Rosangela Estefani

I attribute my success to being punctual, flexible, and trustworthy. I show up when I say I will, at 8 or 9 a.m., and my customers can rely on me and trust me. I'm not going to their house to steal their stuff - my goal is to go clean, do a good job, and make my customer happy. If they don't agree with something, I can redo it. I'm really flexible because my goal is to make my customer happy. I also don't charge by the hour, I charge by the job - I charge $200 per house, and thank God, I work fast. When my customer's daughter left clothes in the washer and a credit card fell out when I moved them to the dryer, I put it on top of the machine for them. That's not my goal - my goal is to clean and make them happy.

The best career advice I've received is how to handle customers, especially these days. People are crazy, and I need to know how to handle them even when they're a pain in the neck. I've gone through some situations in Florida that I never went through in Connecticut - some people try to humiliate you or treat you like you're inferior, especially retired people who think they're entitled to everything. They'll say they're not feeling good just to make you feel bad so you'll do extra work for free. I've learned through studying and researching that the way people treat me is not about me - they're reflecting how they feel. Like one customer who called me a sucker to my face - he was the one always asking for extras, and he was reflecting on me the way he feels. I just looked at him, turned it off, and said I'm not gonna waste my time. These days when somebody says something, I just think it's not worth it and let it go. I like what Pastor Joe says: drop it, let it go. And Mel Robbins' book 'Let Them' - you have to learn how to deal with people today. Cleaning is not hard, I do that every day. Learning to handle people is what I need to learn, and thank God I've gotten much better about that because sometimes I was doubting myself, but it's not me, they're the problem.

The first thing you need to do when you go to a customer's house is always smile, even if you don't want to. When they open the door, smile. When you talk on the phone, smile. When you smile, even if people are in a bad mood that day, it can make their day change. It's like if somebody's rude to you, that makes your day terrible, but if you smile and say 'oh, good morning, how are you, how you doing today?' it opens doors for you. Then do a good job - details are very important. You have to have a good attitude. My customers say I always tell them 'don't worry, don't worry' when they ask me something. The time I stay in the house, I need to make it pleasant. If I'm cramping or rude or have an attitude, I'm the one who's gonna lose the job. I always try to be positive, even on terrible days. Like yesterday, it seemed like everybody targeted me to be mean, but at the end of the day I said 'God, I'm gonna give all these people to you to resolve all this trouble they created.' I believe in God - that's one thing that is very important to me, because God is everything in your life.

The most important value is to be honest. Today it's hard to find honest people, especially here in Florida, but honesty is the key to my business. I tell the truth - sometimes customers ask me to come every week, but I look at the house and how they handle it, and I'll say no, you don't need every week, let's try twice a month or even once a month. For me it would be awesome to work every week, but I like to have a lot of customers in my schedule, so when I see the house is easy and not hard to clean, I'll tell them once a month is enough. This way I can have more customers and the revenue is better. Believing in God is the first one - first God, second your family, and third is your job. God is everything.