If You Never Lose, You Never Win: Lessons in Business Growth with Tomas Villar

0:02Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast where we are all about helping business owners just like you achieve success. So we don't do fancy smancy. We don't do flashing lights. We don't do a lot of things that a lot of podcasts will do. These are just real stories about real people and their entrepreneurial and business experiences. We go into their wins, their challenges, and their learnings. So we hope you enjoy it.

0:36hey there welcome to this week's episode of epic entrepreneurs i am very excited today we have tomas velar from velar 360 enterprises so uh welcome to the show tell us a little bit about what velar 360 enterprises is well uh we are uh well i'm glad to uh be talking to you right now uh well our company is is does a little bit of everything i mean my main business is um handle investors money and uh through and buying and selling real estate so that's the core of my business uh also on the side we i mean we build houses we bring money in from investors we build houses and then sell it. And after everything is, all the process is done, then we just return the investor money plus they earn.

1:40They're making money out of our investing in our company. So on the side, I have a custom cabinet business. and uh and nowadays i'm i'm investing on my own i do have uh rentals and and couple new houses that i'm building on on my side but uh that's that's what we do residential it's mostly residential custom and semi-custom so residential custom semi-custom home but you're mostly building it using someone else's money. So you have investors that invest in and they'll invest in a house, you'll build the house, then you sell the house and then you pay the investor back whatever the deal is plus the interest and then make a profit over and above all that.

2:36That's how we make our money. And then also you've grown it to a point where now you have enough money to be an investor yourself. Yeah, yeah. That's been always the goal. And nowadays, that's what we're doing, yeah. How long have you been at it? Well, you know, I've been on construction since I was 17. That was a couple years ago. Yeah, a couple. Yeah, no. So you've always been in construction. Yeah, I've been in construction since I dropped out from high school. Well, how long have you been owning your own business? I've been owning my own business for about, I would say, 14, 15 years. Yeah.

3:20So I want people to get the feeling. I want people to understand that this is a good business. But to get where you want to get, sometimes an overnight success takes 15 years. Well, like every business, I would think it takes a lot of years to build something successful in a way and have a strong roots in order to succeed. It takes a lot of challenge. and something like me that I never had any business background or anything, it was a little bit more challenging. But at the end, I think taking the right steps in every day of my life was key to being successful at some point. Yeah, I get it. So let me just ask you a couple of questions about that.

4:22So if you had to start over from square one in the business, what would you do differently? I mean, I started as an electrician. I started in an electrical company. And then I started doing side work, side work on my side. So I used to work Monday through Thursday and then Friday, Saturday and Sunday, do it on my own. until I got to the point that I could not handle both. I either stayed in the company forever or just jumped on my own, which that's what I decided when I was at that point. And, I mean, I always encourage people, if you have a way of being educated financially, I think that will be the first step that I will take if I had to do it from the beginning.

5:21but trade school will be awesome for whoever wants to start this kind of business, take some kind of trade and combine with a little bit of business education. I think that will be a wonderful key to succeed on this side of the business. I think trades are a great place to be. We're always encouraging more and more people to go into the trades because, I mean, I was talking to a guy this morning. I mean, AI is not going to replace your electrician. It's just not happening. Yeah, definitely not. Definitely not. Yeah. And I always encourage the young generation to take – I mean, I always tell people we have a program.

6:09I mean, I have a little program that I run every now and then that we meet with young entrepreneurs, and I just give them my side of the story or a little bit of my knowledge in order to encourage them to take the right steps to succeed on this type of business. But, I mean, it's challenging, but it takes time. It does not happen next day. It takes a lot of years and it takes countless days without sleeping. 100%. What are some of your learnings as an owner and employer? Well, making mistakes, I think that was part of my education. And handling money was a very challenging part of my side because I had to learn from scratch how to manage my business.

7:15how to manage my money and how to create a scheme where I can work with people's money. I think that was the most challenging part. How'd you come up with the scheme to use other people's money? Well, you know, I have always been related to... I think the good thing on my side was that I always listened to people. I had a couple of friends that I consider teachers to me. They teach me a lot of financing and also how to handle my money. There's a guy from England that I love this guy so much. He's a nice guy. He teaches me how to handle my money. He has a successful business. This guy is a he's a millionaire.

8:14I got to know him because I went to his house and did some electrical work. Then I sit on his table. Then we create good relationships. And I used to go visit him every two, three days a week and talk about business. And he always encouraged me about business. And I always listen to him. And he actually teach me a lot of things about business. And that's how I got a lot more knowledge about it. Then searching through Internet, Google, YouTube, and spending time on my own trying to acquire more knowledge in order to apply it to my business. That's how I got to start creating my scheme and my tactics of getting people to invest in my business.

9:05and i mean it took me one guy to that actually believe on my own on myself and uh and that's how everything came to life yeah once you get one they're like wow how'd he do that let me do it let me do that so yeah and the good thing about this was that he spread the word to his to his friends and then i got another investor on the boat and i got another one until the point that right now I get to choose who I want to work with. I love that. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, because you can't do it all. Oh, definitely not. And right now I'm in the part of my life that I choose who I want to work with. And most of these investors, we became good friends and we have a really good relationship.

9:57Yeah, perfect. Yeah, you want to take care of their money and they want to take care of you. So it's win-win. Oh, yeah, definitely. So what are some misconceptions about running a business and how do you address them?

10:14Well, how did I put that? The thing is, failing on business, some people think once you have a business set up it's a winning every day but not true right? Not true at all back then it used to be some weeks, months that we're just losing money and that was part of because I didn't understand exactly how a business needs to be run or how how my numbers are supposed to come together. So I think those kind of mistakes and having a good funding on my back was a key. But, I mean, business is, I think if you never lose, I think you never win. That's the way I took it. Well, I love that. I'm going to write that down.

11:20If you never lose, you never win. You have to take a shot, right? Yeah, you have to take a shot. And I mean, from my background, we never have money in the family. So I come from a very poor family. And I think I didn't have anything else to lose. Ah, interesting. You love business, though, don't you? I can tell. Oh, definitely, definitely. Yeah, you love it. Yeah, it's good. And this is a thing I'm trying to pass to my family, to my daughter, and some other people that are always asking me for a little to share my knowledge. I always do it. I always share everything I could. I mean, I'm just trying to pay back in life whatever I got.

12:14I love that. Yeah. So what do you attribute your growth to? I think dedication. I work from, well, I don't do it much right now, but I used to work from Monday through Sunday, every day, all day. And once I get back to my house, I take a shower. Then I went, sit on my computer, searching and trying to be, I always try to be ahead of the game, always. If I don't know something about a situation, I always try to find the right people and always ask the question that I need to know. I think looking for or searching for knowledge, I think that was the key. Education. Asking the right questions and trying to find and always be around the right people.

13:19Yeah, that's a common theme is mentors and having people that are on your side and then getting education however you want to get it. So that brings me to my next question, which is balance. Like, how do you balance personal life and business life? I mean, it seems like you might have it now, but it might have been tough in previous years. You know what? I've been married for 20 years. I've been with my wife for 20 years. We got together. I think I was 21 when we got together, 2021.

13:55And there is no balance when you're starting a business. People tend to tell me that you need to find a balance. but I'm right now that I'm 40 and I've been on the business for a while. I think when you were starting a business, unless you have, unless you have, I mean, a background that your family had money, I think that's, I think that's the way you can balance it. But when you have no money, you have no, no other background. I think there's no balance. I think you, my wife understand that part. and I always tell her, well, we need to go in trying to find it. And the help she gave me is she always understood that I have to be at it until we find it.

14:44I love that. I love that. Yeah, you got to have support at home. That's more important than, I mean, balance is, you know, harmony may be a better word. What qualities do you look for in employees and how do you foster a positive, productive work environment? Well, you know, right now we subcontract everything, right? Well, subs are employees too. So what do you look for in subs? Well, most of my subcontractors are being around me for so many years. We rarely change subcontractors. Right. And a lot of these people are either in the family or longtime friends. And always trying to be on the family-oriented people.

15:42Right. I have a mentor that always told me that if you want to find a good partner or a good employee, find someone who has a stability in life. in his family. He maybe needs to be single or if he's going to be married, find out if he has actually a good relationship because having a mental instability, that gives you a better quality of employee or subcontractor. They don't have any other problems but work. Yeah, I have a client who, he loves it when his employees buy a house because then they know they're going to be, you know, they've got something to work for and they're stable. So I thought that was an interesting way to look at it.

16:36But yeah, I love that stability in the family. So do you interview their spouses to see? Well, no, not really. I just really like to sit with people before we hire them as a contractor or employee. I always try to scan people with a just nice, friendly conversation. Always go through the family part, ask them just soft questions. And then, I mean, and everything else just comes by nature. I mean, I have been on this part for too long. And I think to me, it's just kind of easy. It's an easy way to find out. I mean, I don't. I love that. I mean, I love you just sit down and ask them questions about their life and their family.

17:22Because if we're going to do business together, we got to be wide open and everybody's got to understand what the rules are, right? Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah. No, I love that. I love that. Well, let me get your thoughts on. So, BEPIC is, you know, it's an anagram. It stands for stuff. So the B is, you know, I made it into B energy, you know, bring the energy. And it seems like you bring a lot of energy. What are your thoughts on bringing energy to the workplace? Well, you know, our business, since we are mostly on the bigger homes and on the bigger builds, on the nicer builds, I always been open to ideas.

18:12Like I have one of my foremans, I always encourage them to bring their opinions to the table. My shop manager, I always encourage him to bring new ideas to the cabinetry. because I always like to diversify my ideas of new builds. And same with my painter and same with other people. I always talk to my painter, what's out there, what new colors people are trying. And he always brings his new ideas. Oh, well, let's try this house, this color. It might look good. I've seen a lot of people doing this and that, and same with other people. I mean, I'm a really open person on that part. I let people bring ideas to the table.

19:17I always try to diversify on that part. My word is not final. I always let's bring everything together. together. Oh, yeah, yeah, man. Two heads are better than one and three are better than two. And yeah, I think you're, yeah, I think you're right. Okay. What about, I mean, you're, we've already talked about this a little bit, but give, you know, your thoughts on, I think we've actually covered it. The E stands for education. You got any more thoughts about education? Well, like, like I said, and this is one thing that I talk to my daughter every day is if you have a really opportunity of getting educated, just be educated on something that it will generate a good income to you.

20:03And I'd be wrong, but I always tell my daughter, find out if whatever you want to go for is going to create you a good income. Because if not, then just do something else. I always tell her, is just follow the money. Once you have the money, then you follow your dreams. I love that. I love that. How about planning? What's your thoughts on planning? P stands for planning. Yeah, well, my retirement plan and my planning for the future is rentals. Right now, rentals. I mean, have a... Love it. Tested in other things. And that will be my retirement plan. And I don't know. I might never retire. I might work forever.

20:52Who knows? Yeah, I'm not retiring anytime soon. I stands for inspiration. So you're definitely an inspiration. What are your thoughts on inspiration? Well, I have a lot of people that inspire me to be on this side of the story. And I'm always grateful for that. And, I mean, they're always being good to me. And, I mean, that's what I am right now. And, like I said, I always try to help people on the way I can. because right now we live on a life that people don't care about other people and a lot of selfishness. I don't like none of that. I don't either. It's not working out. So the C stands for commitment.

21:59You've obviously been committed to this growth. What are your thoughts on commitment?

22:10Well, I'm always committed to my plan. Sometimes I get tired. Sometimes in a conversation with my wife, I always tell her, I'm tired. Sometimes I feel like I want to just walk away from everything. But next day I woke up, renewing and going at it. Yeah, I love it. Okay. Yeah, well, in the early days you had to be committed because you needed to make a business grow. And, yeah, now you're just, yeah, that's paid off for you. So you're not going to change it. So what do you, I mean, you went into business pretty early or you've been working a long time. What do you wish you had known or that somebody had told you before you went into business?

23:02Well, I think the legal part of all this part, I think that wouldn't be the big part that I would study or doing something before I ever get into it. Because, I mean, back then, I even got a scam by other people. And until this day, I mean, I still don't understand how people can survive making their money that way. Okay. Having a little bit of a legal education, that wouldn't be awesome back then. And it cost me a lot of money. But, I mean, I finally got educated on a lot of this process. So, I mean, I took it as a learning lesson. Yeah, I guess the positive way to say it is you win some and you learn some, right?

24:02Yeah. So, yeah, you're going to learn. Either way, you're going to learn.

24:09So, what other words of advice would you offer to other business owners who are looking to grow? I think key of our success, because there is a lot of people involved in my business, either a subcontractor or full-time employees, I think treating your people right was the key of being successful. So, I mean, employees, trading them right, subcontractors, pay everyone on time. And, I mean, back then I used to stroll a lot to come to the end of the month with all these bills getting accumulated every day. I mean, be sure that everyone gets paid. That was key of success. yeah yeah you got to take care of your your team whether that's subs or employees like it so if someone wanted to get a hold of you what's the best way well it could be either by email uh we usually i usually do it through through my email because i mean someone gets really interested to interact with us uh then i can just uh email them back or i can give them my phone number either or.

25:29We don't really advertise anything. Yeah. Yeah, we got out of that part of the business now. We don't do it that much anymore. It's just mainly through investors. We just see if the feeling is good then we move to something more formal. Yeah, we'll put your phone number in the show notes if anybody wants to get a hold of you. I mean your email, not your phone number. Well, we'll put both in that case. So, hey, man, this has been good. There's a lot of good knowledge here and a lot of good education. Really appreciate you being on the podcast. Thanks. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Hey, and until next time, all the best.

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