The transcript. Small Business School, the series on PBS member stations.

The transcript for this episode

updated: 12/20/2004

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Meet Heliodoro Valadez

The first invention, created using an SBA 8A loan

HATTIE: Here we are in the beautiful city of El Paso to meet the individual named small-business person of the year from the state of Texas. And you won't be surprised to find out what he does.

I loved Heliodoro Valadez even before I met him. Why? Because he makes tortillas and I love tortillas. I love them plain, I love them with salsa, I love them most any way. Mr. Valadez leads his 70 employees in his 41,000 square feet of factory. They are committed to quality because they know they are making the single most important ingredient needed to prepare great Mexican food.

Leo started Best Buy Tortilla Factory after he lost his job and had nine children to support. His goal was to make 200 dozen tortillas a day simply to replace the income he'd lost. Now his sales are over $5 million a year.

Amazing, also, is Leo's ability to make profit. While others in his industry achieve a before-tax margin of 2.9 percent, Leo is at 12 percent. Leo's son Robert, who is now the plant manager, told his father in front of me, `Pop, if you were a Harvard MBA, this would be no big deal. But since you're a guy who started with no money and absolutely no education, Best Buy is a bit of a miracle.' Of course, I was curious to find out exactly how this man has created such a successful business.

Getting Started

HELIODORO VALADEZ: Well, I started by working in another factory.

HATTIE: Oh, really?

HELIODORO: Yeah. I learned that--the process to build a machine. I wasn't working on the production of tortillas.

HATTIE: So you were making the machines?

HELIODORO: The machines, yeah.

HATTIE: Now did you invent a new machine?

HELIODORO: New machine.

HATTIE: How did you think of that idea? How did you think to try that?

HELIODORO: Well, we knew that if we put two plates together with a heat we can get some tortillas. I went to Ortetra and I saw the pumps pulling oil. And then we build one.

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	Key Ideas of this episode




1.		Develop some expertise first

2.		Think ahead

3.		Control overhead

4.		There is such a thing as business ethics

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	(continued from left column)

	HATTIE: Wait a minute. So you looked at an oil well and figured out how to make a tortilla machine. HELIODORO: That's right. HATTIE: Now how many of us would have thought of that? Well, wait a minute, you just started a factory. You took the machine and you leased some space, and you did it all yourself or did you hire employees then? How did it... HELIODORO: Well, yeah, we started by using the family. But I hire people to help me build it--all the machinery. We build it, all of that. HATTIE: Well, now how--did you have money to do all this? I mean, how did you get... HELIODORO: No, I didn't have no money. HATTIE: (Voiceover) So Lio took his machine, got an SBA loan in two weeks, and opened his own factory. In the beginning, Lio had to keep the machines operating, make the tortillas, drive the delivery trucks, and sometimes even sleep in the factory. So many of us get discouraged as we run our businesses, but not Lio. I tried to get him to tell me about a time when he wanted to give up and quit. He says there was never such a time. Are you the kind of person who's ever gonna retire? HELIODORO: Well, I've been thinking--you know, they tell me, `Don't come over here and work hard, just work three, four hours and go home.' When I come here, I stay. HATTIE: You love it. HELIODORO: Yeah. HATTIE: This is home to you. HELIODORO: That's right. Lightbulb HATTIE: Here's what I learned from spending a day with Heliodoro Valadez. First, start a business in an area in which you have some knowledge. He knew about food and particularly about flour. Second, think ahead. He is constantly improving and stretching the capacity of his technology. And third, start small and add overhead very carefully. "I have nothing to give but blood, toil, tears and sweat." - Winston Churchill HATTIE: Oh, and there's one more thing. The novelist Ella Van Burns wrote, `Life is like pouring water in a Coke bottle: If you're the least bit scared, you just can't do it.'

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