We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Donovan Gonzales. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Donovan below.

Donovan, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear your thoughts about family businesses.

In one sentence: my family business destroyed my family.

Let me explain. In 2016 after being in the paint industry for some time I decided it was time to venture out on my own. A close family relative was also looking to start his own small business, so we decided to start a painting company together. We hit the ground running and began buying supplies, paint sprayers, and trucks, opening accounts, joining marketing groups, etc.

The business grew rather quickly considering how saturated the market is and had an increase in revenue year after year. But as the business grew it became apparent that my business partner and I were completely different people. We had different values, different working styles, and different life and business goals. The tension between us became tangible and extremely toxic. Every time we had a disagreement, he would pull what I coined the “divorce card.” He would threaten that he was going to dissolve this business and basically leave my family with nothing. He would act irrationally. He once pulled a large amount of money out of our business account, used that money to pay off our expense accounts, and then closed it. Due to our empty bank account and closed expense account, I was unable to buy paint. At one point, things were so toxic he showed up on a job site and scraped my business logo off my truck.

Not long after that I received a letter from his attorney asking for my agreement to dissolve the business. He was also asking to walk away with all our equipment, funds, customers, and jobs in progress. Thus began a year-long legal battle to obtain the business that destroyed my family and left me nearly bankrupt.

So many people warned us not to start a business with a family member. We never thought that it would reach the nasty level it did. I truly went into this so naively. I would never advise people to start a business with family (or partner for that matter) but if this is something you are considering there are so many things you can do to protect yourself.

Here are some things I would suggest if you are considering starting a business with someone:

1. Obtain an operation agreement!

I cannot stress this enough! This is a simple legal document that lays out terms for the business. It says who does what and what liabilities you have as partners. Fun fact, in the state of Colorado you do not have to have an operating agreement to start a LLC. Without an operating agreement, you are leaving yourself completely unprotected and vulnerable. Starting a business with a partner is like getting married to someone. You intertwine your finances and so many other things. This was my biggest downfall!

2. Have a clear idea of goals and roles for your business, both personally and for the business.

Because you think you know your family member well, many people don’t think to do this. But money changes people and most people, not for the better. Have deep conversations and make a list prior to starting the business. I would even suggest meeting with a business advisor so you can make certain that you are on the same page.

3. Read and understand what fiduciary duties you owe the business and your partner and what they owe to you.

This is a big one! During our buy-out process, I found out that my partner had started a competing company. Which is a big no-no. I found proof that he was taking jobs that belonged to my company, using his seat in our marketing group to advertise his new company, using my company trucks and equipment to complete these jobs, and outwardly competing with me for leads on Facebook posts. He dismissed our many attempts to get him to stop via our attorney. Even going as far as to switch his company to his wife’s name to try to avoid legal repercussions (even though he was the one still doing the work and he was still using our equipment). If you don’t understand fiduciary duties your partner can easily take advantage of both you and your business.

4. Don’t allow one to have an upper hand.

We had designated my partner’s phone number as our business phone number. When he began advertising his new business, he used that same phone number. Therefore, he was able to decide when a customer would call which business he would like to give that to. Mind you, for any jobs coming into our joint company he would have to share profits but for the ones he kept for himself, he would get 100% profits. While our business Facebook page (which had over 1000 followers) was run by both of us because he initially started it from his personal account, he was able to disable it without my knowledge. I don’t know how long it was down before I noticed and who knows how many leads I missed out on. When starting a business do it from the ground up (new phone numbers, new Facebook, etc).

Your story doesn’t have to end like mine. In the end, and only because I ran out of money to continue the fight, he got to walk away with us having to pay him a small sum, getting to keep all the profits for the jobs he misappropriated, and a large portion of my equipment. He still runs the competing company using the same phone number so if any past customers contact him, he gets to keep those jobs as well. We no longer have any sort of relationship which has changed my family dynamic forever. My blessings are that I have been able to keep my thriving business and that I have been given an opportunity to share this story. One of my biggest goals is to use my horrible experience to help people from having to experience something similar. Start that small business but protect yourself first!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Donovan Gonzales and I am the very proud owner of Almighty Jobs Painting. I never realized that I had a passion for painting I painted a couple of trailers to help my dad out. Painting is so cathartic for me. I love taking something and making it look new again. It’s an art form. I started the company in 2016 and was able to grow it rather quickly to a rather large and reputable company in Colorado Springs.

We understand how many paint companies there are to choose from so we set ourselves apart with our commitment to quality and cleanliness. We want the only proof that we were there is your beautiful new paint job!

I am most proud of Almighty’s resilience. We survived a pandemic, a buy-out, inflation, and many other things because this is more than just a job or a career. I truly love what I do and I believe that shows in my work.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I feel like for my industry word of mouth was extremely important. I think what helped the most, in the beginning, was joining networking groups. They were an initial investment but by taking the time to get to know them and allowing them to get to know you, you gain a group of individuals who are going to start getting your name out there. If you are in the trades I also highly recommend building your online presence. There are so many Facebook groups out there and neighborhood pages. Many times when people are needing a service they want people’s opinions so they get on these pages and ask for recommendations.

If you get into people’s homes and do a great job they are going to be out there gunning for you on those posts.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

My biggest source of new clients is really past clients (word of mouth) as well as various social media pages. We have tried different types of marketing and this as well as our BNI marketing group drives most of our business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.almightyjobspainting.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/mightyjobs