In episode #23 of the Empreenda BSB podcast, Cecília Bona, founder of Dona Conserta, shared a bit of her story and talked about the biggest challenges in entrepreneurship.
Cecília Bona started her entrepreneurial journey at age 20 and, after several failed attempts with her own design companies—her field of study—she even considered giving up on entrepreneurship. She earned a Master's degree in Arts and became a professor.
After experiencing a personal setback herself, Cecilia, the entrepreneur, created a company that offers more than 157 different residential services for women, her target audience. The company has a team made up entirely of women, all with professional training.
Dona Conserta started by advertising in WhatsApp groups of people close to Cecília, and in this way, she found a very innovative business opportunity in the capital of Brazil. She believes that "word of mouth" is the best communication strategy and that, to this day, it is the strategy that brings the most return to her company.
Company
Dona Conserta started with just Cecília, like most small businesses, but after a while, she met Denisa, who is now a partner in the company, and today they have several employees.
Cecília believes that her greatest asset, besides having a team composed entirely of women, is the way her employees treat their clients, as well as the care they take of the establishment and the technical expertise of the professionals.
Market vision
Dona Conserta saw that there was an opportunity in the market beyond residential services. Therefore, today they also carry out special projects for their clients. These are renovations or improvements, provided there is a project designed by professionals in the field, with the aim of delivering the service within the timeframe and budget requested by their clients.
Difficulties along the way
In a predominantly male market, Dona Conserta innovated its service by focusing on a female audience and being staffed exclusively by women. Cecília says that entering the market wasn't too difficult, as women readily accept the idea. Besides making clients feel more secure, Dona Conserta delights its clientele with its commitment and punctuality.
Even though the target audience is women, today the company has many male clients.
Cecília also mentions that some prejudices still exist, both from men and women, regarding activities being carried out by an all-female team. Some people still ask how women will have the strength to perform certain tasks or carry certain materials. She says that sometimes, when performing residential services in homes with men, many still want to give opinions, criticize, or verify the work of her team, even if all of them have technical professional training in the activities they perform.
The desire to undertake
Cecília says she experienced many difficulties at the beginning of the company, as her anxiety to create the perfect business ended up hindering her. After some time, the entrepreneur realized that administrative tasks will always exist and must be performed and improved daily.
“It’s really great to work with what you believe in. It’s not a bed of roses. I often dream of an 8-hour job and then switching off. But no, I’m here. At midnight I lie in bed thinking about tomorrow’s appointments. I wake up at 8 am thinking about the bills I have to settle at the end of the day. And that’s it, but deep down I feel that pride: ‘It’s mine, I’m building it, I made it, I employ people’ and that’s really great!”, says Cecília..
And the future?
Cecilia aims to expand her company, but currently her employees' schedules are always full, and finding skilled labor in the Brasília market is very difficult. In a recruitment process opened by the company, they received only six resumes, demonstrating the lack of people with technical knowledge in the federal capital.
To listen to the full episode, click here. here.
