For Michelle D'Souza, it wasn't another person, better job offer or layoff that told her it was time to find another career path.
It was her conscience.
As a stockbroker, D'Souza made a living of telling others where to invest their money. So when a well-off physician came to her wanting to invest $500,000 into a particular investment fund, it should have been an easy task.
The problem was D'Souza didn't think it was a wise investment; she had deep misgivings about the future success of the stock choice. But advising her client not to invest would cost her firm and subject her to reprimand from supervisors.
What did she do? Well, considering that happened more than 12 years ago and today D'Souza is no longer a stockbroker but the founder and president of the successful Unified Business Technologies in Troy, you can ascertain she decided to do the right thing.
"I could never sell somebody something that I knew was bad," says D'Souza, who started Unified Business Technologies out of her basement in 1997.
Not long after leaving her stockbroker career, she found herself in a hospital operating room with a critically ill child. It just happened that the physician client she had advised was on duty that day and helped facilitate the necessary care for her child, who is now 11.
"So what goes around does come around," says D'Souza. "Whatever I do I always make sure I do right by whomever I'm serving."
She brings that same strong sense of ethics to Unified Business Technologies, a full-service firm providing human resources, services and solutions for a variety of technological and engineering companies. The company provides highly skilled employees to conduct project management, research and development, life-cycle management, communications services, data management, information technology, a bit of engineering and integrated logistics.
"We do a complete facilities management," D'Souza explains, adding that the company has recently started securing contracts from the government and large universities. "Most of our clients are repeat customers – about 80 percent."
Unified Business Technologies employs about 85 full-time skilled workers from a variety of technological disciplines. Those workers, and others the company helps connect with gainful employment, are for her the most rewarding aspects of the business.
"This gives me a lot of satisfaction in that when you can get people a job, they're so happy," she says.
D'Souza is the latest entrepreneur to credit Oakland County's Venture Forward program, a 10-week series of training sessions offered by the Oakland County Business Center. The program helps existing entrepreneurs grow their businesses by developing sound business and action plans. The weekly workshops often include guest speakers, and one-on-one coaching and mentoring from area professionals.
With more than a decade of successful business ownership under her belt, one might wonder why D'Souza, who completed the program last year, would want to enroll in a business entrepreneur program.
"I wanted to see how we can grow our business," she explains. "I think it was an awesome class. They provide insight into marketing and how to best market your business."
The program was a particular help, D'Souza adds, since she's looking to take Unified Business Technologies in new directions soon.
"I wanted to take (my business) a step further," she says, "and open some branches in other parts of the country."
Though no branch plans are concrete as of yet, D'Souza says she found the information gleaned from the Venture Forward program invaluable to any of her future visions for the company.
But perhaps most useful for the success of Unified Business Technologies is D'Souza's commitment to ethics and genuine respect she feels toward clients and employees.
"If you treat an employee like a client, you'll treat them well," she says. "If you treat a client like a client, you'll treat them both well."
For more information on Unified Business Technologies, visit the web site at
www.ubtus.com or call (248) 614-3500.
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