Kara Jensen, Bop Design

"My mom was the breadwinner. She was in retail management, a senior vice president for a chain of stores similar to Macy's in New Jersey. I always had an interest in business, and she was definitely a role model for me," said Jensen, creative principal at Bop Design, a San Diego marketing agency with additional offices in the New York metropolitan area. She and husband Jeremy Durant founded Bop in 2008 with the goal of making great design accessible to small businesses, specifically B2B services firms.

Jensen knows about design – and business. While attending College of New Jersey as a general business major, she wasn't sure which degree to pursue. "I had a good friend who was a graphic design major," she said. "When I saw her work, I thought it was exciting. It's learning how to visually communicate and resonate with people. Halfway through college, I changed my major to graphic design and fell in love with it. I got involved in design activities outside of school, and got to travel for competitions. I also studied web design and 3-D animation, and graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree in graphic design and a BA in marketing."

Her travels led to a decision to move to San Diego in 2004. She landed the position of marketing communications director at Windsor Capital, developing campaigns, advertisements and websites that improved the mortgage company's loan officer and real estate agent recruitment efforts. After three years at Windsor, the recession hit and the company closed its doors. A month later, Jensen landed a job as the lead graphic designer at LPL Financial, designing materials and implementing brand strategies for the corporate office and its financial advisers.

"At LPL, I was on a team that worked on branding for the company's top advisers all over the country. Most of these advisers worked with business owners and had limited marketing options," she said. "That's when I realized how underserved B2B (business-to-business) really was regarding branding.

"Early in my career, I wanted to start an agency, but it seemed overwhelming. But as I gained more experience and had five years of experience under my belt and tons of freelance, I had a clear vision of what kind of company Bop Design could be. Luckily, I met my husband, who had been a business development director for a media production agency that did broadcast commercials for consumer products, and we decided to go for it."

She came up with the name Bop "because I wanted something short and memorable. Bop seemed like a really fun name and determining a strategy to grow your business should be a fun discussion. It means go, move. Our philosophy was to develop marketing strategies ‘for businesses serious about growth.' We started Bop with two or three clients on day one, and had about 15 the first year. Now we have about 35 active clients at any given time."

Jensen is committed to encouraging women to pursue their business goals. For Women's History Month, she shared this advice for women looking to advance their careers:

"The biggest thing is to have confidence and don't be intimated if you're in a male-dominated industry. Stay focused on your goals and ignore the chatter around you. I think San Diego is a little more open-minded than other areas of the country. There's a lot of entrepreneurial spirit here. I came from the East coast, where it can be more traditional and male-dominated.

"One hurdle for younger women is finding female mentors. It may be hard to find someone you can turn to. When I started my firm, I connected with women who had been in business for five or 10 years and I just picked their brains. Ask yourself, ‘where do I want to be in five or 10 years?' and find people who are already there. Take them out to lunch and find out what they did to become successful.

"Be more aggressive. Men make higher salaries because they asked for it, and women should do the same."

Jensen also takes time to give back to the community. She was selected as an honoree of the YWCA 2012 Tribute to Women in Industry and serves on the board of the San Diego Hunger Coalition. And she does the same for her employees.

"A lot of my support for women is through mentoring my staff," she said. "We have teambuilding days and one-on-one mentoring sessions, which aren't just about how they're doing, but also how can I help them face the challenges in their career. One of the most satisfying things for me is seeing them progress over the years to become true marketing professionals.

"At Bop Design, I built a company that takes the best from the other cultures I worked at. We want all our employees to feel empowered and have a good work/life balance. As a small business, you need to empower your employees, because you can't do everything. You spend at lot of time and money on your staff to build your culture. And it's great when you see the results."

www.bopdesign.com

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~ By Glenn Grant, The Daily Transcript