Today we’d like to introduce you to Juan Claudio Gonzalez.
Juan Claudio, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
When I graduated from college, I realized that climbing the corporate ladder in my hometown of WPB being bilingual and with a business, degree was going to take way too long. The only way I saw to differentiate myself was to move to Bogota, Colombia and use the contacts my family had to start getting some international experience which would help me scale the corporate ladder faster, I started working in the third largest industry in Colombia which was flowers surpassed only by coffee and oil.
I was in charge initially of the largest clients in Europe and Asia and as my responsibilities grew I became in charge of developing new markets throughout the world. In the course of three years, I opened up close to 50 clients in several dozen countries from Europe, Asia, and Central America. After the company was sold, I left and continued growing in the industry until I was offered a job with the third largest company in the industry with close to 2500 employees. My job was to develop new markets internationally and eventually open the first farm-direct program in the US. That same model was later replicated by almost all of our competitors. After a few years of opening up new markets throughout the continental US, I was given the opportunity to open my own company which would be the first service oriented company in the Floral industry for all of North America.
What we did was change the landscape of the floral industry forever and opened the floodgates for the farms from around the world to sell directly to supermarkets and e-commerce clients everywhere in the US and Canada. We had product from every supermarket and every e-commerce client from North America pass through our warehouse at some point in time. Our company duplicated in size and sales for six years straight and then the market crashed. After the market crash, our industry took a nose dive and we continued operations for another five years but never with the same volumes or strength as before. Seeing that the market would not improve we sold the assets of the company. At that point, I started to do consulting with a few companies and I found Best Rest. The founder of Best Rest had lived in Spain for several years and he designed an amazing mattress for the US market with the intention to relocate to this market. I saw the potential in the company and his design and I joined forces with him to penetrate the US. I started with learning all the nuances of the industry, our competitive advantage, the tendencies in the market, etc.
We started with changing the marketing material, revamped the website, and redirected our target market. I also realize several critical points. The marketing and networking strategies from 15 or more years ago are useless. The market has changed so rapidly and many companies are already dead in the water and don’t even realize it. You can no longer wait for opportunities to come to you…you have to create your own opportunities. The right marketing strategy will always outperform most current marketing strategies at a mere fraction of the cost. This is because most companies have no clue how to market their products and their strategy is to spend as much money as possible in a hope to achieve a result.
For all of these reasons, I started the most laser-focused networking group called the Global Luxury Group. The group is comprised of now over 100 business owners or members all geared towards the luxury markets including Residential, Hospitality, Yachting, Private Jets and Lifestyle. These members were well established, developing projects worldwide and with no interest to network except for our group. By maintaining the level and caliber of members, we have accomplished something different than any other group nationally and this has opened the doors for our members in some of the most luxurious markets in the world.
Thanks to these strategies we are now working with B&B Italia, Armani Casa, Gianfranco Ferre, Roberto Cavalli, Luxury Living, Fede Casa, Cote France, Assured Comfort, Tessicasa, Sharper Image, and numerous other showrooms and clients. This has also allowed access into projects like Vidalta Mexico, Aria on the Bay, Armani Residences, One Thousand Museum, Aston Martin Residences, World Equestrian Centers and many more. We have also expanded our lines of mattresses and pillows. The intention is to eventually have the company and some of the other projects I am working on running by themselves so that I may focus on funding startups in the area. There is a huge need for investors focused on product lines other than tech and software and to also speed up the funding process which seems to be seriously flawed.
Has it been a smooth road?
No startup is smooth unless you have unlimited funds and can get away with making many costly mistakes. There are always going to be difficult clients, people trying to take advantage of you and hiccups but the test of a true entrepreneur is being able to keep pushing and growing regardless of the daily challenges. Our main challenge has been the speed with which we have grown due to the limitation of funds.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Our company manufactures the highest quality, most luxurious, innovative, durable and comfortable mattresses and pillows in the market. I have been very resourceful in finding and developing markets in a way that most companies do not know even exist. This comes back to my years in the floral industry where I developed markets most people did not appreciate or even know were available and thanks to those markets we were able to grow our sales numbers way beyond any competitor.
Best Rest is currently introducing technologies 20 years ahead of the industry during a time that most other companies are taking steps back. We never came into the market with the intention to compete but rather to create categories for ourselves and to take over our market. I am also very proud about the creation of GLG as a group. We are the only group of it’s kind and also one of the most elite groups in the world. What makes this so special is that our accomplishments have been with a shoestring budget.
Do you feel luck has played a role in your life?
Luck will always play a role in any business. I always refer to a speaker I heard at a Jim Moran event. He mentioned that much of the real successes in the last couple of decades can be attributed to serendipity. The example I always use is in reference to networking and marketing…If you never get out to events it’s like never buying a lottery ticket…you’ll never win. If you buy 1000 tickets or 50 tickets, you might not win either way but the more tickets you buy the greater the chances to win. You may go all of your life without winning anything and on the same page you may go to that one event and meet the right person that takes your company to a whole different level.
I have been able to maximize my opportunities by going to the right networking events and interacting with the right people and making some right marketing decisions. I’m not quite there yet but I have had the right combination of luck and preparation. I have also had my share of pitfalls and obstacles but that is part of the process. You need to work your way thru it and keep pushing forward. You need to realize that it is part of the process and we all need to pay our dues. Good things never come free.
Pricing:
- Lux by Naturalia Mattress $3250-6099
- Thermovisco Mattress $840-1900
- Prive mattress $5799-9899
- Green Planet Pillow $110-130
- Travel Pillow $55
- Cervical pillow $80
Contact Info:
- Address: 2719 Hollywood Blvd
Hollywood FL 33020 - Website: www.bestrestusa.com, www.globalluxurygroup.net
- Phone: 9545471582
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: bestrestusa
- Facebook: @bestrestusa
- Twitter: @bestrest_usa
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