Richard Aviles Means Entrepreneurship

March 28, 2010

By Carlos Macías

Despite negative stereotypes, Colombians are also famous for their laboriousness and a fearless entrepreneurial spirit. To validate this premise, you only need to ask Richard Andrew Áviles Ospina aka “Richie” about what kind of business he is into. “When someone asks me, I say with a smile on my face that I am a dry cleaner, and I have my business card to prove it.” Richie is a Baruch College-CUNY graduate in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management that is transforming his family-owned business dedicated to garment care into a local powerhouse of excellence and cutting-edge technology.

After a short but successful stint as a real estate broker, Richie became a business partner with his mother Victoria Áviles. Now they operate the original Bridge Cleaners & Tailors in downtown Brooklyn and its sister shop called King Garment Care in Soho, as well as a state-of-the-art central facility located at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This new plant operates with the environment in mind by wrapping up clothes with bio-degradable polyester bags, recycling the majority of their used water, and using eco-friendly soaps among other things. “We are determined to go green with every practice of our business,” Richie says. They even plugged their clientele into the equation of doing business while minimizing their carbon footprint: They’ll extend discounts to customers who bring back plastic hangers for recycling.

According to Crain’s NewYork.com, Richie’s business had $2.2 million in revenues in 2008, even as he calls it “one of the hardest years in our history.” Doing business in NYC is not an easy feat. Richie, his mother, and the 24 employees under their wing must deal with the harsh economic downturn that began in 2008 plus all the challenges involved in dealing with the over-regulated dry cleaning industry in the city. They all must emphasize on excellent customer service and tailored services to keep the business afloat and actually grow. Also, they step up their marketing efforts to their customers by using flyers and hanger tags to publicize the full array of services they offer.

We asked Richie about the secret of his success and he gave us 6 golden tips for young entrepreneurs:

1. Love what you do and know how to do it. “If you’re not passionate about what you do, you will not succeed. Also, you must know how to perform all the jobs required in your business; you cannot ask anyone to do something if you cannot do it yourself.”
2. Make the day count. “You have 24 hours either to waste your time or to be as productive as possible.”
3. Be proud. “The dry cleaning business is not the most glamorous business, not compared to being a stock broker, but guess what? I clean clothes for a living and I can be very, very successful.”
4. Double your budget. “Make your projections, and no matter what, double it!”
5. Avoid starting your business under-funded. “Just to underline my previous premise.”
6. Do your homework. “You must know exactly your target markets and who are your competitors, don’t think or hope or assume anything.”

For the future, Richie hopes to open a second King Garment shop somewhere around midtown Manhattan, maintaining their upscale service, and refining all the environmentally conscious processes involved in their daily operations. In addition to Richie’s passion for his business, his mother, Ms. Áviles, is a community leader and exemplary businesswoman. She was named as one of the winners of the Crain’s Top Entrepreneurs of 2009 Awards and honored with the Latino Achievement and Innovation Award given by Congresswoman Nydia Vasquez in Washington D.C. She is also the president of the Metrotech Business Improvement District and was recently recognized by the Kings County District Attorney’s Office as one of Brooklyn’s Extraordinary Women. Her motto towards business is simple but extremely powerful, resembling her Colombian roots: “Yes is the answer. What is the question?” No wonder why Richie has become a successful Latino entrepreneur in NYC, and of course, a proud PorColombian.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Richard Áviles.