All Business – Getting to Know HutchCC’s Matt Smith

By Emily Carder
Staff writer
Email: thehutchinsoncollegian@gmail.com

Matt Smith is a professor at Hutchinson Community College, as well as an academic advisor in the Business Management and Entrepreneurship program and Business Administration program.

The classes he teaches are focused on helping students learn how to manage and operate a business. The goal of these classes is for the students to be able to use the knowledge and skills learned to take on a management role, or even start their own business, once they graduate from HutchCC.

Here are three things you may not know about Smith.

Most difficult job Matt Smith faced

Before teaching at HutchCC, Smith worked as a maintenance technician for an apartment complex. He claims that it was the most physically demanding job he had. His responsibilities went from painting to even electrical and plumbing repairs. 

“It was a great job and supportive coworkers, but I knew it was not something I wanted to do as a career,” he said.

The most all-around difficult job he had was as an office manager at a trailer repair and sales shop. Many of the business operations he inherited were broken or disorganized, and it took him at least a year or more to make the adjustments needed for the processes to operate smoothly and in a quick manner. 

He commutes from outside Reno County

A lot of people dislike commuting. Meanwhile Smith enjoys the commute back and forth to Wichita. 

When driving to HutchCC in the mornings, he takes it as an opportunity to mentally prepare for the classes taking place on that day. He uses the drive home to reflect on what went well during the day and what could go better. He recently started taking other routes instead of the main highway from Hutchinson and Wichita. He enjoys the scenery change and being able to see some amazing sunsets.

He’s always full of business ideas 

Smith has developed and considered a dozen business ideas. Some of them he finds outrageous but most of them are practical business opportunities. 

“The one idea that I am most passionate about is business consulting and training for small businesses,” he said.

He’s had the opportunity to work with a small number of clients to help them solve their struggles.

The other business idea that he’s excited about is possibly working with his son. He is planning to complete a welding degree at HutchCC, and then going to work. Smith and his son have discussed opening a business together after he earns the degree and gets several years of experience in the field.

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