very good at programming, but not understand the business side of it. So it's a great mesh between business and IT, which, especially in large organizations, there tends to be a gap there. So it kind of allows for that, and you can still customize on top of that tool, but it reduces the development time. A lot. And it also gives a quicker ROI, usually on custom systems.

Peter Kazarinoff  7:14  
Do you remember what it felt like your first day as a business owner? What did it feel like being an entrepreneur, entrepreneur for the first time,

Heather  7:23  
It was terrifying. It was absolutely terrifying. You know, it was it was a big risk. And it's a big challenge. And so you go from knowing how to do your job well to having to manage business on top of that. And so it there's a huge learning curve. But there's a lot of tools and resources, I found a lot of people are extremely supportive, especially in this area where I live. Asheville is a town of small businesses. So a lot of people identify and a lot of people partner together. So there's, it's it's a good, good soil. In other words for small businesses here,

Peter Kazarinoff  8:01  
Besides the technical skills that you need in order to deliver your work, what kind of other skills do you need as an entrepreneur to run your business?

Heather  8:11  
Obviously, there's a lot of people skills involved, right? So managing contractors to interacting with clients. My business is not sales heavy, it's it's very technical, heavy. So most of the time, when we're meeting with people, we have to be able to communicate very well and create a connection almost immediately. If we don't have a good, quick working relationship, it's very difficult to learn someone's processes well enough to build them a system that will suit those processes. So being able to interact and communicate well with people is probably the most critical skill that we have to have. 

Peter Kazarinoff  8:45  
So Heather, let's now talk about how you got to where you are now, you mentioned that you worked as a technician, when you were at community college. Can you tell me about your education? Where do you go to school? And what did you do there?

Heather  8:59  
Yeah, I went to AB Tech here in Nashville or Asheville, Buncombe Technical Community College. And I it kind of started on a whim, my mentor encouraged me to run with it. Before that degree actually barely touched computers. I ended up in a PowerPoint class and loved it and thought I might have a knack for it. And that kind of hit the ground running after that. So I got a degree in Computer Information Technologies, which probably has changed its name since I've been there. graduated in 2015. Had a slew of jobs. During that time, it took me about three years to complete the two year degree because I also had to work to support myself during that time. So yes, so there was it was it was a fun time, but it was very challenging. And I started school a little bit later. So that was another reason that I was already working full time.

Peter Kazarinoff  9:55  
Heather, what was the toughest part of school? You mentioned that there were some challenges.

Heather  10:01  
Yeah, honestly, the biggest challenge was trying to manage, you know, paying bills and going to school full time. That that was probably the hardest challenge because it takes a lot of focus when you're in school, and to be able to be fresh all the time was not calm. And, you know, you pulled the all nighters and stuff like that. And so when you're not 100%, dedicated, are able to, you know, just kind of go to school. And that's it. And you also have to, you know, carry on either one or multiple jobs. That can be the biggest challenge is trying to stay focused and trying not to, basically, not to quit, because it does get hard, and that was actually during the recession. So,

Peter Kazarinoff  10:47  
Heather, how did Community College prepare you for where you are now? What did you do in your program that you use in your current work? And could you see getting to where you are now without your two year degree?

Heather  11:00  
No, I definitely do not. There's two things that were really, really beneficial. The first one was they encouraged certifications, which in the IT world is very critical. Most people know, they're almost more accepted than full degrees. So I found out real quickly that I love databases, which is basically what I get to do all day is build databases that support processes. So I got a database certification and tried to mold my most of my degree in that direction. But the second biggest thing that I learned there was they taught, they taught you how to teach yourself. And that is probably the most critical skill I've had to utilize, in any job I've had is the ability to teach yourself because it's not, you're not always going to be in an organization that has a full blown training program and can invest all the hours in training, you'll run into some places where you have to hit the ground running, and you have to figure it out as you go. So being able to teach yourself the tools that you need. And the skills that you need, is very, very critical to being successful. I think in the IT field in general, especially because it is constantly changing. The tools are constantly changing. software's constantly upgrading. So being able to teach yourself is a very good skill, a very valuable skill.

Peter Kazarinoff  12:19  
Heather, you mentioned now as an entrepreneur, that you do a lot of interpersonal communication. And those kind of working with people tools are really important. Did you learn some of those skills at community college? Or do you think we could develop those more in two year programs,

Heather  12:36  
I learned them in two areas, I did learn them at my community college, because the way the program was they encouraged collaboration, they encouraged you know, partnering with other people to learn and the professor's were wonderful. And they were also very knowledgeable in their areas of expertise. Many of them had second jobs, all even though they taught at the community college, they had second jobs in their, you know, field of expertise, the other place, or that I learned it, honestly, were my other jobs that I had while going to school there, I worked as a pharmacy technician, I worked as an assistant manager at a fast food restaurant, I had a slew of other random jobs during that time. So you know, I think having a good job, and especially a job involving with the public can help you with those inner personal skills, because you have to learn how to mitigate challenges. Just leave it at that you have to learn how to mitigate challenges. And then in school, you have to learn how to partner and work with people you don't know very well, because especially in the community college, you can, you may see a young kid and he may I saw people that were twice my age Starting second and third careers. So it was just a great breeding ground for learning how to communicate with all sorts of people.

Peter Kazarinoff  13:54  
Heather, how did your life change? When you started working in technology? What's different now compared to when you were a student?

Heather  14:02  
Um, I love my job, and I love being able to do what I do. And I've always wanted to have a job that I can enjoy. And that's, that's everybody's dream, right? But the good thing is, you know, having what I have now I'm able to do something I like but then I'm able to put it away at the end of the day and focus on what my bigger goals are. And in my case, it's it's fostering so it's, it's it's been life changing in the fact that even though it's I'm still learning, I'm still growing and I'm by no means, you know, overly wealthy at this point. There's a lot of investment that goes into running a business, but it's given me the ability to kind of go for the things that matter the most in my life and not be just stuck to a job that I hate.

Peter Kazarinoff  14:53  
He ather, you have an amazing story. What's something unexpected about being a small business owner that you only learned after you started?

Heather  15:05  
Really how much - how much a small business owner has to go through and how much they have to learn. Everybody gets real hung up on on the schedule, you know, that's like, oh, you can do whatever you want when you want. It's like, Yeah, but I paid for that. I paid for that. And, you know, not being able to have sick time and things like that. So, especially in the early stages, I think of running a business, you're kind of just hustling and you're investing everything you can into it to get it off the ground. So it's probably the learning curve that came with that. But it is fun. It's, it's frightening. Sometimes it's kind of, but it's also exhilarating, I guess, in other areas, you know, and the worst that can happen is it fails and then I can go get a job. You know, that's that was kind of how I approached it is the worst that can happen is it bottoms out, and I have to start somewhere, but at least I've learned something in the process.

Peter Kazarinoff  16:01  
Heather, what advice would you give current students or people on a transition careers, and work in technology like you do?

Heather  16:09  
The biggest thing, be willing to learn new things, and be willing to learn things that are outside of what you prefer to do. And the best example I can give is I, I love database, but I hate web development. But I cannot tell you how much I am involved in web development projects. Even running my own business, I still can't avoid it. But I I learned enough to be good at it. And I learned enough to get my foot in the door in new roles. And so while it's not my favorite, and I'm not even the best at it, I was willing to put in the effort to try and at least learn the skill enough to get the job done. And so sometimes being willing to do the dirty work, as I call it, or the grunt work will really serve you well in building a unique set of skills. That kind of maybe not always allows you to level up but allows you to expand your source of knowledge. And sometimes growing out instead of up actually has bigger benefits than just climbing a corporate ladder.

Peter Kazarinoff  17:11  
There, I've learned a lot about moving from a technician, and then to a business owner from talking with you. And we're getting close to wrap up. But I'd like to hear Do you have a final call to action for students or people that want to transition their careers? Or maybe could go to community college like you did?

Heather  17:29  
Yeah, I highly, highly recommend trade schools. In particular, I think they're invaluable. I don't think you're doing less than if you had gone to a university, because you're contributing to the community. So that's always good. So I guess my my call of action would be if you have something that you want to do to chase it, the worst that you can do is fail. And we all do that. So you can try again or you can try something different. But it is it is worth the investment. And if you have a teachable mindset, I think that will also serve you very well. I'm a I'm a firm believer that you're never above a job as long as you approach it with integrity and ethics. And, and so that allows you to learn a lot from others and it learns a lot about yourself as well in the process.

Peter Kazarinoff  18:23  
Well Heather, thank you so much for being on Talking Technicians and sharing your story.

Heather  18:29  
Thank you for having me. I've enjoyed it.

Peter Kazarinoff  18:31  
Please keep in touch.

Heather  18:33  
Thank you.

Peter Kazarinoff  18:39  
Talking Technicians is produced by MNT-EC, the Micro Nano Technology Education Center through financial support from the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education grant program. Opinions expressed on this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the National Science Foundation. Join the conversation. If you are a working technician, or know someone who is, reach out to us at info@talkingtechnicians.org. We're always looking out for great guests to share more stories with you.