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When Monica Velt was ten years old, her parents suddenly picked up the family and moved to Europe, staying in Spain for 5 years. Looking back at the experience, Monica talks about how difficult it was. “It was sink or swim. I didn’t know the language. I got pulled out of grade 5 in Edmonton in April and put in summer school in Spain.
I had been an honor student back home, then I got put in kindergarten for a month, then grade 1 for a month, grade two, three, and so on. Their school system is very different to ours, and there was so much homework that it took forever to get it done because we didn’t understand Spanish.”
Nevertheless, difficult as it was at the time, the experience helped shape Monica and prepared her for her current role running her own business ridding office equipment of dirt and germs.
“As the old saying goes, “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger””, she comments. “I have five languages out of it now: French, English, German, Dutch, and Spanish. We also had to take Greek and Latin which are useful for learning other languages.”
Having learned so many languages at such an early age has helped Monica become a more flexible thinker, a definite asset for a small business owner. “I can also communicate with clients that speak different languages. I like to have a rapport with people in different offices and I always try to find common ground with people. It definitely widened our horizons; I have one brother who speaks ten languages and still lives in Spain.”
Widened horizons and diversity seem to be a recurring theme in Monica’s life. Her past jobs include working as a courier, sorting mail for the post office, running her own modeling agency, cleaning homes and offices, working in Revenue Canada’s call centre, being an analyst at a computer helpdesk, and a stint in marketing.
“All the experience I gained at those jobs helped me in this endeavor,” she is quick to point out. “For example, working in marketing helped teach me how to find clients. I developed strong computer and office skills. Working at call centres helped me develop people and customer service skills. I had to learn time management. I know the quickest short cuts through the city. The list goes on.”
Wider horizons also meant that she and her siblings saw options other than the routine 9 to 5 work life of working for someone else. “My dad was an entrepreneur in the insurance business. When we moved to Spain, he taught himself Spanish and then worked in foreign real estate sales. He was a great role model for all of us. Out of five children, three of us are entrepreneurs and I think it’s largely because of my dad’s example.”
“Life is short so do something you love. Why be stuck in a dead end job or a job you hate?”
And as improbable as it may sound to many of us that anyone would love cleaning grime, food particles, broken fingernails and hair out of keyboards, or sanitizing telephone receivers that have 400 times more germs per square inch than the average toilet, Monica does indeed love her work. “To me it’s an awesome job and a necessary service.”
“I have the best job in the world, because I like keeping things clean,” she continues. “There’s an immediate gratification element to it. My favourite part is seeing the joy on my clients’ faces when they see their equipment fresh and clean again. Sometimes they can’t believe that it’s really their equipment once I’m done. They’ll think I changed keyboards on them when they weren’t looking. And it seems to have a trickle down effect. Often after I’ve cleaned someone’s equipment, I see them tidying up their desk or the rest of their office. I like knowing I’m making their equipment last longer.”
The flexibility that self-employment offers is another feature that Monica rates highly. “I started this business when my daughter was in grade 1, and it meant I was able to take her to school, pick her up, go on field trips with her, and generally spend more quality time together than if I worked the usual 9 to 5 grind. And she likes it too.”
“I had been self-employed off and on over the years,” she says, “and I prefer it.” Aside from the flexibility in setting hours, Monica likes the variety of her work. She has found an ideal balance between being in a different office every day while still being able to develop and maintain some form of relationship with her repeat clients. “Besides, it means I can tell the same jokes to different people every day.” This sense of humour is apparent throughout the interview. “I love it that I have the best boss in the world,” she quips at one point and then informs me that she gets the ‘employee of the month’ award every single month!
The roving nature of her work also means she can avoid being drawn into office politics. “Part of the reason I started working for myself was because in my previous job the company was run like an Old Boys’ club. The office setting was never really for me.”
Monica has been running No Germs since 1998. Based in the Edmonton area, the company employs half a dozen people in various cities including Montreal, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, and Red Deer.
In addition to onsite cleaning of equipment, they also carry sanitizing products they leave behind as part of a ‘germ free program’, and their website has some frightening information about the dirt lurking on your office equipment. It’s a germ jungle out there! Is your desk a bacteria cafeteria?
Written by: Marie Sedivy
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