Why the people answering your call matter just as much as the people holding the brush.
A woman will most likely answer when you call Three Brothers Painting. The woman who arranged your job created that schedule. A woman designed our website, social media campaigns, and local community partnerships we’re involved in.
The irony is that the statements above aren’t a marketing tactic; they’re the way this company has operated since 1991.
The company’s founder, Carlos Velez, moved from Mexico City to the United States with one clear idea in mind: to establish a business based on skilled craftsmanship and reliable, honest service. Now, after 35 years and having served over 30,000 customers, that vision remains the same, and one major reason for this is the women who have steadily and quietly kept the business running.
Cindy: 20+ Years of Keeping the Office Running
Cindy Velez, Carlos’ daughter, began in the family business by doing business filing. Most people would have left it there, but she went on to learn the entire back end of the company, including scheduling, payroll, bookkeeping, and crew communication, and is currently our Office Manager with over 20 years’ experience.
What this really means for you as a homeowner is that Cindy is the one who ensures the project date stays as agreed, who has the team arrive with the correct materials, and who issues the invoice accurately the first time—she’s the person who makes certain that the promises given to you at the time of the estimate are the same promises kept regarding your driveway.
In the case of one painting company, the office is merely an afterthought, but that is not our situation and never has been.
Ashley: Telling the Story, Protecting the Reputation
Ashley Velez (Oscar’s wife) has been involved in our marketing and public relations since 2011, taking on a part-time role in 2022 as Operations, Marketing & PR Manager. Her role is to ensure that the way we present ourselves online and in the community matches how we present ourselves at your house.
Digital marketing and public relations, certainly. It also involves the more unattractive tasks: keeping records of the way we carry out our activities so that we can do them in the same manner each time, responding to the question a customer posed at 9 p.m. on a Sunday, and ensuring that a reputation which is already thirty-five years old is not weakened as the company expands. Our reputation is our legacy, and it’s something we don’t pass on to an agency.
Mariela: The Steady Customer Support
Mariela Jaimes acts as our Administrative Assistant and is a key member of the office-based customer support team. Together with Cindy, she handles the day-to-day aspects of customer service and provides ongoing support to our crews, serving as the link between what homeowners need and what field crews need to know.
You’ve probably had a question answered quickly and kindly at some time, in which case Mariela must have been the one answering it.
What the Research Says About This
We never arranged things based on a study. In fact, it has since come out that the research supports this.
Recently, the Family Enterprise Center of Kennesaw State University has published research by Dr. Eric R. Kushins, an Associate Professor of Management at Berry College, on how women’s roles in family businesses are changing and what this implies for business performance.
A few findings stood out to us:
- Women’s own family businesses always beat women’s own non-family businesses. Family businesses seem to have resources that are difficult to copy, such as trust, mentoring, flexibility, and long-term commitment.
- Family businesses usually have a more extensive cultural repertoire when it comes to accepting women as legitimate leaders, since family members have in the past worked alongside women in a variety of capacities.
- Sixty percent of family businesses have women in top management positions, and 25% are currently run by women who act as CEOs. The number of women-owned family businesses has increased by 58% since 2007. (Source: familybusiness.org)
The main point that had the greatest impact is Dr. Kushins’s: the competitive edge of today’s family business is no longer to be found in cheap family labor. In bygone days, it was possible to assume that the women in the family would help out for free; that period is now ended, thankfully, and that’s the right thing to have happened. The advantage today lies with those firms that provide environments where capable women can truly take leadership roles, make contributions, and help determine the future of the company.
Socioemotional Wealth: Value Beyond Profit
Researchers use the term “socioemotional wealth” to refer to the value that a family business generates beyond profit. This includes identity, relationships, reputation, and continuity – the elements that make a business seem like a family business rather than merely a vendor.
Women usually end up doing a greater proportion of that kind of work. A portion of it is obvious and has a formal title such as office manager, operations lead, or financial leader. Another part of it isn’t so obvious. It includes strengthening customer relationships, upholding the values the founder established the company on, mentoring the next generation, and dealing with the difficult conversations that every family and every business must eventually have.
At Three Brothers Painting, it’s not an abstract concept. It’s as if Cindy is remembering that the customer’s kitchen was painted eight years ago and that their exterior probably needs painting. It’s as if Mariela picks up on a scheduling conflict before it turns the homeowner’s day into a bad Tuesday. It looks like all of us treating a referral as something we owe someone, not something we earned once.
Why This Matters When You’re Hiring a Painter
It’s easy enough for anyone to give you a price, but it’s more difficult to come across a company in which the office, the estimators, and the crews all work to the same standard and where the people who run the office have been carrying out this practice for twenty years and aren’t planning on leaving.
We have remained at our current brick-and-mortar location within the city of Woodstock for 20 years. Cindy has been with us longer than most of our competitors have been in operation. It’s this kind of continuity that enables us to state honestly that we are not satisfied until you are 100% satisfied, and indeed mean it three, five, or ten years from now.
Learn More
The Family Enterprise Center at KSU is hosting a webinar with Dr. Kushins on August 25th, titled Women Leaders in Family vs. Nonfamily Firms, and if you’re a family business owner based in Cherokee County or the North Metro area, it’s worth using your lunch hour.
If you want to meet the rest of our team, you can find everyone on our About Us page. Ready to start your project? Call us at (770) 928-3667 or email info@threebrotherspainting.com for a free, no-pressure estimate.