Meet Jonathan Torres-Herrera of Summit Horizon Solutions

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonathan Torres-Herrera.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.

Unlike many stories, I heard from other business owners; my entrepreneur spirit doesn’t have a cliché start point that dates back to when I was a little kid. My father was a real and hardworking blue-collar man, who believed in putting in your time at a company until you earned your retirement. My mother, on the other hand, loves the rush of getting people to do what you want them to do, like buying Avon or Tupperware. In some way, I suppose I got my Salesmen skills from her. Since I can remember she has always participated in every pyramid company that sells door-to-door products, which although I absolutely cannot find the benefit to, she has never stopped trying to sell me on it.

The first year after high school was very typical for me, I went out and took on a few jobs to help contribute at home. Soon I landed a temp position at Time Warner Cable working as Dispatcher. I enjoyed it but quickly noticed that having a wife and kid required a lot more money to live on, so I found a way to get hired on as a field technician at a company many people came to know as “MC.” After serving that company for over eight years, it decided to close its” doors in the fall of 2013; this was the first actual job in which I followed my dad’s advice and dedicated my every day too. But unlike him, I lived through my first experience of being at the mercy of what happens when a business you’ve poured your heart into decides to sell. A feeling I must confess I do not wish upon anyone. People get laid off all the time; I obviously knew that however dedicating your every day to a job that you manage to keep climbing only to feel like you didn’t go anywhere or did anything, can be a real shell shock.

However, I must also give credit to the new company that came to “rescue” us all, which oddly enough was a close competitor to us for quite some time, this group came in and offered almost everyone a steady job to move on to… or so we thought. To be fair, I greatly benefited from the whole transaction by getting promoted to Operations Manager. Being married with three kids the whole thing felt like a blessing, and it was. I’ll never forget landing this role. Unlike some of my then co-workers that waltz into their interview with an entitlement attitude; I walked into mine as prepared as I possibly could, but more importantly, I demanded nothing. I met with the ownership & Leadership of TSI and was aware that I was the only one who cared enough to create a short portfolio that included a: freshly-updated resume with a cover letter, work examples, recommendation letters, and recognition certificates. Of course, what impressed them the most was a list of what I knew were struggling items at TSI, followed by my action plan to fix these issues if hired.

It was Saturday afternoon, I was out with my family at the park, and my cell phone rang. My family and I were all at the J St. Park off the I-5 having lunch. The director over at TSI only asked, “So you want the Manager job or what?”. I kept my cool, but deep down I wanted to burst out with joy, it was one of the most significant steps I had taken in a long time. At the same time, I couldn’t believe I had gone from feeling down due to being unemployed to promoted with a company I had not done a day worth of work for.

I moved on to work hard at TSI, fixing a lot of the issues I had pointed out and some more that I became shocked to find out. You see, coming off my last job I learned a specific set of skills that taught me years of strict discipline in everything I did for work. It went along great with everything my father imposed on me.

Some were simple things like; Be on time, start on time, finish your task, keep your promises. Other things that took me years to master are also things that I never forgot, like; Don’t be afraid to scrutinize yourself or be criticized by others, demand only what you can deliver yourself, a business without metrics is a business without goals, and finally knowing that revenue is good, but profit is king, were all some of the great things that I learned from MC. Unfortunately, I quickly found out that not all business are created equal or ran alike, even if we like to think so or want to. While I learned a great deal at TSI, much which consisted of what NOT to do, I also found out that what I had been itching for was called – Entrepreneurship.

I decided that doing the 40/40/40 (work 40 hours, for 40 years, and retire with about 40%) deal was not for me. There is nothing wrong with taking a secure route in life, in fact, most people that make the more stable career life choice, typically end up winning more when it’s time to retire. For me, however, it was always and is still about the journey. If I have to be 100% honest, I was not a very happy man when I had my 9-5, even when I had weekends and holidays off. My wife, which I have been married for 12 years now, can probably tell you how many times I would say to her during pillow talk that I felt I could be doing with my life. I got good at climbing the corporate ladder, but even then, I was never fully satisfied.

I must be honest and confess that it has not been easy and it’s even at times not easy still. I’m not an extensive seasoned businessman, at 30 years old I always strive to learn something new every day. Thus far I can assertively say that having a business is hard work, which has to be put in every day knowing that there is no day off.  I have found out to at first the most significant adjustment when leaving your 9 to 5, which most people have heard but do not stop to realize that you will go on for months (not weeks) at a time without having a single day off. In addition, most people wait to hear what the person they report to says or does on certain business matters or what direction the business is moving into, which completely changes when you’re the very last man or woman on top blessing every change and direction. Not even CEO of most companies have the same level of responsibility (unless they are owners) as direct owners do, which is what I have personally witnessed people coming into the entrepreneur world quickly realize after holding a “key” position in someone else’s company. I was not an exception to this realization. Spending someone else’s money or having someone else to pass on the buck to is a world of difference when you do not have anyone else to pass on the burden to or have no other money but what you see in your bank account.

When I finally got serious about launching Summit Horizon Solutions, I looked to people that were close to me and like-minded. I’m a big believer in the idea that two heads are better than one, so at first, I went with a close friend that at the time I thought we created a great team. The team-up was short-lived, and he quickly parted ways when I made my first “Slingshot” move.

I love San Diego; it’s my hometown and a city that I can’t picture not living in. However, to elevate my chances of success, I knew that I had to look outside of the comfort zone to start off strong as a business, this meant moving out to Tulsa, OK. Knowing no one out there or even knowing the city at all, I took a leap of faith and took on a Sub-Contractor offer which allowed me to start what I thought would be a brand-new site opening for the main contractor working for Cox Communications.

Little did I know, this would not get to see its’ inception. After putting my home inside a moving truck and convincing not only my family, but also four other individuals with families of their own, to leave sunny San Diego for a place that was 12 degrees by the time we arrived in late November. Just a few days after arriving the people at Cox-Tulsa informed me that the main contractor, TSI, had not owned their part of the agreement and for that reason, they were no longer allowed to operate in Tulsa. As you can imagine, this came as a shock and shook me once again to my core. We had signed a year lease, moved half-way across the country and it appeared it was all for nothing. I know what most people think, well didn’t TSI help? The answer was no; they quickly washed their hands because I had signed on as a contractor.

After some heated conversations, they eventually came back to us with an offer in Oklahoma City, OK. Just a few hours west of Tulsa. Once again, I threw everything in a truck and moved all 12 people with hopes that this time it would all work out… and it did for a short while, that is until TSI decided to sell as well.

This time, I suppose I got lucky, sort of, as the entire company staff was offered jobs. It’s all very confusing, but in a nutshell, I was out in Oklahoma as an employee who also owned a company (Summit Horizon Solutions) which did sub-contract work for the company who employed me full-time. By the time TSI announced that they were selling to a new and much larger corporation, I had built Summit Horizon Solutions to about half of what it is today. Since registering SHS as an LLC in California, I have not stopped seeking ways to grow and launch it into the spotlight at every chance I get. In fact, in 2016 we officially went international by opening a headquarters in Tijuana, MX. Which is what saved SHS after the disaster that happened in Oklahoma.

Shortly after the TSI-Tikoo takeover was complete, I was told that the new leadership of TSI would no longer work with Sub-Contracting groups, which included me.

In a matter of weeks, personnel of Tikoo came in to offer jobs as in-house staff to all employee of Summit Horizon Solutions and also picked and chose what assets they wanted to buy off SHS. At this point, I knew my time had ended in Oklahoma. To make things even easier, people who I had hired in management positions also decided to jump ship, by taking outside contract offers along with the little stuff that was left.

Once again, I packed up my family and headed to San Diego, this time; however, we were coming back to a fully working company, that although it needed a lot of work to rebuilt, we nonetheless had much to look forward to.

It has been one year since we rebuilt, we have slowly but surely filled our catalog of partners and clients that today help us make what Summit Horizon Solutions is.

Has it been a smooth road?

Owning a business has challenges of its own, they are different from growing a business, which is what many people do not know going into Small-Business ownership. I tell people all the time that it’s almost like working towards maintaining your weight vs. working towards getting to your ideal fit condition.

Both will allow you to live; however, one will let you live longer and stronger.

As an example, maintaining a business includes establishing your predictable income to have a good Cash Flow statement and P&L.

Growing a business includes everything in my previous example in addition to finding money for the growth you want to have, or you need to attract new and bigger clients.

As simple as this may sound, it has been a bumpy road. Primarily because we deal a lot with other small business and start-ups that at times do not have the right hold of their cash flow and or have unrealistic growth expectations, which leads me to my next point – managing expectations. We deal with business, rather than everyday consumers, this means we must think ahead of what our clients’ operations will need before they think about it or even know they need a solution. It isn’t always easy, as our clients are in the business game for the same reason we are, money making. This has to be the hardest part if we have to pick just one, as we can’t learn every industry our clients are in, even if we wanted to.

Still, we find excitement at every opportunity to provide a quote request and a new business relationship we start; we just wouldn’t have it any other way.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We’re a Call Center and BPO solutions provider, this means we hire and train individuals that help accelerate our clients’ business needs. Simply said, if the function can be done remotely, we can probably help you with it.

We also have a strong understanding of how Sales occur through clean and intelligent data capturing; this is sometimes called lead generation. Let’s face it, a business that sells a product or service to consumers or even B2B sales bet on the data they have on their targets and their competition. We help gather the needed data and essential information that business in the areas of Technology, Food Services, Software, Retail, and Medical fields need to get closer to a sale.

Every day we work hard to ensure our solutions mold to our clients’ operations, unlike some of our competition, which asks clients to mold to theirs.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
We love San Diego. There isn’t too much to complain when you live somewhere that has near-perfect weather and amazing people that live in it. We can only hope that other business owners continue to look our way when in need of our particular but yet highly customization Call Center & BPO solutions.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.SummitHorizonSolutions.com
• Phone: 1-855-832-6747 (1-855-Team SHS)
• Email: [email protected]
• Other: www.JonathanTH.com

Image Credit:
Monica Torres-Herrera

Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.