Maria Stevens
Maria Stevens is the Director of Connect Call Centre and comes from a family of 7 children. In primary school I used to watch people going to work in their heels and all dressed up and envied them so much, not realising the hard work that came with it and as an adult there are other commitments that came with it. As far as I can remember I’ve always wanted to own my own business.
I would describe myself as very adventurous, bubbly and ambitious. Always looking ways to improve and grow.
From an early age, I knew what I wanted to be an entrepreneur, a business woman. My role model was my parents. I saw the determination they had and how strong they were whatever hardship they went through.
Having 7 kids and out of 7 children, 4 are entrepreneurs (self-employed/business women)
My parent’s motto was: If God has given you the vision, you can do it and HE will take you through it.
Born in the Seychelles island and from the age of 13 we left the Seychelles and moved to the U.K which was not an easy transition.
Upon finishing college and taking up business studies in the UK, I went on to work for British Telecom as a sales staff.
With a hunger and determination to succeed and grow, I quickly found myself taking on the position as a supervisor, quickly followed by being an assistant manager and within months being promoted to a manager. Within two years I moved to their SME department and took on the role as an account manager for their small and medium businesses.
I realised that my niche and passion was to help and support others, be it developing themselves in their career or helping supporting those with their dream to set up their own business.
While I was working for British Telecom, I met my husband and had two kids and my career took a back seat, But MY DREAM was always in the forefront of my mind.
After being a stay at home mum for about a year, I went back to work and joined a call centre called Avarto where I worked with various projects such as the NHS, Range rovers etc, which I then moved on to another call centre (Jewellery channel) whereby I was looking after a team of 10 staff. While working for jewellery channel I was head hunted by another call centre company called SCHINDLER to join them. I turned the job down and three months down the line I received another call from SCHINDLER requesting I meet up. This time I joined SCHINDLER lifts and looked after 350 engineers covering the UK, Ireland and Scotland.
In 2015 my family and I moved back to the Seychelles and I set up my first company- Hope consultant and recruitment agency., whereby we became the number one agency for placing candidates in work.
Having managed, worked with various companies and gained 25 years’ in customer service and making it my niche, in early 2019 CONNECT call centre was set up as the first outsource call centre in Seychelles whereby we BPO, emergency services and our local airlines. Being the support network to local companies, offshore and government establishments.
Having opened 2019, in January this year, we took part in the Seychelles business award and we came 2nd in the ICT category.
With a great team on board and continuingly growing as a team and as a person, we are now expanding.
