Splashing into the business world!
Taking delivery of new product from the new shipping container!
Carlos Villamar is, without a doubt, a family man; therefore, interning with his family business was a no brainer. However, his internship was not a typical summer job working for a big company. His position was a newly devolved one. Working with his stepmother, Villamar helped create SeaRanchUSA, LLC, a new seafood distributor in Silver Spring, MD, that will distribute shrimp from a shrimp farm owned by Villamar’s father.
While Villamar spent much of his time developing operational aspects of the nascent business such as creating invoice sheets, business cards and a company website, he was also on the hunt to find potential new customers. All of these tasks honed the new skills he learned the previous school year at Institute of Applied Agriculture (IAA) where he is studying Sustainable Agriculture.
A driven salesman, Villamar spent most of his summer driving to many restaurants and other potential customers. “The best way I found to find new customers is to physically go out and talk to them,” Villamar says. “The restaurant industry is very competitive, and most won’t talk to you unless in person.”
Travel is nothing new to this budding salesman. Born in Silver Spring, MD, Villamar moved to Ecuador and there for 11 years before returning to Maryland. Over the summer Villamar improved his sales pitch through trial and error, gaining valuable feedback along the way. President of SeaRanchUSA LLC, Sanah Naser says Villamar assisting the company in an incredibly helpful and important way by “translating conversations in Spanish and English while assisting and communicating with clients.”
If that wasn’t enough work, his true talents were tested when company was expecting delivery of a shipping container for business operations but had no place to put it. Luckily, he found a location in the nick of time, a day before it was scheduled to arrive. He recalls how much pressure he felt during that time and says he has a “new form of respect for entrepreneurs and business owners.”
Today, Villamar is completing his second year at IAA at University of Maryland and has set high goals for himself as he pursues his dream of being an entrepreneur and helping the family business grow.
