Jitka Borowick, an immigrant entrepreneur from the Czech Republic, initially intended to spend just one year in the United States to learn English. She ended up moving to the United States permanently and founded Cleangreen, a cleaning service committed to environmentally-friendly practices, and Nove Yoga. Listen to learn about her difficulties learning another language and culture, her pathway to entrepreneurship and her courageous decision to open a new business during a pandemic.
Transcript
Jo Napolitano: I’m Jo Napolitano, guest hosting for Denzel Mohammed. Welcome to JobMakers, a weekly podcast produced by Pioneer Institute and The Immigrant Learning Center. I’m excited to share with you the stories of the risk-taking immigrants who create new products, services and jobs in New England and across the United States. These stories resonate with me because of my own background. All though I was raised in New York I was actually born in Bogota, Colombia, abandoned at a bus stop when I was just a day old and placed in an orphanage. I nearly died of starvation before I was adopted by a family from Long Island and raised by a single parent. Despite all these obstacles, I went on to earn a degree from Medill at Northwestern University, and build a career as an award-winning journalist covering topics for the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday and other outlets writing about education, and crime science. But it was really education that was my own pathway out of poverty. I passionately believed no child’s life should be left to chance. That’s why I wrote a new book, on immigrant youth, called the School I Deserve, Six Young Refugees and their Fight for Equality in America has just been published and is available at Amazon, Target, local booksellers and even Beacon Press itself. Jitka Borowick is the founder of Cleangreen, a Cape Cod-based natural company offering residential, commercial and construction cleaning services. A native of the Czech Republic yet can move from her home country to Cape Cod in 2003. Her initial goal was to become fluent in English and with time, effort, dedication and support from the community. Jitka was able to achieve that goal five years later when she graduated with an associate degree from Cape Cod Community College. That same year, 2008, Jitka embarked on a new dream when she launched Cleangreen. Her vision was to create the most effective saved at affordable eco-friendly cleaning business in Cape Cod. Cleangreen began as a one-person enterprise, but today it employs a staff of nearly 20. From 2012 To 2016 it earned the quote, “Best of Cape Cod from Cape Cod” magazine readers and was named Business of the Year in 2014 from the Hyannis area Chamber of Commerce. In 2011 Jitka earned her bachelor’s degree in public relations at Suffolk University. She is a member of the Cape Cod Young professionals with the Greater Hyannis Area Chamber of Commerce. She is a past president of the Business Network International convergence team. Her personal involvement in the community extends well beyond her company, which supports several nonprofits, and which encourages her employees to find similar ways to give back. When we return, we’ll talk with Jitka Borowick, founder of Cleangreen. Jitka, can you tell us a bit about your background, including where you’re from and what life was like there for you?
Jitka Borowick: Absolutely, thank you so much for having me on today, It’s my honor. So, I came from the Czech Republic. I was born in 1978, during communism, and when I was 11 years old communism was over. So, you know, my first 11 years were quite different and it was a shock after communism was over and then we were able to travel outside of the Czech Republic and visit western countries. Something interesting and that I still have memories of. When I was growing up when my parents were waiting in lines for me, sometimes for hours, and didn’t get anything. Or it was a big deal it was for us to have oranges and bananas for Christmas, something that we take for granted now. I have a daughter who probably will not ever understand how it hard it was when I was growing up, you know. But there were some amazing things about that we were composting, we were recycling and we were growing our own fruits and vegetables. So, I feel that I brought into my older life some important things with me. So, I went to study business. I did a business school. I went to do languages here because since I was a teenager, I was always passionate about studying a language and my dream both to someday live in a country and speak the language, and it was always Germany. But moving forward, it was always Germany, and fast forward I ended up in America. Yeah, so when I was 24 years old after having a pretty intense corporate job in Prague, I felt like I needed a change. I spoke Russian, of course Czech, German, but I didn’t have enough time to improve my English, so I came to the U.S. for one year with the goal to become fluent and I have been here 18 years now.
Jo Napolitano: Well, I was wondering, yes if you can tell me, where did you do your undergraduate studies? Did you do it abroad or did you do that here?
Jitka Borowick: I did it here, so after I was here for one year, I was 24 years. One year seems like such a long time. I thought I will be fluent and then go back to Prague and find a job where I can really use all the languages, but after 10 months I realized that I was not fluent at all. I was surprised when I was supposed to go back and I said no, I want to continue. I really want to be fluent, so I started looking into schools here and I applied at Cape Cod Community College for my studying. I had a student visa so I did Cape Cod Community College. Then at Cape Cod Community College, I heard about doing Suffolk University right at Cape Cod Community College, so after I had my associates degree, I transferred to Suffolk University, and I did my bachelor’s degree at Suffolk while I was from Cape Cod.
Jo Napolitano: Ok, and so when you initially came to the United States, you said you were aged 24?
Jitka Borowick: Correct
Jo Napolitano: And where were you living?
Jitka Borowick: I lived in Harwich on Cape Cod.
Jo Napolitano: Oh ok, wow. And what were you doing out there initially?
Jitka Borowick: So, I came as a nanny for one year.
Jo Napolitano: Yeah, that’s a great entryway, and to get to know people and speak then start speaking the language and hone your language skills. That makes a lot of …
Jitka Borowick: … sense and experiment with the country, the culture. So that was my plan. One year have a, uh, immersion, Learn and go back.
Jo Napolitano: Right, ok. And so, when you did come here, did you find like what were some of the things that you struggled with or that you found maybe surprising about American culture?
Jitka Borowick: So, the most surprising for me was the language. I did take English classes, but when you take one-hour or two-hour classes once a week that really didn’t do it, so coming here was a shock because I could not express myself. I was not able to communicate much and It was very interesting to feel that you’re starting from the beginning again. So learning the language motivated me. I wanted to read books. I didn’t want to hang out with people from the Czech Republic because I knew if I did that I will not learn as fast as I wanted to. But when I came here I was reading Junie B. Jones book. That’s what my daughter was reading two years ago. So, you know, little by little, I was working on the language and what I found very surprising was how helpful the people are. I went to the grocery store, and I was waiting in the deli line and they were asking me a million questions. You want this pastrami? Will this be one that you want? Cut it thin, or thick? I couldn’t. I was so overwhelmed. I had no idea. But people are patient and ask me do you need anything? How can we help you? And this was very, very surprising.
Jo Napolitano: Ok, and I also always say to guests, or whenever I’m talking about American culture, that of course there is no one American culture. There are many different regions of this country, cultures, languages, people with all different experiences of what it’s to be an American or live in America, so even though living in one geographical area you can kind of get a sense of that area, but you know there’s a whole big country to explore outside of there. And so, I’m wondering is there anything else that was, you know, perhaps a major challenge for you. Certainly the language issue was a big challenge was that were there any kind of cultural mores or anything that was unusual for you but that kind of stood out as really different?
Jitka Borowick: I would say not really. I was really surprised when I came here, I felt almost like I was so close to home. It was very similar with the four seasons, with the people, you know, I really felt very comfortable here. What was the biggest surprise for me is that I came in October 2003, I couldn’t go to college because the semester already started, but through Cape Cod Literacy Council I was able to get a tutor who was teaching me English for free. And I could not believe that this is possible that somebody takes the time, and sees you once or twice a week, and helps you, and you don’t have to pay.
Jo Napolitano: Jitka, tell me a little bit about Cleangreen. What made you really home in on that particular business?
Jitka Borowick: So, when I knew I will be staying on Cape Cod. It was time for me to decide. What am I going to do? I knew my English was still not that great and that I would not be able to compete with other people who were fluent for jobs. But I also wanted to have my own company for a long time because my dad is an entrepreneur. So, I thought this was an opportunity to combine my dream of starting my own business, this decision making and starting a company. But the company had to do something positive because I knew someday when I look back, I want to make sure I did something that had a positive impact and I chose a natural cleaning company.
Jo Napolitano: And so, what specifically does Cleangreen do to minimize its impact on the environment?
Jitka Borowick: So Cleangreen is one of eight certified Level 2 business which is a process that is done through the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce and Community Development Partnership for businesses. So that level of certification was completed in 2015, so this program identifies practical strategies for businesses to minimize the impact on the environment by setting up recycling programs, reducing waste, reducing energy consumption, changing buying practices and switching to environmentally friendly products and tools. So we looked at everything in our business because it’s not only the products we use that are natural, but also the tools and the methods and everything. We do business.
Jo Napolitano: Do these practices tend to increase business costs?
Jitka Borowick: No, we did not want this to increase the cost because we didn’t want our clients to see this as a barrier, so our prices are competitive to other companies who were not natural because, we saw there were two audiences, people who really their passionate and wanted companies that were green, but other clients who really didn’t care if we are using natural products or not, they just wanted their homes or offices clean. So we felt that by being competitive with our pricing, the people who don’t really care as much get it as a bonus. So, we did not increase our prices just because we are a natural cleaning company.
Jo Napolitano: Ok, and now if you don’t mind, I’d love to talk to you about the yoga studio that was a pretty brave move to start that company. You started it recently, during the pandemic, right?
Jitka Borowick: That’s correct, I actually was planning to at the end of 2018 in 2019. I have always been passionate about a healthy lifestyle and I’m an athlete, I am a runner, I’m a cyclist and I knew when I started to do more yoga how beneficial It was for me, but also as a business owner. So, I had this passion that I felt that I want to do something about it. So, I started to plan on the opening of health and wellness Studio. But the vision before the pandemic hit was to provide digital content to be online, doing an act and offering yoga health and wellness to everybody in the whole world. Because my dream is to build a global company. Then the pandemic hit.
Jo Napolitano: And so it sounds like though your business was set up for the pandemic in a sense, right? I mean you were primarily trying to have an online business.
Jitka Borowick: We were trying to have an online business, and when we were looking for and auditioning teachers, we were also looking for a space where we can do recordings. We found an amazing location and the location was available and ready for rent. So I started to look into it deeper to see, if perhaps we could open a studio where we can bring our vision to market by first starting on building a local community. So, it went from an online business to an opening studio to first getting known in the community. Start bringing people into the studio with the goal of launching the app online, and then the pandemic hit, and everything flipped, and we had to go online immediately.
Jo Napolitano: And so what were the unique challenges of starting a business during that time?
Jitka Borowick: What was very interesting is that we were planning to open in April 2020. But in March, the pandemic hit, and everything had to shift, but there was never a question of whether we would open or not because we know how important health and wellness is. So we quickly had to adapt. Fortunately, our space was big. We have a 2900 square feet studio. Studio where reversible pseudo yoga was smaller so we had to shift things around so we could possibly do some classes on a limited basis and follow all guidelines. But we were not opening till we had a soft launch end of June. We were able to find an outdoor space and start some classes outside. In the meantime, we were recording our videos because we had all teachers scheduled and confirmed and we didn’t want to let them go and tell them. Now we will not need you. so, we were recording in the studio. We were doing classes outside, building and in our online library. And slowly heading having 14 feet apart between students practicing first without masks, then with masks we were able to hold small class.
Jo Napolitano: It sounds like the pandemic did bring some unique opportunities for you. Were you able to benefit from the availability of federal funding or because of the renewed focus on physical and mental health during the pandemic?
Jitka Borowick: Unfortunately, we were not able to qualify for any grants or any help because we opened during the pandemic. We couldn’t compare and show the loss of income and it was very unfortunate because of starting a business doing normal in parentheses conditions. It’s challenging but starting a business during pandemic brought a whole new set of challenges, and the uncertainty we would open. Could we not open? You know, we didn’t know every day was different things for changing we were constantly adapting, actually a few weeks ago I was part of a virtual rally where we were talking to state officials in Massachusetts to see how there can be some funding available for businesses that opened during year 2020. Because there has been none. The only grant we got was from a local resilience fund. We were able to qualify for one grand because it was local but unfortunate.
Jo Napolitano: And what about your other company Cleangreen was that able to qualify for anything?
Jitka Borowick: Yes, fortunately, we were. We were in business, we opened Cleangreen in 2008 so we were able to get help. We could do PPE and we were able to keep our employees employed and we had a clientele. And our clients were so generous that when the pandemic hit, they were paying for their cleanings so we could pay the staff and have them still continue to work. We also were fortunate because we were considered an essential business. So fortunately, with Cleangreen, we consider ourselves very lucky. With everything that was going on because some businesses are struggling so much while other businesses are booming, so it was really, really interesting.
Jo Napolitano: And I know Cape Cod where your companies are based has a particularly unpredictable economy through the pandemic because it’s so dependent on tourism. Jitka how did you work to mitigate those uncertainties especially with businesses like cleaning services, and a yoga studio that are so dependent on, in-person activity on the Cape?
Jitka Borowick: Yes, it’s true that Cape Cod is dependent on tourism and nearly 60,000 of homes are seasonal. That’s over 36 percent of the housing stock. But we also have a sizable year on population that have grown now even more because a lot of people moved from the cities to Cape Cod to escape the pandemic. While Cleangreen as I mentioned was very fortunate, Nova was not so fortunate. But I always feel that in every negative situation there is an opportunity. And how can we adapt? How can we see it and? Find ways to make it because I don’t like to give up. I see challenges as something that I need to accomplish for myself personally. So, for example, with the defendant I make, we were able to start an employee wellness program and we are offering companies corporate wellness or nonprofits employee wellness programs so they can give health and wellness to their employees. So, with more people in Cape Cod, and more people here now we are very excited to have a busy summer and have the real opening after one year and see what we can do and where we can bring Nova and embrace everything that’s going to happen. Now it’s shifting because as of Saturday, May 29th we have everything at 100 percent capacity. We don’t need to have masks on. People can come into the studio which before people were worried to be practicing yoga. Even with a mask on or you know, people, they’re not comfortable, understandably.
Jo Napolitano: Another question I have for you, Jitka, is that you have a lot of interests, you’ve been involved in education and social services-related charity work in addition to your cleaning business and yoga studio. How do you make the jump from cleaning services to yoga? I know you said that you were an athlete. And I was wondering, is that when you were a child in grade school or at the college level or when did you, when we would you say you’re an athlete?
Jitka Borowick: I never considered myself an athlete because in the Czech Republic it’s not common to have sports at school. You only do sports in a club or after school, so I never experience school sports. So I was always active doing different things with friends in the village. When I came to America. I always liked to ride a bike, I like to do different things, I like to run, I started to slowly find my interests here. And when I turned 40, I started racing cyclocross and got more involved and I felt that I could be an example for other people who never considered athletes for whatever reason. It’s never too late to start something and why not challenge ourselves and try new things? So starting at 40 years old, racing bikes and adding a healthy balance to my lifestyle that’s running a family, business and taking time for myself. I knew I need to add yoga and mindfulness to my life so I have been passionate about that and as I mentioned, I always had a dream to build a big company, so I felt that this is my opportunity to see what I can do it personally and take on this challenge of building a big company. With Nova Health and Wellness, it’s my passion and I am so excited to see where I can bring it.
Jo Napolitano: And so, how long had you been doing yoga before you created this company?
Jitka Borowick: So, I have been doing yoga for maybe five years and I started it to add it to my cycling and life balance and it was interesting because a bit when my daughter was younger, I think she was five years old, I started to look for more yoga classes but paying $20.00 for yoga class plus a babysitter that was not really feasible for me to do on regular basis. So, I found a community yoga in a local library where we would go together. Pay a donation fee $5 or for each and we would do yoga, and I would yoga with my daughter. But after a few weeks, my daughter and I were asked to leave because apparently, we were disturbing the women in the class when my daughter was coloring or when she would come to me and kiss me or whisper to me and I could never let that feeling. I was disappointed. I was frustrated. I was, I just couldn’t describe the feelings. I had and this never happened to me before that this wouldn’t go away. And I kept thinking about it what can I do about it? And I said I want to do something that this doesn’t happen to another woman that she wouldn’t be able to afford to do yoga or come to your community yoga class so, one thing led to the next and to the next and to the next and now here we are with Nova.
Jo Napolitano: And so, the women who come to do yoga with you, can they bring their children if they must, or if they’d like?
Jitka Borowick: That’s a good question. We never thought about it because it was during the pandemic.
Jo Napolitano: Right, right exactly, but you might be facing that soon.
Jitka Borowick: For outdoor classes, yes, they would bring children when they came to outdoor classes. Yes, absolutely.
Jo Napolitano: And it didn’t give you any kind of problem? You didn’t ask them to leave? That’s great, that’s really great, I’m kind of wondering someone so ambitious like yourself do you ever think of creating another company or do you think you’re going to try and manage these two and then set up?
Jitka Borowick: I never say no, because I like the challenges and what is really interesting when I look back at my, you know, what I have done so far with my passion for cycling then I started to take on some cycling challenges, charity rides or long rides. I wrote 400 miles in three days before, from Connecticut to Canada, I rode up Mount Washington on my bike, and these experiences really helped me to look at things. One pedal at a time, one step at a time, really motivate me and help me stay focused. So when then pandemic hit I said this is going to be like Mount Washington. I need to take it slowly, I need to pedal fully, I need to look at the next hill and not look at the top of the mountain because it will be a long ride. So, this really helps me break things down, stay focused, stay motivated and inspired and enjoy the journey because it’s not about when you finish, but it’s about the journey before you go there. So, these experiences really helped me and I am so thankful I had those experiences. I didn’t talk about employee wellness and employee and corporate wellness. That was a benefit per southeast from the pandemic.
Jo Napolitano: That sounds great. I so appreciate it and it was great to meet you and I hope that we will talk again very soon.
Jitka Borowick: Well, thank you.
Jo Napolitano: Thank you for, joining us this week for another episode of JobMakers. If you like what you’ve heard, please subscribe to JobMakers on your favorite podcast app and share this episode on Facebook and Twitter. Join us again next Thursday at noon. I’m Jo Napolitano and thank you again for listening to JobMakers.