Donna Belcher was a single mom when she went to work as a secretary for her brother-in-law's hearing aid business nearly 30 years ago.
Today, she is a board-certified hearing instrument specialist, who owns her own company, Quality Choice Hearing Aid Center Inc., 2725 N. Westwood Blvd.
As a single mom, Belcher said, she didn't know how she was going to go back to school for 2 1/2 to 3 years and try to learn a profession, so she decided to find something short term.
"When I worked for him and my sister, I felt like it was an opportunity for me to get into something that would be a good fit for me," said Belcher.
What Belcher found, she said, was an interest in the field, which "seemed like something I wanted to do. ... I just felt like I could do it."
Belcher did go back to school as there is "a lot of training" involved in the hearing aid business.
A resident of Dexter, Mo., Belcher worked for her brother-in-law about a year before working at Miracle Ear in Poplar Bluff.
After about nine years, "there were some doors, opportunities ... I was able to start my own business," Belcher said. "I started with nothing."
Belcher's original location was on the back side of the Hillsdale Plaza. She's been in her current location there in Suite No. 3 for 11 years.
"I was very reluctant because I didn't have any experience with business, but I did have a lot of faith," Belcher said. "... I knew the (hearing aid) business because I had done it for several years with a different company."
Belcher said she wasn't sure about "jumping out there" on her own, "but, sometimes, when you take those leaps of faith ... God rewards you for that."
With any new business, Belcher said, there are going to be struggles learning something from the ground up in terms of operation.
But, after opening her business 19 years ago, "I can tell you that I feel like that there was never a month that I struggled" like happens to new businesses many times, Belcher said.
"I don't think it was luck; I think it was (the fact) that I had a lot of good people, past clients," Belcher said. "I did some advertising, and they began to come. They kind of followed me. I think that helped out tremendously."
Belcher said her staff of Tom Wright and Mary Boyer, both of whom are licensed, has been with her for several years.
"We feel like we're family," said Belcher, whose family also is involved in the business.
Belcher said her daughter, Cindy, is licensed and works in the Dexter office, and she also "taught" her husband, Bruce, the business. He too is licensed.
The business, she said, has turned into a "family business," but it is one "we never really planned. It just kind of happened that way."
Belcher said she and her family are "very pleased and blessed" they have been successful.
"Looking back, it's hard for me to believe we have been as successful as we have been," Belcher said.
According to Belcher, anyone can be successful in business.
"If you have a desire to do anything in life, I feel like if you put forth the effort and just stick with it ... do the things that are necessary to achieve that ... anyone can be successful," Belcher said. "I really don't believe there is not anything someone can't do.
"If they put their mind to it, they can do it."
During her life, Belcher said, she has done "all kinds of jobs. I worked in banks, doctor's offices. I worked in mental health, lots of different things, but I never found that little niche that I felt like I was doing something I enjoyed."
Belcher found her niche in the hearing aid business, something, she described as very rewarding.
"I think you're very fortunate if you can find something you can do in your lifetime that you really do enjoy," she said.
The hearing aid business, she said, has provided that rewarding experience for her.
"If it wasn't, I wouldn't have stayed in it as long as I did," Belcher said. "I feel like it is a dream come true."
Being a woman in her field, she said, really hasn't been a factor.
"I don't know about other fields, but, I think, that it's probably about half and half in the hearing industry," Belcher said based on her observations at various meetings she attended in recent years.
"There wasn't really a struggle" regarding the gender aspect, she said.
Dealing with patients, she said, takes sincerity and empathy toward their issues.
"When they come to you, they have a disability, they have a problem with their hearing, some of them are a lot worse than others, and they're looking for help," Belcher explained. "I think if we can be sensitive to that, help fulfill their needs and show them ... that's what it's all about."
Belcher will be 64 on her next birthday in February, and feels it is going to be difficult for her to "let go because I love (the business) so much."
Although she doesn't work in the "dispensing end" of hearing aids so much anymore, Belcher said, she still is involved in the marketing.
Semiretired, she said, she only works two days a week.
"I've done so many different things in the past and never really felt fulfilled" or had a good feeling about it, she said. "Every day when I get up now, it's like I'm ready to (go) ... when I do work."