When Alberto Agosti started selling blinds, it was out of the back of his Toyota hatchback in the mid-1980s, with a $2,600 investment.
He would drive onto construction sites of new housing developments and leave his business card inside an unfinished home’s dishwasher or refrigerator, hoping when the new owners moved in they would give him a call.
On the weekends, the owner of Hollywood-based Paradise Shade and Drapery would also cruise the streets of South Florida, looking for moving vans, and then leave his card with the new homeowners.
More than 13 years later, most of his business is from referrals, rather than door-to-door sales. And Paradise Shade and Drapery today takes in about $370,000 in yearly sales.
Agosti, who was born in Brazil, now leisurely drives to customers’ homes in his truck that has the company’s logo on the side. He carries a dozen books with styles and fabrics and helps customers design coverings for their windows — “anything that you can imagine that can go on a window,” he said.
The 57-year-old used to be employed as an ironworker, but he injured his back in an accident. Once he recovered, he went to work for a friend who ran a blinds business. After three months of learning the business, Agosti struck out on his own.
Since then, his product line has grown along with the number of his competitors. In the 1980s, only a half dozen companies were selling custom blinds. Today, he said, customers have more than 3,000 businesses to choose from — from Home Depot to small businesses like his.
Agosti uses vendors to manufacture the blinds and drapes. For a while he and four employees made them, but he found using vendors was more profitable.
Now Agosti is Paradise Shade and Drapery’s only employee. He answers the phone, drives to customers’ homes, helps develop designs, measures the windows, orders the drapes or blinds and installs the finished product. He said he handles up to 40 orders a month during the busy season — August to January, as customers get ready for the holidays.
His wife, Cathy, helps out on nights and weekends, when she’s not busy as the volunteer manager for Vitas Hospice in Lauderdale Lakes. She handles the marketing, bookkeeping and public relations.
Cathy Agosti will also “shop” the competition to see what Alberto is up against.
Alberto Agosti has worked with Weston-based Design Nuovo for about five years, said Fredo Valladares, an interior designer.
“One of the things I like most about [Alberto] is he is always available. He is very responsible when it comes to the timing of the work and delivers on time and his prices are fair,” he said. “I don’t think he’s ever said no to anything.”
Both Agostis say Paradise Shade and Drapery stands out from the competition because of personal service. Alberto Agosti said that ranges from taking his shoes off if he has to climb on a customer’s couch to replacing a broken part 11 years after the blind was installed.
Once he traveled to Jamaica to design and install the drapes for a 10,000-square-foot home.
Alberto Agosti said he’s not concerned with rivals who have Internet operations.
“When it comes to drapery, you need someone to show you the fabric,” he said. “On the Internet it’s just a picture. You want to feel it.”
Nicole Ostrow can be reached at or 954-356-4667.
