After the first six months on her own
passed, Paula and her family were delighted that Possible Missions was doing
so well. Paula’s strong passion along with
her belief in being honest and always doing quality work has helped her in building an outstanding reputation. Much of
her business has come from colleagues
and by word of mouth. “Quality and customer service is the key,” explained Paula.
“That’s our motto. If you don’t have quality
work, you’re not going to get those word of
mouth recommendations and you’re not
going to get asked back.”
Another motto Paula lives by is from a
saying she heard along the lines of, “Not
all work is good work.” In other words,
taking on every job for the sake of having more money and business does not
equate to quality business. Paula firmly
stated, “Sometimes, as entrepreneurs,
we think we need to take everything that
comes our way no matter how much it
pays! I don’t fault anybody for that because I am guilty of doing it, too. However, you start establishing a pattern
with good clients who pay well and good
quality work that you can then sell again
tomorrow.”
Paula has received much recognition for her work and her community involvement. Nominated
by Karen Gross of the U.T.M.B., Paula was recognized in 2014 by the United States Small Business
Administration in the “Subcontractor of the Year” category.
Photo by Gwen Juarez.
Paula explained what certifications
she has taken to assure the quality of her
company, “We’re in the service industry;
we’re a project solutions firm. We will bid
on any project that has a start and an end
date. We’re ISO certified so that means
our processes and our procedures are the
same for every project.”
In addition to Diva, there are two other
important mentors in Paula’s life that she
gives credit for her ongoing success. One
is Massey Villarreal, a successful businessman who helps steer her in the right
direction regarding what she refers to as
the political front dealing with small business, minority business, and immigration
issues. The other mentor who Paula has
such a regard for is Richard Huebner, President of the Houston Minority Supplier
Development Council (HMSDC). “I call
him Mr. H.,” noted Paula. “I got to know Mr.
H. and had done a lot of volunteer work
with him. He was one of the first people
I approached and he said he wanted to be
one of my first clients.”
At that time, HMSDC, an organization
whose mission is to increase and expand
business opportunities and growth for
Minority Business Enterprise, had a small
contract that was getting federally subsidized. Mr. Huebner felt Paula would be a
perfect fit and provided her an office space
to run her business. “I absolutely love that
man to this day,” said Paula adoringly. “He
has served as a corporate role model for
me and taught me that just because we
are a minority business that doesn’t mean
we get a smaller piece of the pie. We always strive to do quality work but HMSDC
steers us in the right direction.”
Paula is continually giving back to the
community so much that it would take
days to list everything! Many of them involve education including the Association
for the Advancement of Mexican Americans (AAMA) and the Sanchez Charter
School that has had great success in their
students graduating from high school.
As part of AAMA, the organization’s goal
is to inspire and empower at-risk Lati[ APRIL 2015 ] WWW.SBTMAGAZINE.NET 9