Today we’d like to introduce you to Joseph Panico.
Joseph, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started welding and fabrication in high school at Camden county Vocational School in NJ. 4 years of learning to weld metal including related technical processes and procedures. After 2 years in the military I began working on cargo ships in Port everglades traveling the world which was a great job for a young man with no commitments.
From cargo ships to Cruise ships which is where I learned stainless steel fabrication and metal art. In 1994 while working in port everglades I was injured and soon realized I was not going to be able to handle the everyday physical part of my profession so I retrained myself taking night classes learning, accounting, business math, economics, and marketing. At that time armed with my new education I focused on Real estate so I left the metal fabrication business to pursue a lucrative career in real estate which was very good but ultimately ended up causing us to lose everything, we ultimately filed for personal bankruptcy. Soon after that my friend asked me what I was going to do, I said I was going to put my resume together to look for a job. My friend said why don’t I go back into welding, my reply was there are hundreds of welders out there all starving for business, it was then that my friend suggested I focus on stainless steel welding and offered me boxes of new welding equipment he had purchased years ago which was funny because he did commercial windows. Through my friends’ generosity, idea, and a lot of prayers we opened Stainless Steel Joe in 2010. Since South Florida was economically depressed.
I looked to Raleigh, NC to open a shop due to the development that was going on there and the high demand for custom stainless steel work. In Raleigh I really honed my metal art skills due to the metal artist there who inspired me to focus on custom metal art work and design.
Now, I spend most of my time designing and fabricating custom metal projects for builders, homeowners, and designers with a shop in Pompano Beach and Raleigh NC. I never could have imagined I would come full circle from high school to today.
Has it been a smooth road?
Bankruptcy, no work, struggling to find quality workers, are just a few.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Stainless Steel Joe is a custom stainless steel metal shop focused on design, fabrication and installation. We offer a wide selection of decorative metals, public art sculptors, counter tops and we also do Stainless Steel polishing on mirror and brushed stainless. Our shop in Raleigh can fabricate one or one thousand pieces with 2 lasers, and all the equipment needed to fabricate anything.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Miami is the best place to start out in the metal art business due to the abundance of creative architecture and the money is here to pay for fine art.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2511 NW 16th Lane unit 5
Pompano Beach, FL 33064 - Website: www.stainlesssteeljoe.com
- Phone: 954-465-5911
- Email: stainlessjoe@gmail.com
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