Entrepreneurial Drive

Jessika Rozki

If Jessika Rozki has any regrets — and she doesn’t have many — the big one would be that she doesn’t get to drive much anymore.

She still fills on occasion if one of her regular drivers is out, but most all of her time is spent at her desk at the Agawam home of Rozki Rides.

There where she needs to be as she plans and executes a growth strategy for this venture she launched in 2019. But she says she would much rather be behind the wheel, with children in the seats behind her.

“It’s way more fun to drive than being in here — I love children’s transportation,” said Rozki, who spent 13 years as a school-bus driver in Chicopee and thus speaks from experience.

She eventually left that job because she could no longer bring her daughter along on her route, and spent some time as a stay-at-home mom thinking about what could, and should, come next.

The eventual answer to that question has become one of this region’s more intriguing stories of … well, let’s call it entrepreneurial drive. It’s become a model, if you will, for how someone can take an idea — and then take full advantage of the vast resources within the area’s entrepreneurial ecosystem — and transform it into a thriving business and employer.

It’s called Rozki Rides.

It started as what she called an “Uber-like” service by which Rozki would take children to school, afterschool activities, and other functions and gatherings. And it has evolved into a multi-faceted transportation company, one with seven school buses and six vans, used to take young people (200 a day, on average) to a wide array of destinations, from area schools to summer camps to birthday-party gathering sites.

“Every free resource that’s out here for entrepreneurship … I made sure I signed up and took classes. I didn’t take any shortcuts; I just wanted to learn and take advantage of every resource that was out here. I didn’t take no for an answer.”

It’s a been a labor of love and, yes, quite a ride for Rozki, who, as noted, has utilized an array of resources within the entrepreneurial ecosystem for everything from counseling to financing (more on that later).

“Every free resource that’s out here for entrepreneurship … I made sure I signed up and took classes,” she said. “I didn’t take any shortcuts; I just wanted to learn and take advantage of every resource that was out here. I didn’t take no for an answer.”

And she’s now encouraging others to do the same, as a mentor and a frequent speaker at events staged by agencies within the ecosystem — from EforAll to Valley Venture Mentors to Interise to the Latino Economic Development Council — and beyond, including the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA).

When asked what she tells those in her audiences, Rozki said she stresses perseverance — and not giving up when the going gets tough, which it inevitably will.

Here, again, she speaks from experience.

Jessika Rozki with her son, Romelo, and dog, Selene

“In the beginning, there were a lot of tears and a lot of quitting,” she said of the roller-coaster dips that came with getting started. “I used to quit every week; it was very challenging in the beginning, but I loved it so much that I didn’t want to give up.”

She never did, and now she has a family business — two of her sons work with and for her, and her young daughter, now 7, comes to the office when she’s not in school — that continues to grow and add employees as well as new chapters to an already-inspiring story.

To a Higher Gear

‘Sunshine.’

That’s the name Rozki gave to the first school bus she bought. She paid $3,500 for the vehicle, which had a lot of years and miles on it — she doesn’t know exactly how many of each.

Sunshine, acquired to take children to and from an area summer camp, is still in service, though rarely used. The fleet, if you will, now includes several buses bought new, at $125,000 each. They all have names, as do the vans — names like Faith, Abundancia (‘abundance’ in Spanish), and Snow White (an older bus painted white).

The variety of names and the price tags on the newer buses speak to how this business has grown and evolved from quite humble beginnings.

As noted earlier, Rozki was driving a school bus in Chicopee and, well … enjoying the ride, as she put it.

“It was great pay, mommy hours … I loved every minute of it,” she said, adding that her sister drove a school bus before her and encouraged her to join the ranks. When her daughter was born, Rozki took some time off, and when the bus company informed her she couldn’t take her daughter on her route, she decided it was time to do something else.

“In the beginning, there were a lot of tears and a lot of quitting. I used to quit every week; it was very challenging in the beginning, but I loved it so much that I didn’t want to give up.”

Just what, she wasn’t sure.

“I asked God for direction and started praying about it,” she said, adding that, with that direction, she decided to take her passion for driving and transporting children and make it into a business.

The Uber-style venture filled a need, she said, adding that many working parents needed help getting children to and from school, afterschool activities, to their grandmother’s house, or to other places and functions.

“There was a lot of demand for this kind of service, but it’s a very hard market to get into because transporting children … there’s a higher risk, there’s higher liability,” she said, adding that there was an involved ramp-up to getting started, including attainment of several certifications.

She started with a 2006 Honda Odyssey minivan (that is still in service) and the requisite ambition. But she knew she needed more, so she quickly sought out many of the resources within the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, starting with EforAll Holyoke, now EforAll Pioneer Valley.

Jessika Rozki with some of her model school buses.

She would also take part in programs put on by Valley Venture Mentors, the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network, Interise, and others, while being mentored by several successful Black business owners, including Mychal Connolly, a serial entrepreneur and owner of Stand Out Truck. And with that support, she has grown the business, pivoted to providing services to agencies and school systems in addition to parents, and broadened her reach to communities in the Berkshires.

Samalid Hogan, CEO and principal consultant for Greylock Management Consulting and former director of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center’s Western Mass. office, is another of her mentors.

She described Rozki as having a real thirst for learning and someone determined to do what was needed to get her business off on the ground and on the right track.

“She was very motivated and tenacious in pursuit of this business,” Hogan said. “She’s very dedicated to improving her knowledge on how to run her business, and it’s great to see, several years later, that she’s at the point where she’s looking to grow even more.”

Route Causes

There have been many ups and downs along the way, most notably the pandemic, which closed schools for a large portion of 2020. But Rozki is now on what she considers solid footing, or pavement, with plans to serve more communities, perhaps expand into other states, and move into a larger facility with room for a bigger fleet of vehicles; at present, her buses are housed on a lot in Springfield.

“I love Western Mass., and I want to be in every city in our area,” she told BusinessWest. “I’d love to be in every state, God willing; there’s a lot of potential for growth, but I have to make sure I build a solid team and am able to grow effectively. I don’t want to grow for the sake of growth; I want to have quality transportation. That’s the most important thing to me — quality and safety.”

While growing her company, Rozki is also a frequent speaker at events hosted by agencies promoting entrepreneurship and supporting entrepreneurs, and her message resonates on many levels.

Indeed, she is the first in her family to start a business, and she started from the ground up, with an idea, an apparent need, and a little capital.

And, like all entrepreneurs, she’s found that the road to success has many curves — and a number of potholes.

“It’s amazing to work for yourself, but it’s hard,” she said. “Whoever says it’s easy isn’t telling the truth. But I knew there was a need, so I keep following my heart and my passion.”

“I tell them that they don’t need to come from a wealthy family — you can start with little or nothing and get to something big. And I talk about persevering through the ups and downs.”

This is the advice she passes on to others who are pursuing their own dreams in keynote addresses for several agencies, from Common Capital to EforAll; from BECMA to the Pioneer Valley Conference for Women.

Her overriding message is one of empowerment.

“I tell them that they don’t need to come from a wealthy family — you can start with little or nothing and get to something big,” she said. “And I talk about persevering through the ups and downs.”

Rozki’s office features a small collection of model school buses. She found one in Puerto Rico while visiting there with friends and has added more of the years.

That collection mirrors the business itself in many ways, especially in the way it has grown and reflects her passion for what she does.

With the real school buses in the parking lot, she intends to keep growing the fleet and thus extending this company’s reach. Like all that has come before it, this growth won’t come easily, but Rozki has the requisite drive, determination, and willingness to reach out to those who help and mentor her.

She’s not exactly in the driver’s seat — literally or figuratively — but she is on the road to success.