Member Profile: Emilia De Sousa
Your Name: Emilia De Sousa
Name of your business: Emilia's Home & Pet
When did you open your business? 1998
What services do you offer? Domestic cleaning - regular or one off cleaning, Strata cleaning, and carpet cleaning. I also offer other services: pet minding, dog walking, ironing and gardening.
Why did you start the business? I needed a job part time job.
How many people are in your company? 7, and myself.
What has been the biggest surprise, good or bad, since you started? Other cleaners taking away my private clients and clients not paying.
What is the toughest part of running your business? Not having enough time to set up systems and do a business manual, etc.
What is the best part of running your business? The satisfaction of doing a good job, and the satisfaction of helping my clients and my coworkers.
Is there anything that you would have done differently? If I only knew you before, I would have saved money, time, stress!
What is the most important thing you will be adding, doing, changing in the next year for your business? I will follow your suggestions with all the manuals etc. and this will take a year. I want to get more strata cleaning clients because it means more money. I also want to improve of how to hire the best workers.
Where do you see your business in 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years? I see myself: working half the hours I do now - 10 hours a week, just supervise strata building cleaning. I see myself also having an office assistant and a bookkeeper assistant to go over the business once a month and I also hope to work more in the office, being smarter about how I run my business.
What advice could you give others and please don't hold back! Do not trust people.
How do you use MyHouseCleaningBiz.com to help you with your business? I just started reviewing the site, I need help in all aspects. For now I will focus on setting up all documentation necessary, and later improving with cleaning tips.
School - high school, college, technical school: Australia - associate diploma in Accounting - TAFE, Portugal - year 10
What are some of your prior jobs or businesses: Portugal- family hotel. Australia: factory (Bonds Wear), Retail Clothing shop, Housekeeper, Tax consultant - KPMG
Is there a specific person or event in your life that made you decide to go into business for yourself? I grew up working in my family's business in Portugal - my mother and grandmother had great skills and were great business women.
Website: http://www.emilia-home-pet.com.au
Email: [email protected]
