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

Jon, appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

Though Ink Monstr has been in business over 17 years in Denver, my tenure as owner and CEO is still a rather new development for myself and the company.

My entire life I’ve known I wanted to be a business owner. I assumed everyone wanted that for the longest time. I assumed they saw it as the same pedestal as myself, though as time passed and I grew older it seemed to be a smaller and smaller lot that wanted to take on the challenges and burdens of ownership which only stoked my fire more.

It was never about ego, but more just a genuine yearning to know the answer of this question I ask myself many times: Do you have what it takes?

Do you have what it takes to go the distance? Are you okay or content working for someone and march to the beat of their drum for the rest of your working days, or are you going to get your own damn drum and get to work?

My background is a bit unconventional. I graduated high school in 2009, tried college out for a semester then dropped out. I worked a few different jobs for the next 2-3 years from Best Buy and retail to selling cars (in a recession – not great timing).

I dabbled with college a second time, this time going for a degree in Air Traffic Control but the government at this time was ripe with budget indecision (shock) which lead to inconsistent hiring practices within the FAA.

Be it young age, immaturity or lack of contextual life experience to help frame the hiring outlook for the FAA (lockouts are somewhat common in governance) I cooled off to this idea for ATC when I was nearly 90% of the way through the curriculum and instead I started working at a hookah bar put college on the back burner for the second time.

I excelled at the hookah bar. I saw it as more of a sandbox to try my hand at business ownership than a typical late teens/early twenties cool gig to kill time and get paid. I took everything on there except paying taxes; everything was malleable, adjustable and something I could tinker with to try to get better performance and numbers. Over a period of about 2 years we tripled revenues, expanded twice and became the premier hookah bar in northern Colorado.

After enjoying a fun couple years and a lot of relative success though, I began growing excessively anxious at the thought of being stuck. No career prospects, nowhere else to grow or move up in, just doing the same routine day in and out.

It was this terrifying feeling of life paralysis that drove me to apply for a job I knew nothing about, for a company I knew nothing about save for I did know, I would start at $30k a year (big bucks compared to hookah wages) and more importantly – it paid commission.

Commission is not a wage, it’s a promise of hope. But the hope on the other end of commission is realized through bargaining and trading. Trading time, effort, sweat, stress, anxiety and uncertainty for the potential that comes with hope.

That was all I needed.

Over the next 8 years I transformed into a powerhouse employee committed to being the best, never stop learning and constantly testing the limits of my compensation package. Despite this ever increasing growth I never let go of the idea, the my romantic vision of being a business owner.

I refined my skills and developed into the most confident version of myself, shedding away the old insecurities about having no college degree or relatable or marketable professional experience.

Despite earning extremely gratifying wages, thriving and climbing that proverbial ladder I found myself feeling an all too familiar restlessness.

I knew this feeling, I had felt it before just 8 years earlier though this time it was not about money or lack of options but the voice was now saying “Are you okay never knowing if you have what it takes? Are you okay working for someone else forever? Are you giving up your ambition in exchange for comfort and money?”

Throughout my employment at this firm I dabbled on-and-off at looking for possible companies to purchase. I looked at everything from ATM routes and vending machine networks to dry-cleaners, landscapers, concrete companies and everything in between. I was torn between purchasing an existing operation that my skillset I was developing would help, or starting something new and going the distance there.

I continued casually looking for companies for years, 3 years to be exact. I’d contact brokers, learn a bit about companies here and there but nothing felt right.

Then the pandemic hit.

My wages were cut (I kept my job though and still thank God for that as countless American’s were not as fortunate in that regard), and I, like most of you, felt uncertainty like I had not felt in my lifetime yet.

I’ve found many people feel thankful they were not business owners during the pandemic and having to navigate this newfound territory but if I had to choose one evil over the other I’d choose uncertainty with some control over the way I felt which was uncertainty with no control.

All said though, whether you feel more or less eager to purchase a company – that does not change the realities of what companies are out there that are a good match for you and I still had zero possible options that would fit my profile and make financial sense.

May 2020 I met with business owner about possibly purchasing his company. This was the first in-person meeting in my 3 years of searching and it was exciting. It was real, it was right around the corner and it was – for the first time – attainable. The meeting went great and I felt even more excited. I was eager to keep discussions frequent and engaging so as to keep building momentum but the owner was about to leave for his annual scuba trip the following week.

At my current position, I had worked with tradesmen like him for the last 8 years and as such I felt like I understood people like him quite a bit more than I used to.

When he said he was going on vacation, my stomach sank because I felt 100% confident he would come back, revitalized and he’d determine he could do one more year, one more cycle and would not sell.

The day he came back I began prepping an email to set a meeting and pick-up but he beat me to it with an email that just said: “Thanks for your interest, I’m not going to sell this year so the company is no longer for sale”

I went back to the drawing board, frustrated but not deterred.

At this point I have been reviewing virtually all companies for sale in Colorado for 3 years and was very familiar with most of the listings. This is not a huge pool but rather quite small when you narrow it down to something you think is both attainable financially as well as meets some general parameters.

For whatever reason though a new listing popped up and stood out: Ink Monstr.

I jumped on this immediately, contacted the broker and bombarded him with 65 questions (most of which I had learned through due diligence exercises and questions over the last 3 years).

One thing lead to another and before I knew it conversations got far more real than ever before about purchasing a company.

After 11 months of negotiating, 36 months of searching and signing on the line to risk every financial asset my wife and I have worked for over the last combined 15 years – we purchased Ink Monstr in July of 2021 and I resigned from my W2 position of employment after 8 years.

We risked everything we have to get to this point. I gave up a position of employment many may work their entire careers and not attain. I gave up a W2 earning job that, despite pandemic related wage cuts, still paid more than the average household income by more than 3x (with plenty of runway ahead). I gave up the comfort of PTO, work remote, certainty in where my work comes from and much more. On top of that, we risked everything to give it up.

The risks are still here, present and ever changing but I would not trade it for anything.

We’re still navigating risk, though it takes different shapes and forms nearly every week. But I now know I won’t have to grow old wondering “what if?” or “did you have what it takes?” because those questions come every day and now, I can answer them.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Ink Monstr is Denver’s leading large format design and print company. We specialize in producing large format print and graphics for everything from stickers to custom vehicle wraps to complex building and structure wraps.

Our customer base is primarily businesses and organizations though anybody who has an idea, brand or vision they want to transform from merely an idea into a physical reality is our customer.

We’ve transformed buildings into elaborate canvases showcasing illustrations. Be it a parking garage turned into a canvas of mountain scenery, a large tent structure into a Van Gogh Sunflower painting or a convention center transformed into a Jurassic World Exhibit; Ink Monstr specializes in bringing these complex projects to life through design, printing and installation of vinyl.

See previous answer as to how I got into this (purchased) but I was ultimately looking for a company that had a great staff, some good processes and a foundation laid but lacked what I could bring to the table which is business development experience, sales, marketing, leadership development and more.

We turn the world into a canvas for our customers and it’s our job to make them look great. We’re the team you call in to help solve the “how do we make this possible” and then we execute so you, or your customers can just enjoy the by-product.

What sets us apart easily is our people. Some graphics and vinyl shops will have installers who handle their vehicles and small murals etc. but source design. Some shops have designers and source installers.

We have the best of both. We have a world class design team who specializes in formatting and producing artwork that is print ready and prepared for scaling to whatever the application and we have the best certified professional installers who collaborate with our team from design to print to installation to ensure every job comes to complete success and is something we can all be proud to say we were a part of.

Some of our more recent accomplishments are our tent wrap for the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit in Denver. This is an award winning wrap that has gained national recognition by industry experts and leaders. We also were chosen to produce and install all the exterior vinyl graphics for the Jurassic World Exhibition in Denver Colorado. This was an extraordinarily tough job given the timeline we had to produce and install everything (2.5 weeks) in the middle of cold/snow season (Feb) in Colorado.

Nevertheless we delivered on this project with 2 days to spare prior to the grand opening and more importantly, we acted as a fail-safe for our customers so they knew as long as they gave us an opportunity to bail them out of a tight spot for their custom graphics for the exhibition, we’d deliver.

Any advice for managing a team?

I’ve found being transparent and honest is one of the most effective ways of managing personnel and maintaining high morale.

Many will disagree and scoff at the idea, believing some employees or teammates might not be able to handle transparency and need modified doses of it to protect them.

I’ve found this to be counterintuitive and a grossly inefficient use of resources.

People have become so hyper focused on ensuring they say the exact right thing at all the exact right times given the exact right circumstances and it shows how corporate America engages with their employees. It’s fake, inauthentic and maddening and it only serves to grow the divide between managers and their teams by employing this false-face style.

Your people are usually far tougher than you think, but if they don’t trust you they will look for ways to dismiss or knock your feedback. If – big IF – they know you care, about them – as people – you earn trust that allows for more honest and transparent dialogue.

Be real with them, be vulnerable at times with them, be tough at times and be accountable. Leadership does not need to be reinvented (possibly unpopular but c’est la vie) but rather it needs to be taken seriously and not just seen as game of socially accepted manipulation like many companies do these days.

I am a big Ray Dalio fan and love his book, “Principles” as it touches on his findings and embodiment of this idea of radical transparency. I’d highly recommend this for those of you who have not read it.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses

Purchasing a company is not a sprint, run, or even marathon; it’s an ultra-marathon. If you’re not personally familiar with some of the unpleasantries of ultra-marathons (like myself) give David Goggins’ book, “Can’t Hurt Me” a read through and you’ll learn from him (second-hand, thankfully) about some of the rigors of ultra-marathons.

I found Ink Monstr after 3 years of searching for companies to buy. My mindset was to find a profile match fit that I would compliment but had things I might not be the best at or did not have the knowledge yet to do.

One of my core driving principles is I believe most people can learn most anything.

Because of this I was never worried or concerned about purchasing a company in an industry I was not already an expert in. I knew what I was an expert in and had spent 15,000+ hours doing over the last 8 years so I felt confident all I needed to do was find the right fit for my tool-kit, combine it with their tool-kit and then dominate from there.

Purchasing a business requires a bizarre intoxicating elixir of:
– Apathy and Passion
– Controlling and Carefree/Go with the flow mindset
– Patience / tolerance and punctual attention to details
– 100% focus to the tasks at hand while understanding you may have to back out at any given point based on a new piece of information

We purchased the company though the SBA 7A loan program which, though we’re quite thankful for the possibility to do so, the program itself and some of the SOPs are wildly confusing and utterly inefficient or counterintuitive.

The negotiations, application, due diligence and underwriting process all-in took 11 months to complete with plenty of set-backs.

General advice I would give to those considering purchasing a company:
– Don’t marry yourself to anything (company, industry, location) otherwise you’re introducing an artificial bias that will create unnecessary pressure that could be factored into your decision making when you need to be thinking objectively as possible.
– Find a good lending partner! These are like any other financial product; shop them around, find someone who wants to compete to earn your business. A PLP and a good one at that can change the entire process and, in some cases, even be the difference between getting a deal done.
– Set an exit plan for the former owner before you purchase the company. IF you’re a match made in heaven and you both want to work together beyond the end of prior negotiated dissolution of your relationship you can pivot at that time. But go into it with a clear and defined timeline on when the involvement of the former owner will come to an end.
– Find a good attorney – they’ll make the world of difference. Typically attorneys are pretty close in terms of their hourly rate based on experience so if an attorney costs 30% more but gives you the added confidence a good attorney will, take that investment and run with it because it’s well worth it.
– Do not assume anything. Don’t assume parking is accounted for, define it in your lease (unless you own the building), don’t assume existing systems account for your goals/ideas, don’t assume everything you learned in due diligence is identical to the in-trench experience, don’t assume your asset purchase documents cover everything – they won’t. There will be plenty of obscure questions that come up post-sale, that’s why you find a good attorney to help put blanket verbiage in that helps guide those.
– Define your redlines and respect them. You have to be disciplined enough to know when to walkaway – if you’re not, then you should not purchase a company anyway.
– Read, “Never Split The Difference” a couple times for some practical tips and tools on navigating negotiation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://inkmonstr.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inkmonstr/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inkmonstr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/inkmonstr
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/inkmonstr
• Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathonfranciswhite/