Success In Unlikely Places: A Young Woman’s Journey to a Multi-Million Dollar Business
Imagine a young college student with big dreams, finding out that she was pregnant at 19. At the time, Greta Bajrami wondered if everything she had worked for was lost. She knew she had a choice: give up, or fight to stay in the game.
Determined not only to survive but succeed, Greta and her husband stayed in college and worked multiple jobs, raising their expanding family together in a small apartment. Within ten years, Greta has built a multi-million dollar business in a male-dominated industry, serves on three industry boards, and landed her company into the Top 50 Construction companies.
How did she do it?
Success can come in unexpected ways.
Greta never dreamed that she would be a leader in the roofing industry. It was never something on her radar screen. But sometimes life presents unexpected opportunities. After a summer internship for a roofing company, Greta saw the inefficiencies and need for customer service improvements. She saw her potential to make a difference, and she took it.
With a fresh set of eyes and a business degree, Greta made it her mission to transform the roofing industry. Not being tied to “the way it’s always been done” empowered her to design process improvements using the industry's current technology advances. Golden Group Roofing was founded with a determination to bring a better customer experience to her Massachusetts community.
Don’t let “status quo” beliefs limit you.
Certainly in Greta’s culture growing up, women didn’t participate in construction fields. But in observing her mother rise through the ranks as chief surgeon in a male dominated industry, Greta witnessed the determination to take charge and think outside of the box. No one expected a woman in lipstick to be running a roofing company - but they were quickly surprised when Greta walked into a warehouse and purchased enough roofing equipment to start up on her own business.
Even her customers initially resisted some changes. Using cutting edge technology, her roofing company uses satellite imaging to get clear photographs and accurate measurements to provide a detailed estimate down to the penny for her customers - without ever going onto the roof. Sometimes homeowners were dubious of the new technology, because it was “different” than how things have always been done.
Still, Greta implemented her innovative ways of creating efficient and precise estimate reports, slowly making these process improvements more mainstream in the industry. This turned into an unexpected benefit during the social distancing requirements of the pandemic, because Golden Group Roofing was already conducting “no-contact” roofing estimates. Her foresight and advancements kept Golden Group Roofing conducting business and serving their customers without missing a beat.
Reinventing yourself can mean survival
Let’s be honest, says Greta, “life isn’t always a Disney movie.” We have bills to pay, families to nurture, homes to manage, and the future to save for. It’s okay to find a new - and unlikely - passion. Our survival as women and mothers is so crucial, and there is power in forging your own path and creating something new. Even if it’s not in a traditional or glamorous industry.
“I fight every day for a better life for my family,” says Greta. It may mean staying up late and putting in the extra time to create a better life for your kids. There may be times where your current situation may feel like a daunting uphill struggle, Greta says, but you can choose to not accept that as a final sentence.
Greta’s advice? “Don’t quit when you are very much alive.”
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