Community Corner

Business Conversations: Braintree's Premiere Pros

Each week Braintree Patch speaks with a local business owner.

Premiere Pros is run by a husband and wife duo who brought together backgrounds in finish carpentry and painting and sales and advertising to form a dynamic, Braintree-based home improvement company.

Joe Hernandez and Kristen Ford-Hernandez recently sat down with Braintree Patch to talk about their business, how they met and why they work in Braintree.

Patch will feature questions with business owners every Monday. See Premiere Pros' interview below.

What did you do before?

Kristen worked for more than 20 years in sales and customer service in the Boston area. Joe was an upholsterer and built custom furniture for decorators, and also had a premium moving company. As the custom furniture business declined, he was focusing more on moving and switched to running a painting company in Plymouth.

When did you open, and what was the biggest challenge?

Premiere Pros was founded in 2006. The largest challenge, they said, was starting from scratch, knocking on doors and networking with fellow business owners to build a client base.

Why did you open in Braintree?

"We really want to be a community company," Kristen said. She was based in Braintree and when Kristen met Joe, he relocated from Plymouth to Braintree and they built from there.
How did you meet?
Kristen, a single mother at the time, was looking for someone to paint her dining room and daughter's bedroom. Joe was the second or third contractor she saw, and liked him right away. She had recently paid half upfront for ceiling work and lost her deposit when the contractor never showed. 

"He had the most honest approach," Kristen said.

They were married two years later.

How did you decide the scope of your service?

Premiere Pros began as a painting company but grew as Joe used his carpentry skills more and more. "It was a good fit for me," he said.

Joe's expertise, aside from painting, is finished woodworking, and he creates custom-built remodels for existing home features, a skill that transfers well to the older homes in the area that often have unique but hard-to-utilize layouts.

Another significant service area is cabinet remodels. Instead of spending three times as much to replace cabinets that are laid out well but need modernization, Joe said customers are more likely to ask for new fronts and trim, which costs less and comes out looking brand new.

How large a part of your business is referrals?

About 20 to 30 percent of Premiere Pros' customers are new, typically finding the company through a Google search and its website. Because of a focus on quality that shows on the site, Joe said more often than not those visits result in new customers.

"What we are promoting is value," Joe said.

The large majority of Premiere Pros' business, though, comes from referrals and existing customers. Repeat customers recognize the quality of the work, are pleasantly surprised by the price, and come back again, often without bringing in other bidders, Joe said. 

What is the geographic range of your business?

At times they will travel beyond the South Shore – their furthest job was in Newburyport – but prefer to stay south of Boston, and find that there is plenty of business in the region.

"We definitely want to be local," Kristen said. "You don't have to have a broad area if you have a good service."

What is your favorite part of the job?

"Making people happy," Joe said.

Kristen said she loves to do color consultations with customers, and has performed at least 100. She continuously researches products and colors and consults on a range of levels, from a simple color change in a room to picking out tiles or lighting to complement an existing scheme.

"I love homes," she said. "I love the architecture."

What one thing would you make easier for small businesses in Braintree?

Joe and Kristen run Premiere Pros out of their home in Braintree, so they have not run into issues that some small businesses might, Kristen said. But from talking to other owners in town, one thing that stands out is presentation of storefronts.

"If things are tastefully done on storefronts, there should be a little more leniency," Kristen said.

If you would like to be featured in our weekly Business Conversations article, email joseph.markman@patch.com.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here