Rising Stars: Meet Sergio Cruz of Thomasville

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sergio Cruz

Hi Sergio, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
So I’m originally a Latino from NYC born and raised. My dad is an immigrant from the Dominican republic and my mother is from Puerto Rico but was raised in NYC. I’ve been living in NC for almost 8 years now. Growing up in the Bronx I fought through a lot of adversity, from being homeless, living in foster care to losing my mother to cancer at 11. I was fortunate enough to fight through that adversity and go to college on scholarship to play baseball at clackamas community college and finished up my career at Clarke university. I graduated with a bacherlors in business. Playing baseball saved my life and got me out of poverty. I’m currently a volunteer baseball coach at Carolina university in Winston Salem, NC. My journey to starting my own business started back in 2018 and I worked for a small company out of Winston Salem doing the exact kind of flooring we currently offer. I became an expert at every service we offered and moved as far up in the company as I could. I ran a crew of 4 guys traveling around the country for 7-9 months a years. After doing that for 4 years I began to work for a bigger company based out of high point NC for about a year but realized I could never be satisfied not being my own boss and owning my business. I began to brainstorm ideas on what I needed to start my business, how I would market it and what services we would offer. I also began coming up with concepts for our name. I then moved back to NYC in 2021 and worked for a flooring company there doing higher profile jobs and when I saved up enough money I moved back to NC in August of 2022 and started JLV Commercial & Industrial Flooring. I ultimately chose JLV Flooring because JLV represents my younger brother John Louie Villegas who passed in June of 2020 of health complications. It ensures that his name lives on forever and is a constant reminder of why I began this journey of being a business owner which was to help, give back and take care of my family and loved ones. I started with a tool box and an LLC paper that said I owned a business. During our beginnings I would do any small repair I could find. Sometimes I’d drive to New Orleans for small repair jobs. 12 hours just to work 2 hours and drive back home. Would take naps in the truck so I didn’t have to pay for a hotel. And somehow these repairs were actually profitable! I slowly began building trust with clients and building relationships with other general contractors and flooring companies and we landed a few bigger jobs helping me create revenue and buy machinery, tools and company vehicles. We have done work in 29 states this year and counting! We specialize in commercial, retail and industrial setting flooring such as sealed concrete, polished concrete, epoxy and terrazzo. My ultimate goal is to grow this company and localize more within my state and community.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has gotten smoother and we still have a long ways to go but some of our struggles early were and continue to be building relationships and trust with local general contractors. The learning curve of understanding how to put together competitive bids and understanding the market has been a challenge. It has also been a challenge finding employees that can commit to the traveling we do.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We offer concrete polishing, epoxy installations and terrazzo refinishing that is where we get most of our work. We also stain concrete floors, can do personalized stencil art on concrete floors and can seal concrete floors. We offer flooring demo services and flooring janitorial services. We specialize in all things concrete, epoxy, terrazzo and marble flooring related. I’m most proud of my resilience of all my trials and tribulations growing up, I’m proud of pushing through and creating something that is bigger than myself that will ensure my brothers name can live on and be able to take care of my family and not have us struggle. What’s sets me and my company apart from others is my dedication to my craft and the pride I take in my work. I as a current owner/operator work closely with my clients and contractors to make sure we are bringing their exact vision to life. From beginning of the process up until the job is done we take pride is bringing the upmost professionalism and playing baseball growing up has shown me the importance of teamwork that has helped set me apart from others

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Yes. There were plenty lessons to take from the Covid-19 crisis I feel some of the important ones were we need to invest more in public health, always expect the unexpected and life is short so we have to enjoy our loved ones while they are here with in us

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jlvflooring.net 
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jlvflooring/profilecard/?igsh=MWo5djNkZzdhc25mdA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1Gyw91Zkkf/?mibextid=LQQJ4d