We were lucky to catch up with Doug Caris recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Doug thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

I would change the narrative of pushing all high school students to go to college. While I do feel that college is beneficial and a necessity for many professions, I also don’t think it’s a necessity for anyone to become successful. I would include a lot more life skills and courses in high school that teach high schoolers how to start, operate, & run a profitable business. Another change I would make would be for all high school graduates to have to work for two years before going to college. This would give them a better idea of what career path they want to go into and if a college degree is necessary for them.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I started out in the painting industry when I was a sophomore in high school by going door to door setting up free estimates for people to get their house painted by a college pro franchise. When I was 20 years old I started working for a painting company in Atlanta doing mainly painting & pressure washing during the day and knocking on doors setting up free estimates in the evenings and on weekends. For the next 5 years I learned from my mentor in business as I worked in every position in his painting companies from the office, to managing painting crews, & sales.

In 2014 my business mentor was ready to get out of the business and that’s when my two partners & I did a buyout deal to buy his ownership. Since then we’ve grown the company from around 40 employees and 1 office to now employing 260 people in 5 different office locations. We’ve put a big focus on developing leaders in our company and promoting people from within as we’ve grown.

What I’m most proud of in our business today is not just our growth, but seeing the growth and changes within some of the people in our company. Watching people hit their personal goals they set for themselves, whether that be buying a house or saving a certain amount of money, has been so exciting for me to be apart of. I’m very passionate about growing and helping to develop people to want and achieve more for their lives than they even think is possible.

Our #1 core value in our company is To Always Do The Right Thing. My hope is that even as we’ve grown that our employees live by that and that our customers can see that. From doing a small residential home repaint to a large multi-family apartment complex, we take pride in what we do, & strive to always live by that core value.

Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?

Yes, we purchased a smaller painting company in the Tucson market, which was our first ever acquisition. The company had been in business for almost 20 years and the owner was looking to retire and move to California to pursue his passion to start an art studio. We looked at the business and their reputation in the market and felt that it would be a great addition to our company and help us to continue to grow. The other big benefit for us was that we were outgrowing our current office space that we leased and in the buyout deal we also purchased their office building which gave us a lot more space.

The process overall was quite smooth. We at first were looking into getting an SBA loan, but weren’t able to do that, so we ended up getting a loan from our bank. Having the real estate be involved in the deal did make it take longer than we were hoping it would have. From start to finish it took around 4-5 months to close on the deal. We’ve had a great transition from merging the other companies employees into our system and we kept every employee of the former company.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

You have to be firm, but also fair with the people you’re leading. People want to have expectations set and be apart of an environment where everyone is held to those expectations and standards. I also try to make sure everyone is incentivized to succeed and keep a fun, competitive environment, but also making sure everyone knows we’re on the same team. One of the best ways to keep high morale is by showing a path upwards for people and for everyone to know they can grow within your company. If someone is a superstar they won’t stick around long if they feel like they’ve hit a ceiling and there’s nowhere to move up too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.arizonapaintingcompany.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arizonapaintingco/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArizonaPaintingCompany
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/632816/admin/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/azpaintingco
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ArizonaPaintingCompanyChandler/featured
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/arizona-painting-company-chandler