Inspiring Conversations with Oscar Calderon of C & B PAINTING LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Oscar Calderon

Hi Oscar, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
C & B Painting, is the meaning of Calderon and Barrios, my last name and that of my wife. We are a family that migrated from Guatemala to the United States looking for greater security and opportunities for our children and family.
We started in the field of painting working for companies as employees. Throughout our career as employees, we took the best from each person we met, we listened and learned with humility.
We gained experience and realized that they did not value our work and the detail that we wanted to do in our work, they only wanted production and that’s it. This was outside the way we were used to working and we did not feel that it was the best for us.
At that time we made the decision to look for work under contract on our own, supporting our Latino people with jobs. At the beginning we managed to become employees and manage personnel. We had many experiences with issues of wage theft, late payments. This was difficult but it gave us more strength to continue with our dream of having a company in the United States.
In 2019 we registered C & B Painting LLC, officially in the state of Colorado.

We started by renting tools and for each job we did we set aside an amount to buy tools. We worked from Monday to Sunday, sometimes up to two shifts focused only on painting. We managed to have the tools to form 4 work teams, saving on everything and learning to lower costs and always give the best quality to the end customer.

In 2022 we worked for BIC Painting as subcontractors, we managed to have 12 people in our crew, in September 2022 BIC Painting had withheld approximately $ 128,000.00 from us, so they looked for a way to make excuses not to pay, they changed the scope of the contracts, we have the evidence, this led us to stop all the work, sell all our personal belongings, vehicles, in order to cover the payments of the staff, we ended up losing insurance, phones, etc.
We sought legal help and did not succeed, we only invested 6 months in this and did not get any response, in this 6-month journey with lawyers, support groups, courts, we learned of too many cases, so we joined together to support the law initiative to prevent wage theft.

My wife went to work as a house cleaner, I started cleaning yards, shoveling snow, doing anything that could be generated, with this we managed to save $1,000.00 to be able to pay the company’s insurance.

And we began to look for jobs, knowing that at the beginning of our career as painters, we had no experience, tools, little knowledge, now we had all this, which was what they could not take away from us.

We started to have more contacts and our work was spread by word of mouth, we created more clients, closed contracts and little by little we were moving forward with all the issues, both personal and economic.

In July 2023, my big toe on my right foot was amputated. We had a lot of contracts and commitments, so it was difficult to get ahead. We fulfilled all our commitments and I took some time to recover from the operation.

We started 2024 with all the attitude, creating our website, seeking to go from subcontractor to general contractor, implementing the repair of stucco, drywall, texture, construction cleaning and something that has nothing to do with the construction topic, importing Guatemalan coffee from our region of origin.

It is difficult to be an entrepreneur, but you can get ahead by putting God first, having faith, being persistent and working as a team, which is what my wife, my assistant manager, and I managed to do, being a pillar for each other to continue working on our dream day by day, step by step, supporting our people by giving them job opportunities and teaching them the job.

This is how the history of C & B Painting has been summarized.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has not been easy but we have learned from each experience and we have always had the support of our family.
Discrimination, wage theft, the language barrier, since we are Latinos and our mother tongue is Spanish, being a small business they do not believe that we are capable, when they see us work, that taboo is broken.
Not having access to loans, working capital, lines of credit.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We work commercial and residential, painting, pressure washing, drywall, texture, stucco and cleaning. We are a Latin retail company, we are known for giving personalized treatment and being detail-oriented, as well as clean work and our work guarantee. Focused on making the work better and surpassing the next time and learning new techniques seeking excellence in each job.
We are proud of our recommendations and being known as the ones who call when something that someone left wrong needs to be repaired and make the change.
C & B Painting is a retail company that focuses on excellence, when delivering your projects to our crew, we will always seek to exceed what the client needs, make a welcoming place and change the environment.

We offer personalized services for each client, with cleaning, painting and any necessary repairs in your home, office, warehouse, restaurant, hotel, car wash, etc. We have specialized equipment for jobs in difficult access (work at height)

How do you think about happiness?
What makes me happy is painting and making changes, spending time with my family, I love video games and challenges.
Because I see the change I make and we surpass ourselves every time.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CandBPaintingLlc
• Twitter: candbpainting