Keeping up with the times
Albuquerque businessman shares his knowledge in his book ‘From the Barrio to the Boardroom’
Tony Trujillo was born to rise out of the barrio using a strong work ethic he developed early on. As a teen growing up in a low income household in Martineztown, Trujillo would wake up early to deliver Albuquerque Journal newspapers to subscribers before 6 a.m.
He would rush home, get ready for school, and walk a mile to meet his student council advisor to catch a ride with her to school in time for the 7 a.m. student council meeting. Trujillo took pride in delivering papers and also being successful in collecting dues from subscribers.
“It wasn’t easy,” he said. “… I got some good experience on collections. I got good experience on customer service and things like that, so it was a good start for me and I had extra money.”
As a young adult, Trujillo enrolled in the civil drafting program at the then TVI Community College, which is now Central New Mexico Community College. He married young in 1965 and the couple had their first child.
Trujillo soon realized he needed to immediately find a good job to support his family.
In 1966, Trujillo would land a “job of a lifetime” at Holman’s House of Maps, a small mom and pop shop that specialized in the sale of maps, books and drafting supplies. There he would learn the ropes of running and operating a business from his mentor, the late E.S. Holman.
Trujillo would also experience other invaluable lessons of his own through trial and error.
Trujillo has written a book about his experiences and the top lessons he learned titled “From the Barrio to the Boardroom: Sustaining Your Business Through Good and Bad Economies.” It is available through Amazon Books at amazon.com or barriotoboardroom.com.
In the book, Trujillo gives a play-by-play of his over 50 years with the company and transitioning with the times to keep up with the newest technology to remain current and competitive. It paid off, turning Holman’s into a successful high-tech, multimillion dollar business.
“Obviously I always had a goal to always add value to whatever I sold,” Trujillo said. “… We always try to stay ahead of the competition as much as possible and we have people within the organization that are really creative come up with some good ideas of how to add value, how to make it easier for companies when they buy their technology– it’s basically plug and play.”
Retaining clients by going above and beyond to be able to accommodate their business needs was the key for Trujillo.
“You have to look at ways to expand your business in a way that it can relate to your existing customers and I started with just my existing customers,” he said. “I wasn’t looking at the world per se. I was trying to do something for my customers that made it more convenient for them to do business with … (It) has paid off to be able to do that and I think that’s part of one idea that I thought would be good for small business.”
Looking back, Trujillo has no regrets regarding his business decisions and career path.
“I mean, yeah, I didn’t have all successes,” he said. “I had some failures along the way and there’s a lot of things I could have done better. But if I look at the 50 years that I spent with Holman’s, it was a really great time for me, and it gave me the opportunity to really grow and make a success not only for myself and my family, but also for others that were working with me.”