In Conversation With
Kimberly Hutchings
1
Tell us a little about your business
and what you do
I consider myself lucky because I now have two
businesses. The first one I call my “day job.” It’s
a helicopter specialty training company called
Volo Mission and is located in California (U.S.).
We train pilots who are working or wanting
to work in the external-load industry (i.e.
firefighting, construction, logging, etc.).
I am a helicopter pilot but do not “work” per
se as a pilot. My degrees are in Psychology
and Human Factors so aside from running the
business (my husband runs the operations), I do
all the case studies, human factors, and safety
work for the company’s training courses.
I refer to this as my day job because it allows the professional and more serious (academic)
side of me to be fulfilled while my second business is what I consider my passion and
purpose!
I have always heard the sayings about “doing what you love and you will never work a day
in your life,” or how people start businesses because they are passionate about… and,
although I absolutely love flying and the helicopter industry, I just didn’t feel the passion and
purpose like I do with mentoring teen girls, that’s why I decided to start a second business
this month called the Spartan Girls Mentoring.
2
What’s the bravest decision you have had to make in your business?
Wow, I can’t really think of one specific thing. When you are a business owner, you have to
be brave so often. You are always putting yourself out there in so many ways. Anywhere
from launching a new website or product, to deciding to expand or relocate, to making sure
you are doing right by your staff and customers. I guess the bravest thing in regard to Volo
Mission was deciding to run a company operating in the U.S. from Australia. My husband and
I have to put a lot of faith in our employees, which some business owners struggle with. It’s
very hard to put all your blood, sweat, and tears in the hands of others and not be there to
oversee every last detail. Building the right team is extremely important for us.
The bravest decision so far for Spartan Girls Mentoring, was actually deciding to turn it into
a business. I had been mentoring my daughter and three of her friends because I thought
it would be great to be able to give girls some confidence to go out in the world as strong
young women but then I started getting so much positive feedback from parents and calls
from mothers wanting to get their daughters involved that I decided to turn it into a business.