Daniel from Improve Press
As a child, Andrew Barrocas at all times dreamed that he’d work along with his dad on the household enterprise, a garment manufacturing firm in New York Metropolis referred to as Mona Slide Fasteners. As a substitute, he ended up bringing his dad, Joel, to work with him.
Andrew is the CEO of MNS, an actual property growth agency that at the moment has 12,000 models for lease and sale in New York Metropolis. Since 2021, every Thursday, Andrew, 43, and his dad, Joel Barrocas, 77, have commuted collectively, driving to MNS’s headquarters in Brooklyn. They preserve the radio off, and focus on all issues of enterprise. As soon as they get to the workplace, Andrew goes about his day, taking shopper calls, managing conferences, and operating the enterprise. Joel joins him, gives his personal solutions, and sometimes heads residence someday within the afternoon. He takes an Uber.
Andrew is not simply serving to his dad keep energetic in retirement, nonetheless. He says Joel’s recommendation and counsel has been important. “He is principally been my coach by way of enterprise my complete life,” Andrew says.
Along with operating Mona Slide Fasteners–the enterprise named for his mother-in-law that he took over in 1971–Joel, in 1985, additionally launched a separate manufacturing enterprise, Menu Options. He bought the corporate, which made menu covers for eating places simply previous to the pandemic in 2020.
Joel additionally managed to develop his father-in-law’s enterprise from two staff to a employees of 400 throughout his practically 5 a long time as steward. Finally, Joel says he noticed increasingly attire manufacturing transfer abroad, so he bought the enterprise in 2020.
With nothing tethering him to entrepreneurship anymore, Joel began to get stressed. However not for lengthy. His son, Andrew–who by then had based his personal actual property business–proved to be his ticket again within the sport.
Andrew, who has two siblings, was naturally inclined to enterprise as a baby, Joel says. At age 12, he ran a snow elimination enterprise, utilizing an ATV with an connected snow plow to shovel driveways as rapidly as possible–and finally pulled in additional than $1,000 a day. At 16, he made greater than $50,000 one summer season driving a Good Humor ice cream truck. “My father by no means mentioned ‘no’ to me about anything–whether I needed season tickets to the Mets, to a Ferrari, to a pleasant home, and a pool,” Andrew says. “His one rule was that I needed to pay for it myself.” And so, he turned a salesman.
Joel insisted that Andrew get work expertise on his personal earlier than becoming a member of the household business–but as soon as Andrew stepped into the world of actual property after school, he did not look again. When Andrew began his personal enterprise in 2004, Joel helped him prepare his staff, however stayed targeted on his work at Mona Slide Fasteners and Menu Options. As soon as Joel retired, although, he was free to commerce.
“My dad has coached me by way of every little thing my entire life,” Andrew says. “He is by no means given me cash for any of my companies, however he is given me his time–and that’s way more worthwhile.”
Andrew and Joel examine their relationship to that between basketball legend Michael Jordan and his coach, Philip Jackson. “He challenges me to face the issues that I do not wish to speak about,” Andrew says. “We speak by way of potential options and strategize.” Their Thursday drives into the workplace, he says, are a “psychological exercise,” which frequently end in him making a change to his enterprise. It is a apply that the 2 have shared since Andrew’s childhood: Even in his days driving the ice cream truck, Andrew discovered methods to get new clients (like giving out free canine treats) because of his dad’s teaching.
Joel had his personal mentor rising up, too: His grandfather, a New York Metropolis taxi driver who was recognized for sharing New York trivia with riders–which would end in constant suggestions. “He was the neatest man I ever met,” Joel says. “He taught me that there at all times a greater option to do something–you simply have to consider it.”
Enterprise teaching is a household custom that has led the Barrocas household to success: Thus far, MNS has bought and leased over $10 billion in actual property, and the agency at the moment has over 20,000 condos being leased and built–double the quantity it had pre-pandemic. And it is a custom that Joel hopes Andrew will proceed by guiding his three daughters by way of whichever profession path they select. “That is what’s necessary,” Joel says. “Household.”
