In each issue of Pintor Pro magazine, senior editor Jorge Arboleda goes behind the scenes with successful painting company owners for our series, The Painting Life. This issue’s featured commercial contractor: A-1 All Florida Painting of Miami, Florida.
It’s not yet seven in the morning, but activity is already hectic at the A-1 All Florida Painting location in the industrial section of El Doral in Miami. After a short staff meeting, which pauses briefly to take some photos for this article, the vans spread out across Miami to today’s job sites.
Founded by Raciel Ramos Valle in 2006, this contracting firm has an impressive portfolio of clients ranging from high-rise apartment buildings in the most exclusive areas of Miami to international cruise companies such as Virgin, Carnival and Royal Caribbean to large hospitals such as Jackson West Medical Center.
Raciel Ramos is a frank and straightforward man who, in 1995, came from a town called Cardenas, near Varadero, Cuba. He was 22 years old at the time.
After 12 years of working for a company in the commercial painting segment, he decided to strike out on his own and open his own company.
His son, Raciel Ramos Jr., who arrived with his father from Cuba when he was just four years old, joined the company right out of high school in 2009 and is now in charge of managing the business.
“I take care of management and estimates, meet with clients, attend marketing events and, when necessary, I put on my vest and start painting!” he tells us.
Married with a young son, Raciel Jr. spends his days in meetings and phone calls with clients, contractors and suppliers, and with his own staff, troubleshooting issues that arise on the eight to 10 projects the company has underway at any time.
But Raciel Jr. wasn’t always a manager. He started painting during his vacations from school, he says.
“My dad had me working with a roller for a long time. He used to tell me, ‘How are you going to be a supervisor if you’ve never worked at it?’ And it’s true, now I know what a painter can do in a day. My dad owns the business, but he works every day and can do everything. He loves his job. I also paint from time to time, and so does my younger brother Cristian Ramos, 21, who is one of the project managers of the company, and runs all the field for A-1 All Florida Painting. When the employees see that you work, they respect you more.”
Raciel Sr. says that working hard is important.
“This is a good business, but it demands sacrifice,” he says. “Sometimes you have to work Saturdays and Sundays, and sometimes you have to confront people. Of course, that’s how it is if you want to make it big. To become a large company that moves a lot of work, you sometimes have to confront a lot of people, including the staff.”
What advice do they have for young people interested in a career in painting?
“My father always insisted to me that you have to be good to the customer,” says Raciel Jr. “If you don’t do your work right, someone else is going to do it better than you. There is always someone capable out there who is waiting for you to slip up so they can take your place.”
That is why building and maintaining a good reputation is key to a successful painting business, says Raciel Sr.
“You can put twenty pesos in your pocket, cheat people and do things wrong,” he says. “I would say that it’s not the money that’s important, it’s to look good in the eyes of the customer. Your name, your reputation, is worth more in the long run.”
This story was published in the Summer 2023 issue of Pintor Pro magazine. ©2023 Randall Reilly. Story and photography by Jorge Arboleda, Pintor Pro senior editor. Read more stories about successful painting contractors in the Pintor Pro magazine archive.
