Leisa: Hello, I’m Leisa Holland Nelson and welcome to another edition of Women Mean Business, where we’re going to take you up close and personal with extraordinary women doing extraordinary things. My guest today is Dawn Nielson, Vice President of the Kolache Factory; Dawn, welcome to Women Mean Business.

Dawn: Thank you Leisa, thrilled to be here.

Leisa: Knowing that the Kolache Factory is a family business maybe you were dreaming of doing this when you were a little girl but most people aren’t, tell us how you got to this position.

Dawn: Well when I was a little kid I was definitely not dreaming of making kolaches so you got that right. My parents started the business and I started scrubbing floors and waiting on customers and that just slowly progressed into doing more things – receivables, payroll and then eventually Vice President – so it’s just one of those things as you grow with the business your job responsibilities grow with it and I’ve been lucky enough to be in a position to move forward.

Leisa: So this is the only place you’ve ever worked?

Dawn: I did a small jaunt at Gymboree, it didn’t work out very long.

Leisa: Well I think children to kolaches, they’re pretty close; they have a lot in common.

Dawn: It was close, it was close.

Leisa: Is there anything you’d want somebody to know about succeeding in a family business?

Dawn: You’ve got to earn your respect, you’ve got to do the time. You’ve got to like I said earlier scrub the floors, wait on the customers, deal with the difficult things; realize that you need good people. Good people make you look good, they make you want to do better, so having quality people behind you that you can trust, that you can put in positions that you understand they can make executive decision, that’s key to success.

Leisa: Thank you for sharing that with us.

Dawn: Thank you.

Leisa: There you have it, another extraordinary woman doing extraordinary things. I’m Leisa Holland Nelson, President and Co-founder of ContentActive, Houston’s leading web and mobile design and development company. You can find me at ContactActive.com or follow me on Twitter @LHNelson. We’ll be back again next week with another edition of Women Mean Business.