Taking an active part in the administrative routine of her parents’ business has always been common for Carollyne Campos. From the city of Rio Verde, Goiás, her family has maintained, for at least 30 years, a company that benefits from the grandeur of agribusiness in the region — and which, since 2022, has been entirely run by the 35-year-old entrepreneur.
Second generation in charge of the business, Carollyne today leads Campos Diesel, a mechanical workshop focused on the maintenance and replacement of pumps and injection nozzles (parts that make up the engine) of diesel vehicles, the fuel that powers most trucks, tractors and harvesters. agricultural, for example.
Total management of the workshop has been his responsibility since his father left the business in 2022. Under his command, Campos Diesel underwent a true restructuring, starting with finances.
The purpose was to put aside the archaic profile of expense and expense control, typical in family businesses that base their relationships with customers through the trust of long-standing relationships. “I realized it was time to change the mess. Many negotiations were carried out only through verbal agreements, without a contract”, she recalls.
With the changes, the company gradually abandoned its family profile. “We were once a family business but today we are no longer”, he comments, remembering that he is now the only family representative of the business”. The results of the efforts to restructure the company have already begun to appear: in the last twelve months, Campos Diesel earned R$ 3.6 million, a result considered satisfactory by Carollyne, considering the performance of a small business in the sector, in a rural city .
Carollyne says that, without courses or specializations, she learned to undertake in practice, observing her parents. “It was all in my own way, as I didn’t take a course or anything, I just “put my face in” and added this to what I learned over the years. I negotiated with a distributor here and another there, gaining even more credibility with our suppliers and creditors.”
Still, she highlights the importance of specialization and curiosity among first-time entrepreneurs for training content on areas such as management and finance. In areas that require more technical action, this search is even more urgent, he assesses.
“It’s not enough to understand the office routine. Even if you don’t provide the service — in my case, in mechanical repair —, you need to know what is done in your company, understand the quality of the service. Therefore, today I know how to evaluate a diagnosis on a part, even if I don’t assemble it. I understand the need for repairs, replacements and I know when an employee is correct in their assessment”, he says.
Challenges of female entrepreneurship
In a typically male sector, she says that being the representation of female leadership has been a long-term construction. He could have done it too: Campos Diesel’s clientele, also mostly male, was used to dealing only with his father, from the negotiation stage to the provision of services.
“For me, this transformation is still happening. I’m not going to say it’s easy, because it’s not. But customers and the market demand that you take a position as a leader and you need to communicate that all the changes came for the company’s growth – including a new woman in control”, he says. “I see that women have a great strength, and that they are becoming more accepted every day in whatever profession they are”, he concludes.
The entrepreneur assesses the year 2024 as “challenging”, given the ups and downs faced by the agribusiness chain, but sees next year with optimism. “Agriculture is the driving force behind our business, but not just it. In Rio Verde it is our flagship. If agriculture is going well, everything is going well. When a harvest is bad, everything is affected. We hope for a better 2025”, says the entrepreneur, who is also waiting for the green light from the economy to take the business to other places in Brazil.
With an eye on business growth, she has now invested in the workshop, expanding its space, modernizing the machinery and making structural improvements to the location. “I learned to maintain a pace of growth by always keeping my feet on the ground. And that’s how I hope to continue leaving a legacy in our sector.”
(Text by Maria Clara Dias)
