Running a business and loving everyday of it

A BHS senior learns the ways of entrepreneurship.

Cameron Petit, Editor in Chief

“I love people, I’m a people person, and it puts a smile on my face just going to meet people…that’s my favorite part.”

That’s what makes BHS senior Dominic D’alessandro’s business so successful: his dedication to making his customers happy.

D’alessandro is owner of his one–man business named Dom’s Services, and has been self–employed since the summer before his sophomore year. However, the business started after a huge disappointment.

“I wanted to be a lifeguard at Funtown, that was Dom’s Services dream, to be a lifeguard, [so] I went to the YMCA to take a lifeguard course,” said D’alessandro. “You do a test before they’d accept you into the class…I failed that test. All I wanted to do was work at Funtown…but I couldn’t.”

After his lifeguard dream was crushed, D’alessandro decided that he needed to do something else to make money, because he “wanted to make some money, go to the movies, stuff like that, do what kids do.”

“My mom and dad told me to go brainstorm, so I went and thought about it,” said D’alessandro. “So [my dad] said “why wait for the job at Hannaford or Funtown, when you can make your own job?’”

At this point, Dom’s Detailing was born, which later became Dom’s Services, and the rest is history.

“How I started was just doing detailing on cars,” said D’alessandro. “My parents gave me a couple hundred bucks, I bought the stuff that I needed. I got these flyers made, and I put them over in the corner store.”

On the side of his detailing business, D’alessandro helped out a neighbor with her lawn work, sparking a new interest and a new idea for his company. Unfortunately, he couldn’t drive and therefore couldn’t pursue a new line of property management. But at the time, Dom’s Detailing was good enough.

“I got a couple cars a month [and] the prices were like $25,” said D’alessandro. “I wanted to make money for myself so I didn’t have to rely on my parents.”

Then, the game changed. As soon as D’alessandro got his license, he was able to branch out his company to other, more complicated, things. This marked the beginning of Dom’s Services. Now, he needed some help, and his parents were more than happy to do so, since being self employed “runs in the family.”

“My family was there one hundred percent,” said D’alessandro. “They’re with me all the time, they helped me get my bookwork started and get organized.”

Although his parents helped him get started, he has now taken control of the whole business, which can be very time consuming.

“I put in a lot of hours…in the summer, you couldn’t even count with your two hands the amount of days that I took off and didn’t do any kind of work,” said D’alessandro. “Being self employed, you are the worker, you are the bookkeeper, you mail out all of the bills, you have to go to the bank, I do everything.”

D’alessandro is happy with the work he is doing now, but hopes to be doing something more in the future, operating Dom’s Services as a learning experience and stepping stone to bigger things.

“The reason why I’m doing it now is not because it’s my life dream…it’s not my life dream,” said D’alessandro. “I want to be self employed and I want to own some kind of business. I don’t know what I want to do, but this is what I want to do right now.”

What’s next for Dom’s Services? Only time will tell. But D’alessandro can assure you that the work he does now is his best effort, saying his “charisma, attention to detail, and good attitude” is what sells him.
“A monkey can do it, but can a monkey do it well?”