Today we’d like to introduce you to Benjamin Orozco.
Hi Benjamin, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I started off as a maintenance mechanic for Toyota, and as time went on I did become a certified technician for Toyota. I did like the time I spent at Toyota, but as I got to know some of my older coworkers, the constant question was when are they going to retire? That question was always lingering around and it got me thinking that maybe this wasn’t for me. I was good at doing my job and loved it, but I didn’t want to turn wrenches my whole life just as I saw my older coworkers. Time went on and I had asked my manager if I could transfer to a different position, but I was denied. I wasn’t sure what my next career would be and it was kind of hard especially after having spent 9 years total as a mechanic. But after some things happened at work, I found it was my chance to quit, and took the leap of faith. Once I quit, I called my parents and told them, it was mostly help to load up my tool box, but they were trying to make me reconsider and to try to get my job back. My only response to them was “no but could you hire me to paint with you guys just until I find another job”. This threw them off but they agreed to it as my older brother was already working with them and helped convince them. I started to look around and try other things. I did bounce back and forth with parents as I tried a few jobs but I could not stick to them. While working with my parents I quickly realized I hated painting and it was a lot harder than I thought, but they also did other jobs like tile installation and flooring. That’s when I started to like doing tile, it was pretty cool seeing before and afters of bathroom remodeling and before you know it we were taking in more jobs for bathroom remodeling, I started to learn to do plumbing. There were a few people that taught me the basics of plumbing but pretty soon we stop out sourcing a plumber. At this point my family is doing painting and full bathroom remodels and we were having a good time. Once we got the hang of tile the question pops up, what’s next what else can we learn and add to our arsenal. I was looking through facebook and saw an old friend was teaching people how to do epoxy, and I said why not, looks cool. So I took and the class and tried it out and landed my first job, I won’t lie, there was some things that I messed up. Not to bad but I quickly learned how to correct those things as working with epoxy is easy once you know but it’s very difficult in the beginning with the process. With my parents having their own business and my older brother just starting out, they took turns as the boss, and as we did a few odd jobs here and there I was slowly buying my equipment to be in the same position as them. With the help of my wife she started to help promote us on social media and word of mouth with her clients. The fact that she’s an amazing esthetician helped as she saw a lot of people. Soon enough I was helping my family get more work and started to learn how to give quotes. And this was because I hadn’t set up my business. And that’s how I came up with BOLO Renovation, which stands for Be On the Look Out, oddly enough it was also our initials together. And started to do small jobs, With just my brother or my step dad just to gain the confidence to do things I wasn’t used too. Now we are a small family business with 3 entities within it, and we help provide work for each other.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not at all, upon starting my first few jobs I doubled booked a few times, by not checking in with all my family members. Scheduling definitely took us a while to get used to for sure. There were also few times times were I wasn’t paid by a few people but I quickly learned that word of mouth wasn’t enough, and jumped to contracts
As you know, we’re big fans of BOLO Renovations LLC. . For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
My thing is doing bathroom remodeling/tile and epoxy floors, and even though I still don’t have a big portfolio in epoxy floors, the few that I’ve done I’m very proud of the work, and for the bathroom remodels I can say bring on the challenge same goes for epoxy. What I think that sets me apart is the being opened to trying new creative ideas the client has and making it into reality with these remodels
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I can say a bit of bad luck has hit, one with epoxy being a newer trend, it is also heavily saturated and well for the type of work it is, it is expensive and very process dependent. Meaning it’ll look good but may not last long if the process wasn’t done right. As well as people don’t like the risk to redo, if someone has already “ran off” or hasn’t done a good job. But aside from that, on the good luck side I have the support of my wife and family. With work being steady thankfully.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Bolorenovation.com
- Instagram: @Bolo.renovations
- Facebook: Bolo Renovation
