Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ruben Patino . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ruben, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I was a business owner for about 10 years, it was really a great experience, I did not have any background on businesses or knew how to properly run said business so it was interesting to learn at the same time as managing my crews and dealing with clients, suppliers, other trades and what not. I was also younger and trying to raise my daughter on my own which at the time she was only 3 years old, at the same time I managed to play drums in a touring band that kept me busy

Ruben, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Well it all started when I met my ex-wife, her father was a union plumber and his dad was also a plumber (1st master licensed ever issues in the state of colorado) so needless to say I was brought into the trade because I did not really have any education higher than high school or any skills, in fact reading a tape measure was challenging since I grew up in Peru where we use the metric system. So I did an apprenticeship and was able to get licensed and work for big plumbing contractors in the state where I did most of my learning.

I worked 8 hours a day q d went to school 3 hours after work 2 days a week sometimes 3, after that I will generate my own calls to continuo to learn the trade. Roughly 2009 with the recession I finally was let go. This drove me to focus in my music career more than plumbing but I still needed to provide for my little girl so I started my own shop, it was a slow start but enough for a family of two, allowing me the time to tour and play shows locally, the business grew to the point a second hand was needed that is when I hired my first apprentice which still working for the same shop since! We offer plumbing services and have a great team. In 2022 after almost 10 years of running my shop very efficiently I decided to sell it to an amazing locally own family business call vectra mechanical now I work for them and it’s great. It was nice to find the perfect fit when it came time to sell the shop, vectra’s culture is impressive, highly trained mechanics and a really great business model, I was very happy and excited my shop went to good hands.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think honesty and integrity are the best words to describe the reputation the shop has, we always try to empathize with our clients’s needs, understan md their frustration and try to help them without taking advantage of the situation they might be under. Sometimes it can be very stressful for the homeowners so being able to understand that is very important and you can see how much they appreciate that, it’s nice to leave a house when you know they feel relief.

Any advice for managing a team?

The best thing I did is run the shop from an employee standpoint meaning I always thought “how would I be happy working here” understand we are all humans that get frustrated, tired, have a need for time off to reset, my thing always was “a happy hand is a productive hand” listening to your employees and understating their needs, everyone has a different personality so you have to accommodate to all of them even if you are having a bad day you have to put that aside if your employees need you, they’re the ones out there doing the work that brings the revenue so without them there really is no point!

It’s pretty wild to see how much that ups the moral and makes the guys actually want to get out to their calls as opposed as having a guy there that doesn’t really want to be there, when that happens needs to be address immediately.

Contact Info:

• Website: Vectramechanical.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/flowriteplumbingdenver?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flowriteplbng?mibextid=9R9pXO
• Other: Keep in mind the shop is no longer owned by me, it’s now own by the Crowe Corp. Vectra mechanical

Image Credits
Took the picture myself