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Name: Zemelda Carr
Business: Destination Life LLC, medical home care services
Industry: Medical, Health & Beauty
Location: Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Reason for starting: I started my own home healthcare because I saw the need for quality care. As an Occupational Therapist who works in the home healthcare industry I often had requests from my patients to bring my idea to life with a more community based and family centered company.
How do you define success? Success for me is helping someone that’s not in a place to help themselves. It’s being a parent and showing up regardless of how tired I am. It’s teamwork. Although I have started a company, the company does not stand alone. It involves sacrifice for my family, who I spend less time with, it involves the community trusting in my company, and it involves my clients trusting in me to make a difference. This is my team.
Related: Read about other female entrepreneurs working in the home care industry here.
Biggest Success: My biggest success is obtaining my GED. I got pregnant while in high school and could not maintain my grades to graduate with my class. My priority was raising my daughter. It was not easy but I did it.
What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it? My top challenge right now at the beginning of my startup is the community trust. Here I am, an Occupational Therapist who decided to start a home healthcare agency among these giant companies, so who do they trust? I believe I have something amazing; more so by being an Occupational Therapist, community based, and as a Christian. My company is not typical nor is it out of touch.
Related: 6 Quotes to Kickstart Entrepreneurial Instinct
Who is your most important role model? My mom is my biggest role model. It’s not because she ran a company, because she didn’t. It’s not because she raised me on an inheritance and I never wanted for anything, because that’s not the case. It was because over the course of my life she was my constant. I looked at how she got involved in the community, how she would take her share last to help someone else, how it didn’t matter what I asked for, she tried her best to give it to me regardless of her failed attempts. I have inherited drive, compassion, and determination from my mom.
[box_light]Website www.mydestinationlife.com
Twitter @DestinationLifeLLC
Facebook www.facebook.com/DestinationLifeLLC
Tumblr Tumblr.com/Destin4Life[/box_light]
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Edited by The Story Exchange