Women’s History Month – Lisa De Jesus
What's your name and your business?
My name is Lisa De Jesus and I am a Realtor and owner of ADU Gurus.
Tell us more about ADU Gurus.
I am a Land Use Consultant that helps people understand what they can do as far as feasibility is concerned with the Accessory Dwelling Unit laws that the State has mandated to the local governments. I help them understand what they can build, where they can build it. We do all of the architectural plans, all of the permit management to permit, and we have contractors that do the construction as well.
What inspired you to become a business owner?
Self-employment has always been attractive to me. I like to work really hard; I work seven days a week sometimes, sometimes 10-15 hours a day. Other times I can have an easier week, working 30 hours. But I'm always working with my clients' interests as more businesses that operate successfully do. Really for the last 25 years I've been self-employed. I'm also a real estate broker and in real estate we're all self-employed, it's just been a trend in my work life and when I started ADU Gurus it was no different. I'm very happy to be self-employed. I like having my own schedule, I like being able to make the decisions in running my company, balance the bottom line, and enjoy the success.
What challenges have you faced as a woman-owned business?
I don't really specifically think about gender specific obstacles, I don't see myself as a woman that is maybe monopolized by men. I haven't noticed any challenges yet or come across any challenges being a woman owned business in a male dominated field like construction. I operate in a very straight forward way with my feet firmly planted on the ground. But I celebrate woman owned businesses because historically women have been oppressed in business, in life, in voting. So, I like to celebrate the successes but personally I operate my business as a business owner and to that end I don't know of any challenges. There are challenges being self-employed period. I am the secretary, I'm the marketing director, I'm the CEO, I'm the Chief Operating Officer, I'm the project manager, I have every hat and I wear them all. I haven't expanded to hire a board of directors and grow my company, I've stayed a rather small business and in doing so the challenges are that you wear all of the hats and you have to wear them well in order for all of those aspects of the company to run well.
What advice would you give to other women entrepreneurs?
The advice I'd give to other women starting a business is keep moving forward. Your success rate for bad days in the past is 100% and that means that you're still here, you're still operating, keep moving forward. Always learn, always keep an open mind to learn more, the minute we think we know everything is the minute we find out we know nothing. The more you know the better you'll be. Be patient, don't be afraid to ask for help. There's a number of resources out there for learning, whatever you're doing somebody knows a little more than you do. That's my philosophy, I always feel there's more people out there that know about what I'm doing and I try to learn from those folks also while developing my own business acumen that will best serve my clients. So, just keep going, that's my advice.
Where can we find ADU Gurus?
If you're interested in learning more about Accessory Dwelling Units you can always check out my website www.adugurus.com or also on Instagram and Youtube @adugurus. We'd love to have you stop by and say hello. You're welcome to sign up for our newsletter that we put out every month on the website. We look forward to helping you in the future.