Sebastian Medina-Tayac Photo
Romero on the job.
As he installs floors for homes in the Connecticut suburbs, Oscar Romero has found that being a Latino business owner costs him some of the initial confidence of his wealthy white clients.
But he does his job well and the tension dissipates.
An immigrant from New Haven’s sister city in Mexico — Tlaxcala — Romero has been building his flooring business, Carpet Brothers LLC, for the past 15 years while building the trust of his broad base of clients along the shoreline.
Romero has spent more than 25 years here, in what was at first a short-term foray into a new culture.
His family in Tlaxcala was not poor. But Romero never thought about settling down and working there in the countryside. Too many people for not enough jobs. He had known people from his state who headed to the U.S. and came back. His two older brothers were living and working in New Haven.
He was curious about what life would be like here.
Romero has crossed the border twice, both times without papers. The first time, he crossed with a female cousin and stayed in New Haven for two years. The second time, he returned with his brother-in-law.
Romero said the journeys were far from traumatic. Crossing the border was much easier in the early ‘90s, he said, with fewer barriers than there are today. In recent decades, the U.S. has intensified its focus on curbing illegal immigration.
“Tranquilo. Caminamos muy poco,” he said with a shrug. “Calm. We walked very little.”
Now, he has his papers in order and can cross back and forth at will.
He got into the flooring business through a hand-me-down system of apprenticeship. A “paisano” — a countryman, a close friend — taught Romero’s brother how to install tiles and carpets, giving him the knowledge he needed to start a subcontracting business.
When Romero came to the U.S. the second time from Tlaxcala, he worked at a cleaners on Grand Avenue, before leaving for that family business.
After a couple of years working for his brother, he struck out on his own. At first, he had just one connection passed along from his brother, starting as a subcontractor for Grand Paint & Design Center. Then, he leveraged that to get a couple more clients, and kept the chain going.
He decided to call his own business “Carpet Brothers LLC,” even after his brother returned to Mexico and was no longer involved. One of his employees is full-time; two are part-time.
Some clients buy their own carpet or flooring and pay him for the labor. Others ask him to purchase their materials as well.
The price varies depending on the type of material. A wooden floor could cost anywhere between $2 per square foot to $8 per square foot, depending on the “class,” with the highest class at the best quality. Finished floors cost more than unfinished floors. He has to be careful he doesn’t drop a hammer on a finished floor and ruin the varnish; unfinished floors can be installed quickly and then sanded to rub out scratches.
Romero is an optimistic person. He loves his job. His advice for other Latino immigrants looking to start businesses: “To get started, you have to like the work to be able to get enough jobs. If you like what you do and you leave clients happy, doors will open.”
Even when he first started to run his business for the first time, he wasn’t worried about his future.
“Eso que le da a las personas que se ponen nerviosas — a mi no me pasa,” he said. “That thing that some people have where they get nervous — that doesn’t happen to me.”
Next Steps
Aliyya Swaby Photo
Romero is considering buying a hardware store in Madison from a couple planning to retire. He and his wife would manage the store, and he and his employees would install floors for the store’s clients. It would be a more natural way to continue to build the business, he said. “I wouldn’t have to look for clients.”
He gets more work in the summer than in the winter. Now he works with three or four contractors when they need help on projects, as well as a few hardware stores. He enjoys taking a carpet design a client has specifically chosen and engineering the cut so the pattern fits exactly within the shape and size of the room.
In the end, “you should only see one piece,” he said.
During the Great Recession, especially during the winter, his business dropped off. He was working one day a week and had to supplement his business with other jobs.
This past winter, he worked three to five days per week, a major jump in clientele.
Romero has three sons, one a 19-year-old college music student, a 13-year-old in middle school and a 7‑year-old, who wants to take over his business someday.
“If he wants it, adelante,” he said, with a laugh. “Go ahead. I’ve loved it.”
This episode of “Open for Business” was made possible in part by Frontier Communications. Frontier is proud to be Connecticut’s hometown provider of TV, Internet and Phone for your home and business. Their number is 1.888.Frontier and their website is frontier.com. To listen to the full episode, click on or download the audio above.