Empresario Exitoso: "Ni madrugar, ni nada de eso, mejor haz esto"

Summary

Camilo Parada argues that entrepreneurship has no universal step-by-step formula. Waking up early or working hard does not guarantee success. His central advice is to become deeply engaged in the work, stay organized, and build around a meaningful purpose. Revenue matters, but he sees it as an outcome of serving a real need—not the sole reason to start a business.

Strategy and Business Model

Parada leads a group of approximately six or seven operating companies in Colombia. Established businesses help fund newer ventures until they can operate independently. The group focuses largely on services, including construction and architectural design, specialized cleaning, insurance intermediation, and water and wastewater engineering.

He recommends looking for underserved or overlooked needs rather than copying a popular business simply because it appears profitable. He also encourages entrepreneurs to test adjacent opportunities and organize them as distinct business units or cost centers, rather than assuming the original offering is the only viable one.

For example, his cleaning company began with portable toilets and later expanded into industrial and institutional cleaning, sewer-unclogging services, and other business lines. Parada chose a broad company name so it would not be defined only by “bathrooms.”

Parada sees Colombia as particularly strong in service businesses. He advises aspiring founders to consider both what they do well and what customers need. He also cautions that inventory-heavy product businesses can be expensive and operationally complex.

Operating Lessons and Practical Advice

• Organize before trying to scale. Parada’s biggest early mistake was pursuing sales without tracking the business’s finances and obligations. Poor records made it difficult to identify where money was being lost.
• Track cash, liabilities, and commitments. Even a spreadsheet or notebook can help record what the business owns, owes, and must pay—including taxes, employee benefits, suppliers, rent, and other obligations.
• Separate business and personal finances. Treat incoming cash as the company’s money, not the owner’s. Pay yourself a defined salary and reinvest the remaining funds so the business can grow rather than merely survive.
• Learn the operation firsthand. Understanding the work, equipment, workforce, and customer requirements helps identify what the business can deliver and which opportunities are realistic.
• Reposition the brand deliberately. Parada wanted customers to view his portable-sanitation operation as a professional cleaning company. He invested in a better operational and administrative facility, reinforcing that positioning with customers.
• Assess scale economics. Some service businesses need enough customers and route density to cover expensive vehicles, equipment, and crews. A small operation may not be profitable even when demand exists.
• Use goals, but don’t confuse them with purpose. Financial targets are necessary for managing a business, but Parada says money should result from delivering value—not be the venture’s only purpose.
• Don’t mistake persistence for a reason to continue indefinitely. Closing a failing business can be costly, but continuing to fund it does not guarantee recovery. In his own case, he decided to stop only when outside financing was no longer available.

Examples and Outcomes

• Portable sanitation: After an earlier restaurant failure, Parada joined a business opportunity involving portable toilets. The operation grew from 30 toilets to more than 800 in Santander. He says scale helped make the model work by spreading the cost of specialized vehicles and crews across the operation.
• Industrial cleaning: A large company asked whether his firm could clean industrial facilities. Although he initially lacked experience, he pursued the opportunity, learned the requirements, and developed a long-term business relationship.
• Construction and home design: His construction company began offering more design-led products in response to demand for better-designed homes. He cited increased home remodeling after the pandemic, even as new-housing sales faced challenges.
• Restaurant failure: Around 2006, he opened a restaurant after buying a franchise, despite having little food-service experience. It operated for roughly eight or nine months before closing. The costs of shutting down—including rent, restoring the premises, and selling equipment at a steep discount—added to the burden.
• Acquisition and exit: Parada described acquiring Viota, a company that had operated for about 20 years, helping transform and grow it, and later selling it to a larger company.
• Employment: He estimates that his companies generate an average of approximately 500–600 direct jobs, though employment fluctuates with construction-project cycles.
• Social impact: His foundation, Pisos, works to replace dirt floors with adequate flooring. He cited estimates that in Barrancabermeja, a city of about 220,000 people, roughly 80,000 people—or 17,000 families—lived in inadequate housing conditions. The ambition is to expand the effort beyond the city and eventually across Latin America.

Leadership and Entrepreneurship

Parada cautions against romanticizing entrepreneurship or treating business ownership as the only valid career. People can contribute by working in, leading, or helping someone else’s business.

When selecting people for his team, he says he first looks for desire and willingness. He also frames business success partly in terms of creating decent jobs and helping others grow. Business owners, he says, can contribute through knowledge and mentorship as well as money.

Parada mentors approximately two or three entrepreneurs per month, including some virtually.

Metrics and Timelines

• Companies in the group: Approximately 6–7
• Average direct employment: Approximately 500–600 people, varying with project cycles
• Portable toilets: Grew from 30 to more than 800, operating in Santander
• Restaurant venture: Operated for approximately 8–9 months; opened around 2006
• Mentorship: Approximately 2–3 entrepreneurs per month
• Foundation context: Barrancabermeja has approximately 220,000 residents; cited estimates include 80,000 people and 17,000 families living with inadequate flooring
• Financial information: No revenue, margin, customer-acquisition, or formal growth targets were stated

Presenters and Sources

• Janeth Camacho — Host and interviewer
• Camilo Parada — Guest; lawyer, entrepreneur, and business leader
• Source: Fuertemente Podcast
• Sponsors and partners mentioned: Lina Mix and Joyería Venecia