…an excerpt written by Lauren Diethelm in her article on Fundera.

Night Owl Cleaning Services, founded by Arlete Turturro

Arlete Turturro has a degree in merchandising from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and a real estate license from Queens College. But these days she’s not working in fashion or real estate. She’s the owner of Night Owl Cleaning Services, and has been for nearly three decades.

Night Owl offers a huge array of services, like commercial cleaning, providing party attendants, plus 24-hour emergency services, too. Turturro was featured by the Westchester Business Journal and awarded their Woman of the Year Award in 2004. She’s still going strong.

The take away:

You can plan for a certain future—and end up in a totally different place. In Turturro’s case, she changed fields, somewhat drastically, a few different times before finding the business that worked for her. And it’s paid off.

Staying flexible and open to new possibilities can lead to great things—as can hard work. Starting a residential and commercial cleaning service by cleaning homes and offices by yourself on the weekends isn’t the most glamorous job in the world, but it is an important one, and it led to Turturro owning her own business.