Fernando Garcia stands at his shop, where he makes custom-made iron entry doors, on Sept. 4, 2015, in Monterrey, Mexico. Adriana Zehbrauskas for PayPal.
The elaborate wrought-iron entry door that recently left Fernando Garcia's shop was one of hundreds made over the last decade by his team, but this one was a little more special than the rest. The 860-pound labor of love was the first door being sent to Garcia's newest market – Britain – and hopefully it will be the first of many.
It's hard to imagine anyone finding creative growth, let alone small business success, in the steel industry, but Garcia has done just that – turning his run-of-the-mill welding business in Mexico's historic steel capital into an exporter of high-end doors to the U.S., Australia and now Britain.
Garcia transformed his Diseno Forjado firm through skill and hard work, but he also got a boost from the digital payments industry, which helped to extend his firm’s reach outside of Mexico.
A worker at Diseno Forjado cuts a steel bar to be used in a new door on Sept. 3, 2015, in Monterrey, Mexico. Adriana Zehbrauskas for PayPal.
"I've always loved steel," said Garcia, who set up shop in Monterrey, a city near the U.S. border where steel was king in the 1900s. Many smokestacks shut down as the industry consolidated, but Monterrey has diversified into Mexico’s business hotspot – from multinationals to locals like Garcia, who still have a deep connection and even find inspiration in that steel history.
"I've got steel in my blood," he said, noting that his father managed a mill here that was Mexico’s largest.
After studying industrial design and working a few years in the corporate world, Garcia started his one-man welding business in 2000.
"I told myself I won't make steel," he says of his career change, "but I will transform it."
A worker at Diseno Forjado polishes a door on Sept. 4, 2015, in Monterrey, Mexico. Adriana Zehbrauskas for PayPal.
His big break came in 2005, when a Mexican national living in Alabama found him online and asked to have a door made for his home there.
Garcia did and quickly learned he could sell high-end doors to customers in the U.S. Today, he sells exclusively to customers abroad and his 15 employees are busy delivering some 150 doors a year.
Nearly two-thirds of his sales come from eBay, 20% from his
Diseno Forjado Facebook page, 5% via Alibaba and the rest are return customers or referrals. Many of his customers pay via PayPal.
Using the Internet to make sales was one part of his strategy to bring his business to a global audience; another was building confidence in his firm among potential customers. "How can I trust this company in Mexico?" became a big question for buyers, Garcia said, and that's another area where PayPal was key.
The owner of the $2,500, Britain-bound door was among those.
"I found him on Facebook," said Jocelyn Knowles of Birmingham, England. "And yes, PayPal did reassure me," along with Garcia always "getting back to my messages and sending picture updates quite quickly."
Workers at Diseno Forjado apply a weather sealant to a door on Sept. 3, 2015, in Monterrey, Mexico. Adriana Zehbrauskas for PayPal.
Garcia asks the rare client not using PayPal to do so because it “simplifies things for everyone,” he said. That simplicity includes converting currencies, accepting checks as payment, allowing quick changes to orders (as well as being able to track them, too), and avoiding the costly and time-consuming task of receiving credit card payments directly.
“It’s easy if someone comes in with a card,” he said, “but to set up international payment? No way. They put up a thousand hurdles here in Mexico.”
In Mexico, small businesses like Garcia’s have a dedicated account manager to closely support merchants, said Adriana Peon, head of PayPal's program for small businesses in Spanish-speaking Latin America.
Peon said businesses selling domestically can get credit from PayPal to sell merchandise on installment plans – a traditional sales practice in Mexico. And later this year, PayPal Mexico will launch an online business resource center that's expected to include shipping and social media ad discounts.
"We're working now to take that customer service to the next level," said Peon, "by giving them tools and tips to grow their business."
That potential client base is large and still growing. Over the last decade, start-up hurdles have been removed and Mexico now has some four million small and medium-sized businesses, according to Mexico’s National Institute for the Entrepreneur.
That sector represents more than 95% of all businesses in the country, the institute says, and e-commerce has grown significantly – 34% last year over 2013.
Accounting for half of gross domestic product and three out of every four jobs, those SMBs in large part drive Mexico’s economic growth.
Garcia’s business, for one, is not done growing.
"It's not time to pop Champagne corks," he said. "It's time to think about tomorrow, to put more ads on eBay, to listen to client feedback on how to improve."
A worker at Diseno Forjado cleans and preps a finished door for packaging on Sept. 3, 2015, in Monterrey, Mexico. Adriana Zehbrauskas for PayPal.
Plus, he still gets a creative kick from sales that lead to new clients.
"I love getting an email from someone who says 'I'm a neighbor of your client X and after seeing his door I want to order one,'" Garcia said. "That's incredibly satisfying."
Miguel Llanos is a veteran journalist with more than 20 years in the business as an editor and reporter at NBC News Digital, msnbc.com and The Seattle Times.