When I graduated college my father told me I should always be the first one in the office and the last one to leave. After working in the social work field for a year doing just that I managed to be fired not once, but twice, because I was basically making my coworkers "look bad". At that time I decided to reevaluate my career and took a break while I waited for the next opportunity. In the interim I was going to "take it easy" and do something I loved. Growing up I had many different pets and a family dog that I loved dearly which led me to begin walking dogs in the burbs. To make a long story short, I came to understand the opportunity I had been waiting for was already there. Finally I understood that I could be my own boss like both my parents had done and so I started my own pet services company, Pet Care Plus, in 1998 serving downtown Chicago.As I began I found that being one of the first in an industry is not easy as there is no blueprint for success. That's why I relied on the concept of superior customer service from the start. There was no request that I wouldn't at least consider to make my clients happy. With this philosophy we soon managed to make a name for ourselves as a leader in the pet services industry. We always go above and beyond for our clients and our employees. This is so important because with great employees I am freed up to focus on business development and being a small business mentor.I am truly blessed to have found something that I love and am passionate about early on in my career. While the road has been long and hard I always recall something I read near the start of the journey. The saying that would keep me going was “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.” I truly believe this and it is what keeps me going to this day and drives me to help others achieve that same goal in their small businesses.