Brazilian immigrant finds franchise
opportunity in U.S.
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Otavio Sa
Position: Jani-King franchise owner
Background: Arrived in the United States in March 2002 after working
in sales for an American company in Brazil. He bought his own Jani-King office-cleaning
franchise a few months after his arrival stateside.
Education: Degree in business administration from Faculde da Cidade
in Rio de Janeiro
Residence: Providence
Age: 28
Jani-King franchise owner Otavio “Bruno” Sa was recently honored by the International Franchise Association as his company’s Franchisee of the Year. Sa, who emigrated from Brazil a little more than two years ago, arrived in Rhode Island in search of an opportunity to succeed, but speaking very little English. He’s made huge strides since then and has overseen up to a dozen employees and a client list that has included the IMAX Theater at Providence Place, Trinity Rep, The Complex nightclub and last year, Roger Williams University.
Sa has been a huge part of the success of the franchise’s overall growth in Rhode Island. Gordon Hoover, the regional director of Jani-King of Rhode Island, said the area saw a 70 percent increase in its growth in 2003, placing it first among all regions.
PBN: Had you been planning to come to the United States for sometime?
SA: Yes, I had plans to do something, but always when you arrive here, you have to wait for things to happen, to see how it’s going to be. Now I definitely have a plan to stay and grow my business and keep doing all that I can to be successful here.
Q. What sort of plan did you have when you arrived?
A. I was looking for a better life. And you have a really strong economy here. So, as I used to say, the only thing that you have to do here is work and you’re going to get something back. That does not happen in a lot of countries around the world.
Q. What had you been doing in Brazil?
A. I used to be a sales representative for an American company.
Q. How did you find out about Jani-King?
A. I lived in Florida when I first arrived here. I spent about four months there. I moved up to Providence then, I had a cousin who was living here and he was working for another cleaning company. I spoke with a man who was franchising for this other company. … At the beginning it was hard to find any kind of chance to do any business. He mentioned “franchise” and I asked, “What is this?” because in Portuguese, we have a much different word … and one day at home, looking through the Journal trying to find another job, I saw “franchise” and I called the number.
Q. Was the hardest part of arriving here trying to find a job?
A. The hard part was first of all, not speaking English. And also – to be an employee is not that hard, because there’s always someone to tell you what to do. You’re like a machine, you don’t have that much responsibility, you don’t have to worry about the bigger picture. … To do business, for me, the hard part at the beginning was the English. And now, after that, now it’s how to manage people and mix with the employees to provide the best service to try to find out what the customer really wants. In Brazil, there’s a word that means, “the customer is always right.” Here, I’ve started to see things a little differently. About cleaning, I’ve had the training and I know a bit about things. Sometimes, customers will complain about the floor, (saying), “This spot did not come out, it’s not clean.” … It’s not that the customer is always right, but what I keep in mind is that I always have to know what my customers want. And I train my employees the same way.
Q. Would there be similar franchise opportunities in Brazil?
A. After I started with Jani-King here, I did look for Jani-King opportunities for there. But like I mentioned, the numbers, the economy there, it’s not strong enough for people to put down the $15,000 and go get the customers. As soon as something happens, Iraq or whatever, the dollar there goes up or goes down. … It’s strange because sometimes the economy is going pretty well but at the same time people are trying to cut out the expenses – the first thing they’re going to do is go to janitorial services. Here we don’t have that problem.
Q. What’s one thing that would have made the experience better, or easier for you arriving here?
A. I believe any place where you decide to do something, whatever the different culture is, the biggest problem is that you don’t have that much help, or anyone to ask questions to. … Since I arrived here, I have had so much more help from American people, than people from my country. They think of this like a land with gold. They want to come get the gold and then that’s it. They don’t think about helping each other or trying to create a life here. I’m taking my time, I’m not worried about just making money, making money and then going back.
Q. What’s your plan for the future?
A. Still, it’s to improve my English. I’d like to get a teacher, so I can read and write better. And I want to keep taking advantage of the work that is here. I’m going to keep trying to make my business bigger and more profitable. I decided to get the name and this brand and I’d like to get bigger and leave a little bit of my name here. … Ten years from now, it really depends on how the business is going here and what the country has for me in Brazil.
Q. What advice do you have for other immigrants looking to start a business here?
A. It’s hard because you have all kinds of people that you can manage here. You have people who want to come and do the right thing, who have big ideas and start to learn, try to grow and do something here and realize how special it is to be here. … I know a lot of (immigrants) who think they don’t need English, I spoke with some people who have been here for three or four years, people who think like me about the opportunities here. But they don’t care too much about the language because it’s easy to go out and buy stuff from Brazilian stores and the people who work there speak Spanish. … The secret I’ve learned from them is that it’s not doing something wrong, but a lot of times there’s more that you can do. …
Q. I know you hired an English teacher for your workers.
A. About four or five months after I had been with the franchise, I hired an English teacher to teach my employees how to speak the language. And a lot of other people who have their own companies said I was crazy because in a little while, I wouldn’t have anybody to work for me. But I found out different, because since I did that, I now have a couple of people who can manage and be there which is important when you have to be at four, five different places at the same time. That’s helped me a lot. … I’m an immigrant, but I work for an American company, I provide the service for American customers, so I have to find what they want and work this way.
Q. The International Franchise Association presented an award to you at a convention in Las Vegas, what was the most exciting part about that?
A. When I was there, I saw the first (President) George Bush speak. To me, it’s funny because I was at my table and I started to laugh. And people are looking at me like, “What’s so funny to this guy that he’s laughing?” But I was thinking about how two years ago I arrived here with no English whatsoever, I didn’t know what I was going to find, but figured that I would try my luck and now two years later I’m seeing a president speak right in front of me. Later, I saw the man who managed the (marketing) campaign for McDonald’s. He gave us ideas about how to be profitable and run our businesses. Two years ago, I couldn’t understand this language. Now I can agree with him on a lot of points and I can learn from these people. It was great. As I was standing in the line with all these people to receive the award, everyone was asking each other, “How long ago did you start your franchise?” The answers were like 14 years and five years. And then they asked me. And when I said 18 months, they were surprised. I tried to do my best and I think I did pretty well. … To be there with people who’ve been doing business for 15 years, who speak English, who were born here, who knew how to do business here, it’s amazing.
Q. Is there any message you’d like to give to the business community?
A. I’m the kind of person who likes to follow the rules for doing business. I follow the business plan Jani-King has laid out for me. They are on all of these top five franchise lists and know what they’re doing after 35 years in the business. … I was saying earlier today, from the hard time I had when I got sick (earlier this year, Sa coped with a spinal disk injury), every big change in your life, the first step you have to think about is the solution to the problem. After that, you have to decide what you’re going to do and take action. When problems happen, I think you have to respond fast whether it’s spending some money or sitting down and making a plan.
