Dawnna Dukes

Established in 1992, DM Dukes & Associates is a consulting firm that focuses on the areas of criminal justice, safety and loss control, research planning, and business resource development. Dukes has a background in business resource development for small minority/women-owned businesses and is currently serving as a state representative in the Texas House of Representatives. She recently received an award from the National Association of Small Disadvantage Businesses for authoring legislation in Texas that facilitates and encourages women and minorities doing business with the state of Texas.

Do you think of yourself as a pioneer in business today?

I do not. However, my friends and others attempting to start up small businesses seem to see me that way. Individuals who wish start their own firms or chart their own future think that I am courageous and have some God-given hidden talent that allowed me to start and succeed with my firm seven years ago.

How did you get involved in your company?

Eight years ago I worked for a criminal justice architectural firm. Through hard work and the onset of governmental affirmative action policies, I worked my way up in the firm. The firm folded a few years after I arrived, largely because of poor financial planning. The majority partner requested that I start a business similar to the prior with him as a partner.

I felt the market was changing and we need to diversify our services and become more politically active. He disagreed and told me my heads were in the clouds. Since profit sharing was not on a equal basis for me, I filed a dba and starting pursing other opportunities. Once I landed one contract to sustain me, I left the partnership and started my own business. I also became politically active, ran for office and won. Within 18 months of departing the partnership I had succeeded at both of my goals: creating my own consulting firm and gaining political office.

Who are your greatest mentors and role models?

There is no doubt that my greatest mentors and roles models are the matriarchs in my family. Early on they taught me that I was smart and could do anything I so chose to do. In addition, my maternal grandfather was an entrepreneur. He retired at age 39. I always aspired to do the same.

During the summer as a child my siblings, cousins and I would stay at my maternal grandparents house. We had to play outside in a "let's pretend" city that they helped us create. We created retails stores, craft shops, restaurants, post offices, car dealerships, groceries, engineering/architectural firms, law firms, real estate companies, doctors/dentist office, etc. We mimicked all the professions of our relatives and people we knew. My grandparents taught us how to manage our money with the play money we created. It was a game to us, but in essence they taught us entrepreneurship in a fun way. I am living every aspect of that game now.

What do you do within the parameters of your own company to promote and encourage the success and advancement of women?

I believe that it is important to give women equal opportunity with me. As a matter of fact I try to hire women whenever I find a likely candidate to fill a position. I talk to women to encourage them that they can do anything they wish if they study and apply themselves in a assertive manner. I discourage them from using crutches in a man's world to avoid the hard pace necessary to succeed.

Has your gender helped or hindered (or not affected) your career?

It has hindered my working relationship with large majority firms that have assumed that a female-owned firm is not a professional firm. One firm even said so. There have been times that in order to meet contracting goals the majority firm would offer the smallest contract size regardless of the fact that my firm could capacitate a larger contract size. With this same goal in mind, being a female owned firm did assist me in getting a small opportunity. However, the opportunity remained small until I worked and pushed to pursue larger contract sizes.

Are there unique problems for women in power?

Networking. Good ol' boy systems. Men do not believe women have the savvy or the courage to make the tough and hard decisions. It is believed that women will be bleeding hearts on financial and social issues. Also that we will not put in the hard hours to learn the minute mechanisms of the problems facing our company or the political/policy arena. I am not sure why they tend to think this, as we prove them wrong every time.

Compared to your own experience, in what ways will the entrepreneurial experience differ for businesswomen starting out today?