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Hard work, vision lead to success in Florida

Twenty-seven years ago, Juan Vila, along with his mother, father, and sister emigrated from Cuba to Florida. Juan didn’t have a job, didn’t know the culture, and he didn’t speak English. What he did have, though, was a tremendous work ethic and the vision of one day owning a company. As it turns out, that’s all this entrepreneur needed. Today, his company, Vila & Son Landscaping, generates $70 million in revenue with 700 employees and five branch locations throughout Florida. Approximately 75 percent of its sales come from landscape development and irrigation installation projects, nursery and tree farms, and the operation of a garden center. The rest comes from a three-year-old maintenance division. Government and commercial accounts and several hotel properties account for a large share of the com¬pany’s customer base.

Lean years
After moving to Miami, Juan took a job with a soil/landscaping company and his father, Baudilio, found a job at a nursery. Eight months later, Juan, too, went to work for the nursery. They toiled together until Baudilio opened a small nursery/landscaping company in nearby Homestead. Juan soon joined his father and started what was to be the precursor of Vila & Son in 1981.

“The nursery cost us $14,000,” Juan recalls. “We sold some plant material, mowed some lawns, and tried to do some design and estimating, but it was difficult without knowing how to speak or read English. At the time, we worked out of the back of a small pickup and carried around a very small checkbook.”

Juan and his father incorporated their small company in 1984 and soon won some bid work with the city of Miami. Along with some smaller design/build jobs, the city contract provided a firm base on which to grow the young company. Still, Juan recalls that times were very tough. “I would fall asleep during evening English classes, and several times throughout the mid 1980s we thought we would have to move out of our home and live back at the Homestead nursery.”

The move never transpired. Instead, Juan took a big step and went to the bank for a loan to buy more equipment. “I had this vision that I wanted to grow,” he explains. “I am not shy about taking risks, and I’m very competitive. When we worked in the nursery together, my father and I would see who could dig the holes the fastest.”

After seeing Juan’s drive and competitive nature, and getting a glimpse of his vision, the bank financed the equipment purchase. Vila & Son leveraged the purchase into more government work, including work for the Department of Transportation. By 1990, the company was already bringing in $4 to $5 million dollars in revenue when it opened a second branch location in Orlando to accommodate work at Disney and a few other theme parks. Two other branch locations followed, one in West Palm Beach and, most recently, one in Fort Myers.

“I love what I do and have engaged a great group of people to follow me,” says Juan. “One of our strengths is that we don’t just offer employees jobs, we offer them careers. I want employees to have a good career and raise their families with us, and share our vision. People are very important. I’m motivated and I want to motivate them.”

Growth strategies
Juan admits that motivation, hard work, and just plain enjoying what he does didn’t get him where he is today. “Eleven years ago, if you told me I would have consultants coming in routinely to help us plan and grow, I would have said, ‘no way.’ Now, we use the services of Jim Paluch, Frank Ross, and other industry experts. We’ve even joined a peer group, and, of course, we participate in PLANET. I don’t believe you can really get to the next level, whatever that level is, without outside help.

“We do more strategic planning than ever before. In fact, our maintenance division was the result of that planning. In hindsight, because of the economy in Florida, that was a very good move for us. Our goal is to continue to grow maintenance and eventually balance out our landscape service offering.”

Despite his company’s growth, Juan says he continues to be very engaged with his employees and their projects. He notes that he’s rarely in his office and instead prefers to visit job sites. “Employees see me and talk with me all the time,” he relates. “We have monthly breakfast meetings with managers and host a soccer tournament at my house.
“My biggest challenge today is putting the right people on the bus. We need to continue to grow smart and get even better at what we do.” Current plans call for opening a couple of additional branch locations in Florida and, who knows, with a change of government in Cuba, maybe a branch location there, too.