RICARDO MARRUN CONSTRUCTION( RMC)
$ 1million + project,” Rick explains.“ I was awarded my first contract in January 2024, but since most commercial jobs don’ t start for several months – this project didn’ t start until August – that meant using loan money to pay my employees until we actually started getting paid for our contract work. So, although I started winning contracts right away, the company didn’ t bring in any income to pay my salary until that November.”
Rick’ s leap of faith and winning strategy paid off – RMC currently has a $ 10 million backlog of awarded projects and can now comfortably bid on large projects, filling in the gaps with smaller projects.
He acknowledges the role that MWIS staff and the City and County of San Francisco’ s Contractor Development Program played in helping him launch RMC and he still reaches out to the staff for support and guidance as needed.
“ John Miller walked me through the process of qualifying for the loan and helped simplify the requirements I needed to provide. We repaid that initial loan and then reborrowed funds, which has been very helpful. We communicate with Janet Ramirez weekly and have always felt that they are looking out for our best interest first. I remember how pleasantly surprised they were when they asked for forecasts and learned that we already had all our finances in order and already knew how much we needed to borrow and how much we needed to bring in to be successful.”
Rick believes that another key to RMC’ s success is the importance of maintaining open channels of communication with his employees and clients; this has become especially crucial in an environment where trade policies can create a lot of uncertainty with regard to the cost of materials.“ You have to ask the right questions and keep communicating with each other as things change.”
Rick strongly believes in rewarding his employees and in providing great incentives.“ Relationships have to be built on trust,” he expresses.“ That means my relationship with my employees, as well as our relationship with our clients, suppliers and the larger community.” He makes a point of finding the learning opportunities when challenges come up and empowering his team members to step up and ask questions.“ It’ s important to help develop people’ s skills, build their confidence, and create leaders.”
Rick’ s youngest daughter was one of his first employees.“ Until she started working in the company, she had no idea just how much we do in the construction field. She worked without pay for the first few months and has learned so much.” He’ s excited to witness how many people within the company have become great long-term candidates for the company’ s succession.
To Rick, being an entrepreneur is part of his Latino culture. According to a 2024 McKinsey & Company report, Latinos start more businesses per capita than
12- imwis. com