Budget Blinds St. Cloud FL owner Rak Sharma is our St. Cloud FL Business Spotlight this month. Jeanine Corcoran, broker for Corcoran Connect, interviews Rak Sharma as part of our local business spotlight in Saint Cloud.
Jeanine started the interview by asking Rak how long he has owned this business. Rak answered that he has been a franchisee in the St. Cloud and Kissimmee area for about 8 years now. Budget Blinds has been and continues to be the number one custom window treatments franchise business for 35 years now.
Jeanine asked how he got started in this business and why he chose it. Rak replied that he and his family moved here from England and when they arrived in the US, they ran a Homeowner’s Association Management business. Rak wanted to do something different as his son was growing up and needed more time spent with his parents.
Rak friend is a property developer in the central Florida area and suggested a window treatments business would be a good niche for him to focus on and so he did. Jeanine said she found Rak searching on Google as she was renovating her home and needed window treatments. Jeanine said the customer service was fantastic. She has also recommended other people to Rak as well.
Jeanine then asked Rak to tell the viewing audience about himself. Rak said he was born in Kenya, East Africa and he grew up in England. Rak owned a Hallmark greeting cards business while he lived in the UK for about 20 years. Rak ended up going through a divorce and was looking for a change and a new challenge.
His friend Suresh is the owner of Park Square Homes in central Florida and told his friend to get on a plane to Florida and they would figure things out. Before he left England to come to Florida, he had met Paula who became his second wife. Together they moved here and started their windows treatment business with Budget Blinds.
Rak said Budget Blinds provides great training as he had no prior experience in this business. They went to Los Angeles, where their corporate headquarters is for two weeks of training which was excellent. Rak said Budget Blinds provides Lifetime warranties and 5-year no-questions-asked warranties. Rak stated their products are the best and the highest quality.
Rak was then asked by Jeanine what his top-selling product was, and he replied that their best-selling product is Plantation Shutters because of the heat in Florida. They offer an amazing array of products and have you covered for any of your potential window needs.
Jeanine then asked him how he uniquely serves his customers. Rak said they use local digital marketing and they also receive referrals from leads coming from corporate. They also do a good job of relationship building and that results in a lot of referral leads as well.
Jeanine asked Rak how people can reach him, here are her channels.
We hope you enjoyed Jeanine interviewing Budget Blinds St. Cloud FL owner Rak Sharma as our St. Cloud FL Business Spotlight this month. We will continue to highlight local business owners in Saint Cloud Florida on our podcast.
