He lost his job overnight… then built an 8 figure business

Welcome everybody, this is Kate Violet. Welcome to my Founder Story series here on YouTube. Right now we are in Family Fence in Davenport, Florida. So one of my best friend's sister's husband sent me here because he actually works here and he's really good friends with the owner. His name is Carlos. He's an amazing guy. He's been able to build this business from the ground up in this past 6 years. He told me to come here and come support his business, so we are waiting for Carlos to arrive to do his Founder Story. If you're an entrepreneur, a business owner, and you would love to be part of this Founder Story, you can apply at kateviolet.com. And if you need social media management services, if you need coaching, if you want to learn how to create content that generates leads and clients, I am your girl. So you can apply at kateviolet.com and I would love to serve you and help you. Excuse me, excuse me. Hi. Um, are you the business owner?

Yes.

Yeah. Amazing. What's your name?

My name is Carlos Castro.

Great. Awesome. I am going door by door and asking business owners and I would love to do a founder story for you.

I mean, yeah, let's do it. Yeah. Okay.

All right.

Awesome.

Let's go. So we just wanted to bless this business and, you know, give you a little bit of exposure. So tell me a little bit more about you.

I started this business in 2020 when COVID started.

Okay.

Um, I'm actually a banquet server bartender. After COVID started, I was on my way to work and they told me to come back, that all the property was shut down. And that was March 14, 2020.

Wow.

And March 28, I put my first ad on Facebook, and this is where we at right now.

Wow, I've never bartended again. I used to be a server, so here, business owners unite. Definitely, it is possible, guys.

Follow your dreams, follow your dreams, and don't let nobody say no to you. Yes, everything is possible. You can do whatever you put your heart into. You can make it happen. Definitely.

Yeah, that's such a beautiful story. So awesome. Carlos, just show me around. Like, we want to see your business, everything that you do. We have our secretaries Hi secretaries, they're so pretty. Hey guys, we're matching. Look at this, like, they're wearing the colors of the company.

So they are the persons in charge of whenever somebody closes their contracts, uh, doing all their paperwork for the HOA, uh, pulling permits and collecting payments.

Very important. That's the best part— sales, money.

And then my wife, she's in charge of all that, plus she pays everybody here.

Amazing. So you started this business with your husband when he, like, since zero, since day one? I just started like, like one year later.

He's a biologist. She was working in a pharmacy.

Wow.

And when I started this, she was like, Carlos, stop buying so many tools and trailers and trucks and stuff. When the hotel opens, you got to go back to the hotel. And I'm like, you know what, I'm liking this. This is a really, really good business. And at the beginning, she did not feel it.

She did not see the vision.

Exactly. A year later, she saw, she saw, you know, the growth in it. And I needed somebody to help me. I was basically by myself and Robert and one installer.

Wow. And who better to trust than your wife?

Yeah, exactly. So she, she decided to quit her job and, you know, be partners with me of Family Friends Home Improvement.

We're so proud of you, Mama. Good job. All right, let's keep showing us around.

So basically We, um, we actually install fences and we also sell them. We do wholesale and retail.

Oh, okay.

So we have contractors and walk-ins that, you know, they want to do it by themselves.

And what areas do you serve? Do you serve the whole state or just Central Florida?

Just Central Florida for now. Um, hoping that we're gonna expand and open up a couple of more stores in different areas.

Amazing. So if you're in Central Florida and you need materials or you need this type of things done in your home and your business, you can call Family Fence Home Improvement. Do you have things outside that you can show? Yeah, we do approximately 1500 homes a year. Wow, that's a lot of homes.

Times 6 years, yeah, that's a lot. Here we have our aluminum material.

Okay.

This is our vinyl on this side, and I'm going to show you guys where we create all the custom fences.

And where did you start this?

Well, I actually started in the garage of my house.

Wow, and you had no previous experience whatsoever?

No, the only thing is that, um, I had a buddy of mine that was doing fences and he didn't speak English, so basically I would do his estimates in English and he would do the Spanish ones.

Oh wow, so you kind of did like a little partnership?

Yeah, we did a little partnership, and after COVID hit, that we started to, you know, seeing the vision of this type of business. I actually talked to him and I said, you know what, um, right now my hotel is shut down. I would like to open up a business of this if you can help me. And he was like, 100%, man. It's always about blessing people, you know.

Yes, absolutely.

If you, if you do things right and you bless people and you do it from your heart, you don't have to worry about anything else. The man upstairs is going to take care of you every single day. That's right. And that's the way I live my life. So So basically here are the aluminum stiffeners where we put on the gate post. Here's where we do our custom gates framed in aluminum. So a lot of people, they want to do double gates and we always try to, you know, make them strong and make them support. So this is where we build them from scratch. Come and follow me.

Why did you choose these colors? What do they mean?

We have a color for each day.

Oh really?

So Mondays are black, Tuesdays are gray, and Wednesdays are burgundy.

Oh my God, that is so funny because this is my brand color. So it's so funny that we're wearing the same thing.

So in this area is where we do our custom gates. This machine right here basically can do over 1,000 different shapes and route anything that a customer wants.

How many employees do you have right now?

We are about 27.

27, wow. In 6 years?

In 6 years.

Okay, great. So what about we go and shoot your founder story? Are you ready for that?

Definitely, let's do it. I like this.

Okay, awesome.

I like the camera.

Let's go.

The camera likes me.

So we are setting the BTS here to put the studio for Family Fence. So we are getting ready. As you guys can see, this is going to be a little bit catastrophic because we bring a whole studio. We make a studio from scratch. So we have our amazing creative director, David Udd. Let's give it a clap for him. How do you feel, David? Uh, feeling pretty good today. He doesn't like being in front of the camera. So this Louis Vuitton Chanel, we're gonna remove it because this is for the queen of the house. But the queen of the house is not going to be on the video. So look at this plant. I was thinking maybe putting it here. Do we put like yellow? Because he has like yellow and red already. Wow, look at that! Should we change the light? Because it looks like he has earrings. That it doesn't show this ear so much, but his back. Is that better? That's better. So what you're gonna do, you're going to be saying my name is Carlos. I am the owner of Family Fence, and this is my founder story.

My name is Carlos Castro, and this is my founder's—

and this is my founder story.

Founder story.

Yeah.

My name is Carlos Castro. I am the owner of Family Fence Home Improvement, and this is my founder story. Growing up in New York, it was a little bit tough. At the age of 18, I got married and I had my first daughter. 4 years later, I had my son. I've always worked in hotels as a banquet server and a bartender. And once COVID hit, I was actually on my way to work and my manager called me and he said, Carlos, turn around, the hotel has been shut down. I didn't really know what to do. I didn't know when the hotel was going to open. I still had to feed my family. I still had to pay my bills. That's when I decided I have to do something for me and my family. So on March 28th, 2020, 2020, I put my first ad on Facebook, and I have not stopped work since. I started in my garage. I didn't have any idea of what I was doing at the beginning, to be honest. Going from my garage and working basically by myself at the point that I am right now, basically up to 27 employees. I have the blessing of the man upstairs all the time, and he's my first option before I do anything. He's the man I talk to. You just gotta believe. We have served over 9,000 families and we would love to serve you next.