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Meet Rachelle Lukusa of Lukusa Business Concierge Services

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachelle Lukusa.

Rachelle, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
After I graduated from college, I was eager to start a career and embark upon what I thought was going to be an exhilarating professional journey. I literally graduated on December 15th, 2012 and on January 4, 2013, I started my new job in corporate America. I was working with an incredible team of people, and I had an amazing manager. The pay was also good, especially with the bonuses for being bilingual! The problem was, I HATED the job itself. It felt purposeless and I was dreading going to work every single day. I worked at the company for a year and when my contract ended, I was approached by a small HR firm. The owner was someone who I had a lot of respect for as a professional mentor. When he offered me a position to work as an HR Project manager for his company, I felt like it was an answer to prayer.

I was trained with the best, by the best and worked amongst some very influential companies in the Denver Metro area. I loved working with people and developing an aspect of HR that didn’t solely revolve around terminating employees. I am a problem solver at heart. Developing strategies to help companies perform their best not only financially, but also empowering employees to be an integrated part of the process was amazing. I wanted to learn more, and do more, and I felt empowered to make a difference in people’s lives. I was on my best game and living well. Until one day, out of nowhere, I got a call to stop working on all of my projects and I was told, “If you need to look for a new job, you should do what you got to do.” 

I was completely devastated and felt like I didn’t know what my life was about anymore. I tried looking for another job and I wasn’t having any luck, plus I was six classes away from graduating with my Master’s Degree. I couldn’t make ends meet, and I lost everything including my condo and my car. I was broken and spent countless days feeling like a failure. The things I was so confident about, my ability to perform well and integrity, was reduced to absolutely nothing.  I knew working for someone else was not an option ever again.  

I tried everything I could to reinvent myself, cleaning houses, working for a catering company and trying to make sense out of my life. A cleaning business approached me and asked if I could help with administrative tasks since the owner wasn’t computer literate. The owner loved the work I began doing, and I was getting paid fifty dollars a week. Yes, I said fifty! It was a huge readjustment for me since I was making that amount per hour at my previous job! If it weren’t for God, my family and friends rallying around me, I would not have been able to come to terms with being forced to leave a comfortable corporate lifestyle and take a HUGE pay cut cleaning houses. 

Then one day, while discussing my life’s transition with a friend of mine, Lilly Brown, it was suggested that I could make a living providing administrative solutions to businesses as an independent contractor. I didn’t think I could do this work on my own, but Lilly convinced me and pushed me to take a leap of faith, and today I am so glad I did! 

While looking for ways to acquire clients another friend, Jay Whisenton, recommended that I go through a business incubator program provided by the Rocky Mountain MicroFinance Institute (RMMFI). The valuable training and leadership development I received from RMMFI helped me to grow my business in ways I didn’t think possible. I will continue to collaborate with mentors and leaders at RMMFI. This organization believed in my potential and ideas when I was at my lowest. Thanks to the backing and encouragement of my family and friends, I graduated from their 12-week intensive business program and have been in business for myself since.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No not at all! Trusting myself, trusting my work ethic, and trusting people again was tough! I had to challenge everything I thought I knew to be true. I learned that knowing your worth is the key to true success.

Who you are as a business owner is an extension of who you are in your personal life, that is if you truly live life authentically. Redefining myself and who I wanted to be was very difficult. I had always defined myself according to my accomplishments, what I was able to do and how well I was able to perform. I had to learn to define myself by who I was instead of what I could do.

The journey to entrepreneurship is full of ups and downs! There are days when I feel like I can conquer the world and be the best consultant in the city and other days when I want to throw it all away and go back to working retail at Victoria’s Secret, but then I think about the Christmas holiday season and come back to my senses quickly!

Overall, the road is not easy at all, but it is definitely worth the effort!

We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am truly a jack of all trades which can be a gift and a curse, especially in business because most people are looking for experts and specialists. That is why I call myself a Business Concierge, but my fancy title would be Operations Strategist.

I specialize in helping business owners with their operations and administrative burdens, HR projects and bookkeeping. I pride myself in being a problem solver. For me, it’s about making sure that my clients focus on doing what they do best while I take care of their office operations and find ways to make their business life a breeze.

My clients often become business allies and recommend me to their peers because I provide peace of mind and execute projects with efficiency. If something comes up my clients know that, “Rachelle is gonna take care of it.” I require a collaborative working relationship, which means I won’t take over their business, and I am not a personal assistant. I work alongside my clients to ensure their books are in order and that their established processes enhance their business performance. 

I love to have a hands-on approach when it comes to my clients and want to understand their processes before creating new strategies or modifying what they have already implemented. That means going to the construction site, or even cleaning with the cleaning crew to understand what the employees are struggling with. I want to be completely immersed in their business, especially during my discovery process. You can never understand how someone feels or works unless you walk in their shoes, even if it’s just for one day.

What were you like growing up?
Funny you ask! I grew up in a different country. I’m actually from France, born and raised. Paris is such a diverse and multicultural city. I was always around people who were pretty unique and as a result I love working with people.

My parents say that I loved talking and making new friends, and I got in a lot of trouble for ALWAYS talking in class. I was an avid reader and you could always find me at the library. Even today, that is my go-to place to study, to tackle big projects and to get some me time. I have six sisters, so girl time was and is always a good time for me. I often speak my mind and respect is always a big thing for me which got me in trouble. But I got tough skin and today that tough skin serves me well.

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  • Available upon request.

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