Greta Bajrami, Founder and CEO of Golden Group Roofing and Founder of Rootless.com, joins ChedHER to discuss how she's on a mission to change the face of the construction industry and empower more women in the space, and gives advice for women working in male-dominated industries.

How This Female Founder is Changing the Face of Construction

brought to you by Jpmorgan Chase. The construction industry is male dominated, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Women make up only about 10% of people working in the industry. But our next guest is looking to shift this dynamic and is on a mission to change the face of construction. Joining us now is Greta by Rommie, founder and Ceo of Golden group roofing and founder of ruthless dot com. Greta, thanks so much for joining us. Tell us more about your business and how you're hoping to achieve your mission. Thanks so much Chloe for having me on. Yes, I founded this company and my mission is to really promote women within traditional roles and that we might not see too many of and that started at the age of 21 when I set out on a mission to open a roofing company and um in the beginning it was everybody thought that I was crazy because I wasn't going the traditional route, but with a lot of determination and grit, I was able to prove to those in my local community that it was doable that woman had a place in construction and very much so at the ceo level now both of your businesses are in male dominated fields, tech and construction. What challenges have you faced as a woman in these industries? The challenge I've faced is that oftentimes we have to work twice as hard to prove that we are worthy and to get the respect of our peers, although at first I could seem discouraging to a lot of people. For me it's become something that I look forward to and I take the challenge. I understand that, you know, a lot of the guys in the job sites are not used to seeing a female there and I find but it is my job as a woman to show them that we are very much worthy of it and we very much deserve a seat at the table. So I think that's the challenge. The challenge is making people realize that women too can be included in these untraditional roles now for other women in male dominated fields. What sort of advice do you have for them? I think the advice that I wish somebody had given me that it's okay to be feminine in these industries. I think in the beginning I would mute my company down and I would I would sort of take the femininity out of it and I would put myself in the backseat sometimes even hide and not really say that I was the Ceo but I realized that when I began to lead with it and I began to be the forefront and it was okay that I was female. It was okay that I was a bit more feminine on my marketing and my campaigns and my construction sites and there was something to be proud of and it was different and I think that my, my advice to all women in male dominated industries is that we don't have to blend and we can't stand out. Yes, the audience might not automatically respond to it, but eventually they will and they will realize that is just as beautiful and different now. You believe success is a state of mind. So how do you define success? I believe it's a state of mind because my story is a bit unique. I am an immigrant from Albania and I grew up, you know, very poor and I was very, I was a mom at a very young age and I always believed that people of my upbringing and of my social status belong. So to say in that poverty line, I didn't really realize that there was much more for me. And it wasn't until I, I too said that I could be successful, I too could have a dream of homeownership and business and entrepreneurial, that's when everything started to change for me, I started to realize that just because I was born in an immigrant setting and not so rich family, I had to work twice as hard and that was okay. And instead of letting that be the excuse of why I couldn't do something, I let that be the fuel why I had to do it even more, even though it was gonna be twice as hard for me, it was one more reason why I had to prove to people that just because I was an immigrant, a young mom and I lived in the poverty line welfare didn't mean that I couldn't be successful in entrepreneurial and own my own business. So inspiring, Greta, now let's talk about luminary, It's on, it's in this together tour. Tell us about your experience at this event and what your greatest take away from it was the greatest takeaway was that there are so many resources that entrepreneurs don't really understand that they have until it's too late. I think when you're in the beginning stages of your business, you focus so much on the startup that you forget about the finances and how important a banking partner can be to your business, especially as you keep growing. And I think the luminary event and with Chase being there, they made many people realize that it is possible to think about the banking partner, even when you don't really have much financials to go with, it's never too early to start thinking about how you can leverage these partners within the community to help you grow. And I think that's something that I missed out on because I remember that I didn't really care about what bank I chose as long as it was something. So now I wish that I think Chase is rewriting it and making entrepreneurs understand that it could be done differently. So what's next for you? What are your plans for growing your business? Um, with the roofing, we're just getting started, our team is so young and our culture is so different. Uh, that's, you know, that's on a verge to getting better and bigger and with ruthless dot com, the mission there is to promote on traditional industries and to make people realize that it's okay if you don't want to be a doctor, a lawyer and sort of live in that old school dream, it, it's okay if you want to be a roofer and it's okay if you want to be a DJ and if you want to be a gardener, these are all respectable career choices and ruthless dot com. It's our mission to allow people to understand that you can do anything and everything and stereotypes on certain career choices have to be dropped because people can be successful and be financially independent and a lot of career choices that are not the traditional perceived academia style, it's certainly a message that many more little girls need to hear, Greta, thank you so much for your time today. That's gonna buy Rommie, founder and ceo of Golden group roofing and founder of dot com