Women in Business Today

By Andrea M. Ciccocioppo

We’ve all heard stories of the glass ceiling, the controversy over respect in the workplace and the challenge which working women have in juggling their careers and their personal lives. We wondered just how the local climate treats women in business — is it really possible to "bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan" in Central Pennsylvania? In honor of Women’s History Month, we decided to ask four area businesswomen to share their perspectives on what it’s like to be a woman in business in Central PA.

Our panel included: Nancy Dering Stark, owner of The Dering Consulting Group, which specializes in organization development, including strategic planning, team development and training; Ann Griffiths, vice president of reVisions Information Design Group, which provides technical writing, training course development programs and publications; Charlene M. Meyers, owner of Charlene M. Meyers Catering, which offers full-service catering including weddings, parties and luncheons; and Nancy Sacunas, partner at Andrews, Sacunas and Saline, a public relations, marketing and research firm.

MODE: As a woman, do you think you have to work harder to achieve the same respect from the business community?

Dering Stark: I’ve never found that to be so.

Griffiths: In some cases. My background was in data processing, and the reason I chose that as a career choice was that the field seemed to be the least biased — that there was not that big differential between men and women. If you were competent and did the job, then you were treated and given the same respect as a man.

Meyers: I don’t think so in the catering business. I haven’t found it to be a detriment.

Sacunas: No.

MODE: How many hours do you work per week?

Dering Stark: You don’t want to know. I’d say probably on average 60.

Griffiths: I don’t think I want to comment on that one.

Meyers: It varies as the business varies. [During the busiest months] it’s not unusual to put in 80-100 hours. [When business is slower] I probably put in more like 25-40.

Sacunas: I would say 57 hours.

MODE: How do you manage to juggle both a full-time career and a personal life?

Dering Stark: Why don’t people ask that question of men? I’m incredibly organized and I do have a gift for planning and prioritizing. Sometimes it requires some sacrifices and sometimes it’s sacrifices from the family standpoint, and sometimes it’s made from the professional level.

Griffiths: That’s always the toss of the coin. You have to balance it. You have to make tough choices and decide what is absolutely necessary for the company and what is absolutely necessary for your personal life.

Meyers: A lot of times, the business side has to come first — especially when you’ve built up a reputation over 14 years — there’s a lot of people who are counting on you and they’ve become friends as well as clients. But you have to learn to set time aside for yourself. You learn to manage the business to schedule [personal time] when you’re [business] is slow.

Sacunas: I am extremely organized to the point where my employees don’t understand how I get as much done as I get done, and I think that goes back to my days in retailing, where you learn time management and you learn to work hard, you learn to put in mega hours and you learn to juggle 50 things and have them all in on time. I truly believe you can have both. All of my employees have been given that flexibility — both men and women — because I realize that in this day and age of child care, you’ve got to be able to bend when your employees need you to bend.

MODE: What keeps you motivated and focused on your career?

Dering Stark: We are very committed here to planning, so we have a strategic plan in place for the growth of the firm, so I’m sort of keeping an eye on what we’ve set for ourselves. I think the satisfaction that we get from doing good work and having clients who are appreciative of what we’ve done. We’ve grown this business to such a great extent on repeat business and referrals, and I think we enjoy a fine and solid reputation in our business, those kinds of things where you’re doing good work and you’re building something of quality and providing the people who work here with a good work experience. Those kinds of things are what I’m focusing on and finding important to me now.

Griffiths: I have to be happy with what I’m doing. If it gets to the point where my job really is starting to frustrate me, then I have to seriously take a look at it, really get to the underlying cause and accept that I have to change that cause, whatever it is, change it or put up with it. Life’s too short not to be happy in both your personal life and your work life.

Meyers: The fact that the business is not the same everyday — it’s always a new challenge and that just kind of keeps your fire burning.

Sacunas: It’s not hard to stay focused and motivated because I’m doing what I truly love doing. And as long as I’m having fun and doing what it is I enjoy, I don’t think I’ll ever have a problem with that. Yes, I have bad days like we all do, but I really don’t have trouble staying focused.

MODE: Who do you turn to for advice?

Dering Stark: I guess it depends on what it is. I think I have very good legal advice and really good financial advice from our accountants, so something along those line, I have confidence in them.

Griffiths: There’s a lot of women in the Executive Women’s Forum [of the Chamber of Commerce] with whom I have become good friends.

Meyers: Probably Charlie Gipe, executive chef at The Embers. I like what he has done in the business ... he never looks at anybody as a competitor, it’s just somebody else in the business.

Sacunas: I turn to other professionals that I have worked with over the years.

MODE: What do you feel is the secret to your success?

Dering Stark: Knowing who you are and what you do and how you market that to people is really critical. I’ve also been fortunate in terms of being able to find and keep good people. I think that the team that you put together and how that team works together is critical, as well as having a vision of where you’re headed and what’s important.

Griffiths: Being involved in groups and having a network of people to be able to contact with a question. I keep current with things by attending a lot of seminars. I also try to keep up to date with a lot of different magazines and periodicals.

Meyers: I’m very visible—very hands-on in the business. I attend as many of the functions as possible so that the clients know that I follow through. I also believe you must never, ever reduce your quality. And, of course, realizing that the customer has got to come first.

Sacunas: The whole reason for our success has been that we truly sit down and plan, set goals and monitor those goals and make sure that we meet those goals. We do it every year. I think it’s critical.

MODE: How do you find employees who share your enthusiasm for your work?

Dering Stark: That whole notion of getting the right team is a continual challenge, especially when you have a small tightly-knit group that is highly interdependent for getting our job done. We all work with each other; we all do virtually everything, so the importance of people being able to work together is critical here. We’d rather take our time than to make a bad pick. In [a recent case], the people on the team here were doing the interviewing and the hiring and they said they’d rather double up and do the work of that position and have it empty, than select in haste—they’d rather make sure they’ve got just the right person. They’re very protective of the climate of how we all work together.

Griffiths: It’s just a process of multiple interviews and getting multiple people involved if that’s possible. That initial meeting can be a very bad thing to base your hiring decision on. It should’t be that you’re looking for somebody just like yourself.

Meyers: I have found it difficult to find good people — not that’s it’s hard to keep them, because we’ve been very fortunate, we keep them — but to find the people who want to work.

Sacunas: It’s extremely hard, to the degree where it can take us up to a year to find the right person. But we’ve learned early on that it’s critical to find the right fit. And it you don’t have it, you’re just wasting your money hiring the wrong fit.

MODE: If you had it to do all over again, would you do anything differently?

Dering Stark: I don’t think so, in general terms. If I knew then what I know now, I might have accelerated some things, but I don’t think I’d have done it differently.

Griffiths: I don’t think I’d do anything differently. I’m very happy with what I’ve done in my career and it’s certainly not over at this point. Every place I’ve been, every job that I’ve had, it’s an experience, and I take that experience with me wherever I go.

Meyers: Not really. Maybe hire more help a little sooner in the business than I did.

Sacunas: No, I don’t think so.

MODE: What advice would you share with someone who is starting their own business?

Dering Stark: Be very clear in terms of what your purpose is, what you’re going for, what it is that you’re trying to accomplish, and then what’s important to you in terms of how you want to accomplish it. My observation is that there’s a myth in this country that when you’re your own boss, then you don’t have to work hard. People often underestimate the amount of effort it’s going to take. The other thing that’s not often mentioned is the sacrifice that it often entails financially. I’ve heard people say, ‘Gee, I’m not making what I’m worth.’ You might meet people who are making three times what you’re making in another job, but you can’t confuse that with your self-worth, because in the beginning at least, it requires you putting a lot of what you’re making back into the company—it requires a real discipline in terms of continually investing in the firm, not taking money out of it.

Griffiths: That it’s not going to be easy. Bottom line is it’s going to absorb your life. Concentrate on the basics and realize that you can’t do it all yourself. With any business, it takes more than one person to make it a success. You can’t be the business and run the business at the same time. You have to plan, you have to go through with a business plan, you have to know what you’re selling, know what your competition is, know how you’re going to market it ... the basic things in a business.

Meyers: I think a lot of times women allow the fact that they are a woman in business to be a negative instead of looking at themselves as an equal. You have to remember that you are the expert in whatever it is that you are offering them. They are the experts in their fields, you are the expert in your field.

Sacunas: It’s harder than it looks, it costs more than you think it’s going to cost and it takes more time than you ever think you’re going to have to give. You may think, ‘If I had my own business, I could take all this time off.’ The reality is that you don’t have the time to take off.

These four Harrisburg businesspersons illustrate how the world is changing and what new challenges are facing both men and women in today’s work environment. Their perspectives shed light on the true drive, desire, and determination need to succeed in our competitive marketplace. MODE would like to thank each participant for sharing their candid and respected views.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE: If you or your company employs specific success oriented techniques or strategies that you would like to share with your fellow businesspersons, please contact MODE at 717-703-5000. Our goal is to share as much beneficial business-to-business information as we can print in these pages.