Faith in God, Hard Work, and the Courage to Grow a Business

A service business built on skill, faith, and the determination to grow through experience and conviction.

When you run a business, spare moments are rare. Most days are spent moving from job to job, solving problems, answering calls, and making sure customers are taken care of. But every now and then, in one of those quiet minutes between jobs, you sit back and begin to think about expanding.

Richard knows that moment well.

He started plumbing when he was just fourteen years old, working weekends alongside a cousin and learning the trade from the ground up.

“I started plumbing at a very young age,” Richard says. “I was probably fourteen years old when I started plumbing and I was working alongside a family member which was a cousin of mine.”

What began as weekend work eventually became a lifelong trade. Over the years Richard gained experience and responsibility, eventually working his way up from plumber to foreman and later into management while working for a school district. Along the way he spent time around contractors who owned their own companies, and those conversations planted an idea.

Richard decided he wanted to build something of his own.

In 2006, he started A+ Plumbing.

Like many small business owners, he wore every hat—working jobs, preparing quotes, answering calls, and making sure customers were taken care of.

And Richard cared deeply about the people he served.

“My pleasure is the satisfaction of our customers,” he explains. “Customer service and communication is the key to success in any organization.”

But as the business grew, Richard discovered something many tradesmen eventually learn.

“You can be a natural-born plumber… but running the business side is a different mindset.”

For years Richard did what many business owners do. At tax time he gathered the paperwork, sent everything to the CPA, and trusted that everything was handled properly. The reports were prepared each year, but the story the numbers were telling about the business was rarely discussed.

Richard describes it simply.

“I’m performing work, submitting quotes, I’m in the office doing what I have to do… and the financial side is the last thing on my mind.”

But Richard’s journey has never been guided by hard work alone. Faith has always been part of the road he travels.

Like many business owners, there were seasons when the work was steady but the future wasn’t always clear. Richard kept moving forward through perseverance, faith, and long hours serving his customers.

“Having the will, and having faith and the Lord above… thanks to Him… He puts me in certain positions where I could be successful.”

Over time the business continued to grow, but Richard began to sense that something needed to change on the business side.

He believes moments like that are part of a larger journey.

“God told me it was time to make a change.”

Not long after that realization, a conversation with a cousin led him to Raul Torres.

The cousin, who owned a body shop, had also been searching for a new CPA. Someone had recommended Raul Torres, CPA, and his firm, and the two decided to reach out together.

They arranged a call.

Soon afterward, Raul traveled from Corpus Christi to San Antonio to meet Richard in person. Richard brought the paperwork Raul had asked to review, and the two sat down to talk through the business.

Richard remembers that meeting clearly.

What stood out was not only Raul’s knowledge, but the way he approached the conversation. Raul wasn’t simply preparing tax filings. He wanted to understand the business itself.

“He sold it,” Richard says. “I fell in love with the way he communicated.”

In the weeks that followed, Raul Torres and his team began asking questions—lots of them.

Emails started arriving regularly.

“They were rattling my cage,” Richard says with a laugh.

At first, Richard wasn’t sure what to make of it. Running a plumbing company meant juggling a dozen responsibilities every day, and the steady stream of questions felt unusual.

But those questions were Raul’s way of learning the business from the inside.

Raul Torres and his firm were doing something Richard had never experienced before. They were taking the time to understand how the company actually operated—how the work flowed, how decisions were made, and where the business stood financially.

“They wanted to know the business,” Richard explains. “They wanted to understand how I was running A+ Plumbing.”

Looking back now, Richard sees those early conversations differently.

They were the beginning of a partnership.

One of the first things Richard noticed after working with Raul was something he had never experienced before.

The conversations didn’t stop after tax season.

Raul Torres, CPA, and his team scheduled regular meetings to sit down with Richard and go over the numbers together—quarter by quarter. Instead of simply preparing reports, they began discussing what those numbers were saying about the business and where the company could go next.

For Richard, that was a completely new experience.

“A lot of people think about their CPA only at tax time,” Richard says. “But Raul is on it all year long.”

As the conversations continued, Richard began to see parts of the business more clearly. Even small details—things that had never seemed important before—became part of understanding how the company truly operated.

One example was something simple: tracking mileage on service trucks.

Richard laughs when he talks about it now.

“It’s a no-brainer,” he says. “But when you’re wearing different hats, it’s hard to keep everything dialed in.”

The discussions with Raul’s team weren’t just about paperwork or tax filings. They were about understanding the business well enough to make decisions with confidence.

And that began to change how Richard thought about growth.

For years he had focused on the daily rhythm of running A+ Plumbing—taking care of customers, managing jobs, and keeping the work moving forward.

Expanding the business always felt like something that might come later.

But Raul encouraged Richard to look at the company differently.

Don’t be afraid to grow.

Today the results are already visible.

What once operated with a single service truck now runs four.

Richard is the first to say that growth didn’t happen overnight. It came from years of hard work, strong customer relationships, and a willingness to keep learning the business from both sides—the trade itself and the financial side that supports it.

What Richard began to feel during that time was something different.

After years of carrying the daily weight of running a company, there is a quiet satisfaction that comes when the foundation of the business finally feels solid and the path forward begins to open.

Richard is quick to point out that success never happens alone.

“It takes a team to win.”

Richard knows this partnership is only beginning.

As the next quarterly meeting approaches, he looks forward to sitting down again with Raul Torres, CPA, and his team—reviewing the numbers, discussing the road ahead, and continuing to strengthen the foundation of A+ Plumbing.

Richard already had the courage—the long hours, the faith in God, and the determination to build his business.

What changed was discovering he didn’t have to do it alone.