Pub. 59 2018-2019 Issue 4

33 SUMMER 2019 How did you become a car dealer? Did you always aspire to be part of the automotive industry? From a very young age, I had a desire to be an entrepreneur. The thought of owning and operating my own business was very appealing to me. After graduating from the University of Houston, I worked as an auditor at what is now BDO in Houston. I then went on to work for Perry Homes for about 10 years. Throughout my time at BDO and Perry, I always felt that I would eventually start my own business. I just didn’t know exactly what that business would be. I considered many different businesses. I considered opening up a financial consulting firm, I looked at various franchising opportunities, but nothing really appealed to me. I did know that I was always intrigued by the auto retailing business. Car dealerships and their operations were fascinating to me. I had heard that General Motors and other manufacturers had a Dealer Development program and decided to look into it. I applied to GM’s program and was accepted. I left my position at Perry Homes and began selling cars at Charlie Thomas Chevrolet. From there, I went on to become a Used Car Manager and then moved on to becoming a General Manager of a Buick GMC dealership in the Houston area. In late 1999 I received a call from General Motors to see if I had any interest in purchasing a Cadillac Oldsmobile dealership in El Paso, Texas. The dealership had been struggling for many years.The store was unprofitable, having lost seven figures in 1999. At the time, I did not have a lot of capital to invest so my options for an investment were very limited. We decided to pursue the opportunity and we moved to El Paso in 2000 to own and operate the dealership. We opened up as Bravo Cadillac Oldsmobile on January 10, 2000. We closed the month with the books in the black for the first time in over five years, even though it was a very, very small profit; $888 to be exact. We steadily increased Raymond Palacios