Her Story
About Mia
Mia Fusco owns and operates Valley Sitters, a babysitting service she launched as a freshman in high school approximately five years ago. Currently a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, she has expanded the business to support more than 270 families. Her expertise includes entrepreneurship, leadership, communication, and strategy, developed through managing client relations, schedules, and operations. Fusco formed an LLC for the company and engages in academic clubs at the university along with the Letters of Love club, which writes cards to children in hospitals. She volunteers at a local daycare and prioritizes community service. Fusco attributes her success to persistence and trying new approaches despite early challenges and slow growth. She values ethical practices centered on positive impact, doing what is right for others, and treating people with respect, as reflected in the business school motto to grow the good in business.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Mia
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to not giving up. Those first few months were slow with only one or two jobs, and people told me it wasn't worth my time, but I kept trying new things even when some didn't work like pet sitting. Continuing to work through challenges and not giving up led to growth to over 270 families.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice is not to give up and keep going, but also not to take on too much. If you try to give yourself a bunch of different tasks at the same time, you can only put in partial effort, so it's better to choose one thing and put all your focus into that rather than a bunch of different things.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
It doesn't matter how old you are, if you have an idea and you're passionate about it and want to work on it, just do it. Just start. The hardest part is starting.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
A big challenge was figuring out what to do with the local babysitting business when moving to Indiana for college. It became an opportunity when a local tech company reached out in May of 2025 to build an app and grow the business through social media. The biggest opportunity in entrepreneurship is that there are so many places you could turn and people to partner with. It's choose your own adventure, which comes with challenges but lots of room for growth.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
My biggest values are to grow the good in business and do what's good for others to make a positive impact. Treat others the way you want to be treated and just be a good person in general. Personal values like interpersonal relationships should come ahead of personal or shareholder interests.
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