Roxbury’s Privé Parking secures first diversity contract with White Stadium
Banner Business Sponsored by The Boston Foundation
After getting a job as a financial analyst at a Seaport law firm, Ricardo Louis realized that working in corporate America was not for him. However, a meeting with a former customer at a restaurant he worked with as a valet parking attendant in college helped him to return to his true passion — working in the valet parking industry.
“He said the words, ‘you should start your own company.’ Those words stuck with me. … I started looking up how to start a valet parking company,” said Louis. “I ended up staying in that office until late that evening. I printed out all these different articles on how to start a valet parking company. And the next day I told myself that I wasn’t going back to work.”
Louis then went back to all the restaurants he used to work with as a valet attendant, telling them his idea of starting his own valet parking company.
Pounding the pavement paid off for him, as he secured his first client, Toro Restaurant on Washington Street in the South End.
Louis came up with the name Privé, which he said means private in French.
“When I worked as a valet parking attendant, I kid you not, whenever you say the word valet, most people think you’re going to take their car and drive in the neighborhood with the top down. That’s kind of the image that’s portrayed,” he said, adding, “Valets don’t really get the best reputation. So I did not want to use the word valet at all … because I knew it kind of made people a little bit uncomfortable.”
When deciding what to name his business, he said he felt that Privé Parking sounded more professional.
“French is considered … a high-end language. And so Privé just came about. And the double P’s, it just stuck with me. I look at the double P’s, and it reminds me of, you know, everyone knows the double R, the Rolls Royce symbol,” said Louis.
Three things make his business different from other valet services in the area. The first thing is the leadership standards he has ingrained in the business, based on his real-life experience working as a valet attendant.
“When leadership understands the operation and can put himself in the shoes of the majority of his workers, I think that creates a different environment. That creates a different understanding on not just operations, but also on building an environment that your staff feels comfortable [with] and has a real-life experience [with] because you [are] there,” said Louis “I was a valet and now I own a valet parking company. And I think that resonates with a lot of people.”
The second thing that makes Louis’s business stand apart from others is that he is a member of the community — beyond his job.
“The company is based in Roxbury, and I live in Roxbury. And not only do I live in Roxbury, but I also serve as the board treasurer for United Neighbors Lower Roxbury, which is a non-profit community-based organization that was established here in Roxbury around 1971. Being a part of that community-based non-profit organization really gave me a better understanding [of] history,” he said.
The third thing that makes his business stand apart from others is that it is a smaller company, which gives it a competitive advantage.
“We’re typically going against larger corporations … [which tend to] carry larger overhead and have greater expenses than a smaller company. And so, with that, we’re competitive when it comes to the pricing. Not just the pricing, but we also provide a great quality of service,” he said.
Louis and his team members have had many accomplishments at Privé Parking, including most recently being the first supplier diversity advisory group with a driving contract with the city for the White Stadium project.
“Time after time, you see these big developments that happen in our neighborhood and it’s the same stories,” said Louis. “We’re being left out. They’re not intentional when it comes to working with local businesses. We don’t really see the impact. … This time we have the opportunity now to correct that. … Our voice is being heard, and the city is being intentional…and it shows.”
While Privé Parking has accomplished great success, Louis also shared some of the challenges he faced when getting his business started, which includes entering the parking industry in the city.
“A lot of businesses … are based on relationships. And when people have those relationships, it’s very hard. … It’s very hard for new businesses to enter a market, right? One of the challenges that I had was how do I get these restaurants? I was new. It’s not like I had a proof of concept that I [could] sell. The only thing that I really could sell was myself and [my] capability,” he said.
Louis’s father and Bill Singleton supported and encouraged him when he decided to move forward and make Privé Parking a reality.
“My father [is a] Haitian migrant [who] came to this country. He is the hardest working man I know on the planet. He really believed in me, and my idea at the time was just an idea, but he believed in me and had my back. The second person I can think of is Bill Singleton, the president of the nonprofit community-based organization United Neighbors Lower Roxbury. He met me when I was young. … [When] I told him about my idea, he just took me under his wing,” said Louis.
Lastly, Louis gave advice to entrepreneurs of color who may want to open a business of their own, which included not just focusing on being a company of color but on being the best small business they can be.
“It’s going to be hard. Everything we do in this world that [we] want to do, there’s going to be work to it. We know that, but that’s a part of the journey. Embrace it. It’s a part of your story.
And when you tell your story, it will all make sense,” he said.
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