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A brush with a life-and-death experience set the course for Devin Coleman鈥檚 career in the trades. He was about 20 years old and working with Portland Youth Builders to earn money for college when he was electrocuted on a jobsite.

鈥淚t changed my life because I got not just zapped but electrocuted full on, and it made me want to go into safety and protecting people. It really made me have a heart for safety so I鈥檝e been involved with that for the last 15 years,鈥� he said.

Now the owner and chief executive officer of Aftermath Construction, Coleman in 2017 established a construction cleanup business called Aftermath Post Cleaning. Coleman and his crew would clean up jobsites at the end of each day so construction workers would have an organized site to build on the next day. Aftermath does both commercial and residential projects, including cleaning up after commercial demolition projects and helping to tear down a house that dated back to the 1800s.

The business that began in Coleman鈥檚 bedroom earned $500,000 in its first year and moved into an office in the World Trade Center. It wasn鈥檛 long before Coleman and his four employees were asked to join projects as a general contracting company and charged with completing small portions of larger projects. Coleman said he often hires subcontractors to join his team and serves as project manager on his scopes of work.

He said the most enjoyable part of his job is 鈥渏ust meeting different people that you wouldn鈥檛 meet if you were with a different company.鈥� Among the challenges are working for clients who are slow to pay and the discrimination African-American and other minority business owners often face. Coleman said he鈥檚 optimistic organizations like NAMC-Oregon are shining a light on companies that are behind that discrimination.

鈥淣AMC can help call out a lot of companies that aren鈥檛 giving minority contractors a fair shake,鈥� he said. 鈥淧eople think this is 2019 and that attitude doesn鈥檛 exist anymore and people think that it鈥檚 hidden but it鈥檚 not. Having NAMC as a partner is going to be really awesome because it will expose companies like that.鈥�

Coleman said his advice to other minority small business owners is to make sure valid contracts are established with every project and the relationships remain professional.

鈥淒efinitely take a second and breathe, don鈥檛 just jump in because if you go in fast you are going to overlook a lot of errors and omissions and you are going to end your company that way,鈥� he said, adding contractual errors could lead to court proceedings. 鈥淏e friendly to your clients but don鈥檛 let your clients be your friends.鈥�