Owning Her Own Business Kept Her Close to What She Loves

1. Name of business Cassandra Drennon & Associates, Inc.
2. What does your business do? (For example, cut hair, paint houses, cook food, cut grass, write grants, help people get in good physical shape, etc.) We evaluate education programs for non-profits, school systems, universities, foundations, as well as state and federal agencies.  On a daily basis, we help these organizations measure and communicate the results they are achieving.
3. How long have you been doing this? 13 years (since 2000)
4. Why are you doing this in Athens? With technology and access to an airport, I could work from just about anywhere so being in Athens is not a factor in the success of the business. Being in a university community does have its advantages, however.  The talent pool here is amazing; we can draw on it as needed for specific projects.
5. What are the advantages of owning a small business? There are too many to list! In most general terms, I’m better able to create the work/life balance, and overall quality of life, that is most important to me.  
6. If you could change one thing about owning a small business, what would that be? Having to collect payment for our services is tedious and time consuming. Sometimes a client will take a long time to pay and this is a real inconvenience.
7. Do you have employees? Are they temporary, part-time, full-time, new or long term? I have one full-time employee, Diane Sanders and two half-timers, Shaye Gambrell and Marisa Rosen. Diane has been with me for almost as long as I’ve been in business and we were also in graduate school together. It’s great having such a dedicated long-term colleague. The other two staff who have been with me for more than a year now are equally terrific.
8. Do you own the place where you do business, or do you move around (like maybe a dog trainer would do) or rent space (to store your equipment)? I own my office space, in the Leathers’ Building alongside other small businesses.
9. Is anyone else in town doing what you do? I’m not aware of program evaluators in Athens with the same business model that we have. There are a number of people who do independent program evaluation work out of their homes, say, one or two contracts at a time. Also, some university faculty take on evaluation projects from time to time as part of their service or consulting work. UGA has an evaluation unit, as well. We have some of the same clients in our portfolios and find ourselves competing, once in a blue moon, for the same contracts.

10. Do you like what you do? Love it.

11. Do you have a story to share about how your started your business. (“I realized one day that, yes, I could actually design websites myself. So I started doing this and never looked back.”) Throughout the course of my doctoral program in the mid to late 90’s, I fell in love with both Athens and my future husband, David Bryant. Pursuing a faculty position in another state once I graduated didn’t make any sense, given the circumstances of my life. On the other hand, starting a business here was a great way to use the skills I had gained in graduate school.  

12. What are your plans for the future (regarding your business), the future being the next five years? My plan is to sustain it at the current level. It’s been a great business. I look forward to retiring from it by the time I’m 60 or so – which, I’m excited to say, is not too far beyond the five-year time-frame you asked about.