Today we’d like to introduce you to Misha Kopusar.
Misha, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Services our company offer are my first job in the US when I arrived as an immigrant in 2008. I myself was working for one staffing company and through them I did work for hundreds of different clients from private homes to catering companies, hotels, restaurants, convention centers, corporations, etc. After more than 5 years of experience and after graduating from UMass with highest honors in Liberal Arts I was on the point to decide what to do with my life next. After looking for work at many hotels in Boston and even the Department of State I’ve started receiving requests from clients to offer services through my own company with people I choose to work with. These clients were happy with my service but not with the overall service the company I worked for at the time offered. For these and other reasons me and my colleague Orlando decided to start with Penguin Caters having the goal to offer best service possible. Our motto “quality matters” says it all when it comes to our staff, professional and experienced. I believe our success comes from us understanding that our employees are what matter the most and for as long as they are happy and motivated the company will be successful and grow. We put aside dreams of huge profit and decided to focus on growth and employee happiness. The results are that we have the most motivated team there is and the results and quality come with it while our clients know to appreciate the quality we offer.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It hasn’t been a smooth road. The company we worked at wasn’t happy at all to hear that we opened our own and since then they’ve been trying to make our life harder. Our employees were not as loyal at the beginning since we didn’t have that much work to offer as our competition did. Our clients were not that confident to rely on a new company but step by step we managed to overcome most of these difficulties by today. I must thank our first clients for their support and for giving us a chance – The Skating Club of Boston without who we wouldn’t be here today, Culinary Inspirations, Forklift Catering, Rita’s Catering, Isabella Gardner Museum and others… We will never turn our back and will always be loyal to them because we know to appreciate the opportunity.
Please tell us about Penguin Caters.
We do temporal hospitality staffing, in particular we staff wait staff, bartenders and event managers while we are about to start offering services of chefs, kitchen help, dishwashers, etc. We are there to provide our clients with a reliable staff whenever they need them. We are known of paying attention to details, to be responsible, reliable and always try to do more than expected. We are very loyal to our clients but we also choose our clients. Unfortunately there will always be some potential clients who would make it much harder on our staff and where our staff avoids going to work and don’t feel comfortable. Since our team is always on the first place we do not do business with such potential clients, but those may be few out there. This is what we are most proud of, the care we take of our team. Not only we try to have everyone motivated, pay higher rates, organize reunions, trainings… In general we are like one big family and if there is a team spirit in our company we know we will be successful for the benefit of all of us. What sets us apart from others, other than having highest quality of service for more affordable price is the care we put on our staff. One of the best examples is the fact that we are the only staffing hospitality company of this kind out there that makes no contracts limiting or conditioning employment opportunities of our part time team members. All others do make contracts limiting their staff from accepting employment opportunities at sights they are sent to work. Usually the company that would be interested in hiring a part time staff sent from a temp agency would have to pay thousands of dollars which I believe makes life of these employees much harder. We do the opposite, we encourage our team to show the best they have working with us and that way get considered for an opportunity with our partners and clients. We are happy to hear our clients offer our staff positions in their companies but what makes me more proud is the fact that almost no one wanted to accept the offer so far and the reason why they say that they like it better with us. I think that shows that we truly succeed in our goal of having the most motivated team there is and I am very proud of that fact. We used to be in the position of our employees just some years ago and since we went through all bad and good times as they do, know what bothers them most and what they hope for – for that reason we are probably doing things differently from our competition. We believe the difference will make us stand above others.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would probably look to organize better my time for my family from the very beginning although that is very hard to do. The time I invest in the company takes me away sometimes for days from my wife and my baby now, and I think family is very important to support my own motivation.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.penguincaters.com
- Phone: 617-784-5163
- Email: info@penguincaters.com
- Twitter: @penguincaters
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
