A-Day-in-the-Life-of-an-Immigrant-Entrepreneur-Story-Book

32The Job…At the job site, the first thing we do is carry theequipment and supplies in and then assign floors orrooms if necessary. For the next three to four hours ourinteraction is minimal, as everyone is busy, except ofcourse, for the occasional approval or disapproval of asong choice. We like to play music as we work. Somethingabout music, the right tempo and energy gives us driveand keeps our spirits up as we work. When we are donecleaning, we do a final walk-through and make sureeverything is sparkling and that we haven’t left anythingout of place.After the Job…We head home, change out of our uniform into businesscasual attire, and visit a potential client at their sitefor a prescheduled walk-through to establish a quote.A walk-through is usually our first in-person contactwith the client, and as such we aspire to make thebest first impression. The walk-through lasts about 15to 30 minutes. One thing we hope our client can takeaway from meeting us is our authenticity, which is seenthrough our personalities and references. During thewalk-through we take the opportunity to learn about theclient’s needs and tailor the quote to suit their budgetand expectations.Small Business Support…In order to support small businesses we make aconscious effort to hold our after-walk-through meetingat a startup or small business coffee shop or restaurant.We then draft a formal cleaning proposal that is sent tothe client.Happy hour…In the evenings we either meet up with a mentor orattend a networking event. We have learned that ourbusiness is very personal and word of mouth is the mainavenue for attaining new business. We try to attend manyevents, meet other business owners in our field, and havememberships in different networking groups.We have noticed that our accents act as a perfecticebreaker, and this gives those we interact with anopportunity to get to know us better. “Do I hear anaccent?” or “Where are you from originally?” or “WhyPittsburgh?” are common questions posed to us. Wewelcome these questions, as they give us a chance to tellour story, and this helps build a better rapport betweenthe client and us.We take pride in our work because we are building whatwe like to call “our empire,” and our mission is to provideexcellent products and services while inspiring others.We want to live our lives by example, and that’s why wework side-by-side with our employees and are open tosuggestions they may have to improve our services.We attribute our hard work and desire to deliver thebest in what we do to our upbringing. Our parents,through example, instilled in us diligence, honesty,and accountability, which have proved invaluable whilerunning a business.A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEUR