When Rafael Jorge decided to add retail to his wholesale automotive aftermarket business, he didn’t do it half-heartedly. First there’s a modernistic $5 million, 15,000-square-foot showroom along West Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. Next, he’s spending $250,000 to launch an e-commerce site that will offer 1,500 products.
That’s not bad for a 53-year-old guy who was a dishwasher and construction laborer when he scraped together $600 to buy his first car, a 1964 Chevelle. Go into his Specialty Automotive Treatments (SAT) showroom these days and you can see the Bentley that Jorge drives when he wants to show a little flash – although his day-to-day cars are a bit more sedate. What really brings him joy, though, is his son, Rafael Jorge Jr., who leads the retail operations after earning an MBA from the University of Miami. Click here to read the entire story (Click here to read the entire article…)