Blog #14

So, since I forgot my camera battery at home, I didn't have a chance to take a picture of Christine. Instead... a Googled an image. This one if from Arcsi.org. If I ever get a chance to meet Christine in person again, I will make sure to ask for a picture. But for now, this will have to suffice. Unless a picture I draw would fit well too O:

Name: Christine McDannell
Job: Owner
Company: Cleanology and Adopt a Christmas Tree
Location: 4682 Iowa St. Suite 107, San Diego, CA 92116
Highlights from mentor interview:
What was your educational background?
She was mostly a C average student junior high. By high school, her grades improved to a 3.7 (A's and B's). Her dad would've paid for college but Christine got into business as a kid. Her dad owns his own company so she had experience there. She was interested in real-estate and got her license at 18. For 5 years she was in property real-estate. She saw a ad for a cleaning company (By then, she wanted her own business) and went to 5 different banks to try to get a loan but no one give a 35 thousand dollar loan so at 23. She started earning money by cleaning and being a Realtor at the same time. Two employees taught her how to clean. After a while, she started her own company.

What is success to you?
"Do what I love everyday." She talked about how she wanted to have a comfortable living and enjoy life. She wanted to take mini vacations and not grow old without experiencing what the world has to offer. Many people work so hard towards retirement, but grow old and lead miserable lives. "Giving back to the community is definitely important. I think if every company contributed a little, it would really help." Sometimes, they had domestic workers clean cancer patient's houses for free. Giving back to a community was a big thing for her.

How do you delegation and communicate so all the jobs get done?
She talked about how different people do different jobs. "You may be able to do a job, but maybe someone who has spent more time in the field can do it better or faster. By letting them do it, you free up your time." She spoke about her experience with her first office manager and how she was watching her closely with everything she did. "You want to be working on your company not in it." She said having a good business relationships is important because you can look to them for connections or have them help you out as you have helped them. "I want to bring up the whole cleaning industry. I want my company to be big, but I want other cleaning companies to rise with ours."