You Must Wear Many Hats

As a painting business owner you are required to wear many hats. You are not only responsible for the actual painting but now you are responsible for every aspect of the business. This is a lot of extra work to take on and can often be too much for some people to handle. However, if you can handle the additional roles and the added stress that can sometimes arises from taking on so many roles, you may just have what it takes to run a successful painting business. One that can create much more wealth than you could create alone as a painter.

As the owner of a painting business, you will be required to take on tasks such as marketing, customer service, billing, collecting payment, handling disputes, legal tasks such as setting up a business structure, book keeping, taxes, getting insurance, and more. Is this something you’re looking forward to? Probably not, but as a business owner myself, I can definitely say that it’s worth it to take on these tasks to enjoy the benefits of a successful painting business. Be prepared to do a whole lot more than just show up and paint.

Do You Have Any Working Capital?

Although you don’t really need much money to get started (I started with hardly anything), it definitely helps to have some working capital to get you going. Cash flow problems are the number one reason why most businesses fail. If you don’t have cash flow to pay the bills, you can’t stick around as a business. It’s plain and simple, you need money to keep your business going. Can you handle going a week without any jobs? It might happen and it’s very likely to happen when you are just starting out. I highly suggest staying at your current job for a little longer and saving up some capital to get your painting business started. That doesn’t mean it can’t be done by simply quitting your job today and starting a painting company tomorrow, however, you are adding a lot of unnecessary stress to the situation. If you have a family that depends on you, you’ll need to put them first and think about their well being first and foremost. If you are young and single, you’ll be able to take on a bit more risk.

Why Do You Want To Own Your Own Painting Company?

You should really sit down and think about this question. Why do you really want to own your own painting company? Is it to have more money? More time? More freedom? It’s good to know why you are considering this. This will be your driving force that keeps you going through the hard times (Hint: There will be hard times).

Can You Handle Stressful Situations?

You really need to ask yourself if you can handle stressful situations. It’s not easy starting a painting business and there will be added stress on you on a daily basis until you can get things steady. If you can’t handle stress, you’ll have a hard time making it through those tough times. If you look at these stressful times as nothing more than petty hurdles on the track to success then you’re in a good position. If they scare you, beware.

Do You Understand The Business?

There’s no doubt, you will learn a lot in the process of starting your own painting business, but do you have some kind of understanding of the business right now? Have you worked as a painter for quite some time? Remember, there is a lot more to do than just showing up and painting. Have you seen other parts of this business ran? These things will help you out in starting your own business. If you are currently working as a painter. I highly recommend starting to look at the business differently. Start looking at your employers painting business as your own and see if you can soak up any good information on how the business is run. Try to see the different processes that make up a painting business. It might be tough to do this if you are just showing up and painting but keep your ears open and your eyes peeled. You may learn a thing or two.

Just Do It!

If you’ve made it this far and I didn’t scare you away then you’re in good shape. Congratulations! You can plan as much as possible and try to have all your ducks in order but at some point you’ll just have to go for it and start the business. If this is something that you really want and you are driven to succeed in it, just go for it. There will be many people that will tell you don’t do it or it’s a foolish idea (Many of which are family members) but you’ll just have to put their comments aside. They’re looking out for you but their just scared for you. Don’t blame them. Many of them have never started a business so they don’t know the joys, freedom, and money making potential that a business has to offer.

If this is something you really want, dive in and just do it! I look forward to hearing about your success!

Get Started Advertising Right Away

It’s extremely important that you get started advertising your painting business right away. So many people have a strange notion that just because they have now started a painting business that customers will automatically start calling. Don’t worry, I’ve fallen into this same trap too. You need to get yourself out there and make it possible for customers to find you. When someone is looking for a painting business, you need to be right there so they can call you. This is going to take some work though!

Starting any business from scratch is not easy at all. However, if you have a plan and you attack it relentlessly you have a good chance at succeeding. This article is the start to your plan and if you take the time to implement everything I suggest in this article there is a very good chance that you can get customers calling you right away. However, if you read this and fail to take action immediately, there’s nothing more I can do to help you. Success follows those who take action. If you’re a “go getter”, the customers will come. Now it’s time to get started.

First Way To Get Customers: Advertise On Craigslist

Craigslist is really an amazing website. You can literally get your first paint job today just by posting an ad on Craigslist. Craigslist can get you instant results, and it’s free! You really can’t beat that. Craigslist is also highly targeted. You can post an ad in your area only and customers looking for painting services can contact you and hire you.

There are some drawbacks to Craigslist that I should mention. Everyone knows how well it works so there’s a lot of competition. You’ll probably find a ton of painting contractors advertising in your area. Don’t let that discourage you though. Chances are there are a good amount of people searching for painters in your area and even if there are a lot of painting companies you’ll still be found and people will still call you. Some painters might not even answer their phone so that customer will just move down the list to the next one until they get a hold of one.

Because there are probably a lot of painters advertising on Craigslist in your area, your ad will probably get pushed down fairly quickly. Don’t let that discourage you either. You’ll still be found.

Posting on Craigslist

I highly recommend that you post an ad at least once a day. If you can do more, that’s great. You want to give yourself the best chance at getting found that you possibly can. You also need to think about when to post. Mornings before 9am and evenings after 5pm are pretty good times to post. Most people are usually at work during the day so you’ve got a lot better chance at being found when they get home. If you post in the middle of the day your ad will get pushed down by the new ads that are being posted.

Ad Details

A successful painting ad on Craigslist will include most of the information of a good looking ad that you’d find in mail advertisements. You definitely should include a link to your website so customers can read more about your company (Don’t have a website yet? Get on it asap!).

Here is an example of a link that you can post on Craigslist so customers can click back to your website. This is the html code that you’ll need to copy and paste into your ad:

<a href=”http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com”>Click Here For A Free Estimate!</a>

or

<a href=”http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com”>Visit Our Website!</a>

You can choose to word it any way you want. Make sure you replace YOURDOMAIN with your actual website. It’s important to bring people to your website from Craigslist. If your website is professional looking and contains good information on your business, there is a very good chance that they won’t even go back to Craigslist.

You want to make sure your ad contains a good amount of information but not too much. The idea is to get them to go to your website and call or call directly from the ad itself. Make sure your phone number is easily seen in the ad. Also, include the text: “Free Estimates” in your ad. Free Estimates are often expected but it’s always nice to see it in an ad.

The best ads are often made of images. This would be like something you’d see in a mail advertisement or door hanger. A full image ad looks very good on Craigslist and sets you apart from all the other painters posting basic looking ads. You will probably have to get a designer to create an image ad for you unless you are good with graphic design applications like Adobe Photoshop. Chances are you are not though. If you are creating a full image ad you also want to make sure you include text in the ad as well. It’s the text that will help your ad show up when people are searching for a painter on Craigslist.

Get Posting Right Away!

Head on over to Craigslist right now and post your first ad. Incorporate some of the things I suggested in this article and there is a very good chance that you could get your first call today! If you don’t take action and actually do this, you’re not giving yourself a very good chance at succeeding with your new painting business. Remember, be a “go getter”. Customers won’t find you if you don’t actively put yourself out there.

Hourly Rate Method

I don’t recommend that you give your customers an hourly rate for painting. Whenever someone hears an hourly rate, the first thing they do is compare that hourly rate to the hourly rate that they earn at their job. If you charge more than they currently make hourly you will have a hard time selling them on the job. This really shouldn’t be the case but it is the reality of the situation. Avoid charging an hourly rate and you will avoid this problem.

With that said, you should still know your hourly rate or your (Target Hourly Rate). That is the hourly rate that you would like to make on every job. You should know this but you should not tell you customers what this number is. This is for business purposes only.

Daily Rate Method

Many painters use this method for pricing out painting jobs because it’s an easy method to use. You simply tell the customer what your daily rate is and you complete as much painting as you can in a day. You then charge the customer for the number of days it takes you to complete the job.

This method is similar to the hourly rate method in that is also has a few drawbacks. The customer still hears how much to make a day and can easily compare it to how much they make in a day. No one wants to know that a painter makes more money than they do. Again, this is the wrong way of thinking about it but the reality is that people actually do think like this. You don’t want them comparing how much you make to how much they make. Unless it is one of your very affluent customers there is a very good chance that you could make more than they do per hour. We don’t want them knowing this though.

I don’t recommend you use the daily rate method for the reason above as well as the fact that you are still trading your time for a set amount of money. Whenever you trade 1 unit of your time for a set amount of money you lose motivation to complete the job quickly. After all, if you take longer to complete the job you will make more money on that job. This might sound good to you but it’s not the way to run an honest, respectful, painting business and it doesn’t have the customer’s best interest in mind. Also, you’re not setting yourself up to make the maximum hourly rate that you can possibly earn. Let me explain.

Flat Rate Method

Every painting job really should be estimated at a flat rate. The customer should know exactly how much they’re going to pay before you start painting their house. This method is best for the customer and best for you and your business. You’ll be able to maximize your true hourly rate the most with this method.

Your True Hourly Rate

Your true hourly rate is the amount you make per hour after everything is all said and done. So lets say you do a painting job that costs the customer $1000 and you have $200 in materials expense. You are able to complete the job in 2 days at 8 hours a day. Lets do some math:

$1000 – $200 = $800

$800/16 hours = $50 per hour

Your true hourly rate on this job is $50 per hour.

You’ll realize that very few customers would pay you $50 per hour to paint in their home if you were using the hourly rate method. After all, they make $25 an hour at their job and there’s no way they’re going to pay a painter twice that much. (This is how some customers think).

So, most of the time you would not be able to make that $50 per hour by using the hourly rate method. This is the main reason I recommend using the flat rate method. It allows you to make the most money possible per hour. It’s always nice to increase your true hourly rate. Chances are that the customer is not going to try and go back and calculate how much you made on the job so they’ll never realize that you made $50 per hour.

How To Estimate Jobs Using The Flat Rate Method

You can use a few different calculations to estimate a paint job using the flat rate method. You can multiply your hourly rate by the number of hours you think the job will take (Note: you do not tell them your hourly rate). You can also multiply your daily rate by the number of days you think the job will take. This is a very common method. You can also estimate the square footage of the walls and multiply that number by a set square footage charge.

All three of the methods above will give you a flat rate that you can charge a customer. The most accurate method of them all is using the square footage calculation. You will, however, need to find out what the market rate is for your area. Painting costs vary all across the country so you will need to do some research to find out the average rates in your area. To do this, you can call your competition and even invite them over for an estimate (Don’t tell them you are a painter), or you can ask your local paint stores. They might be able to give you a good idea of the going rates in the area.

Do your research and find out how much you can get for painting jobs in your area and use one of the methods above to bid your next paint job. Remember, your best bet is to use the flat rate method. It’s more difficult, but you can earn more money that way.

Keep It Short and Simple

There are a few reasons to keep to short and simple. You want to make sure it is easy to say and people will remember it. Think about this for a moment: Let’s say you decided to go with a longer name for your painting business. Think about answering the phone every time a customer calls. You’ll have to say that long name every time you answer the phone. Chances are people won’t even know what you are saying either. They’ll probably even have to say: “Is this the painter?” even after you said your business name. This isn’t even a hypothetical situation either. I actually went through this myself. I would say the name of my business and people would still have to ask: “Is this the painter?” I thought that was a little ridiculous but it’s the reality of having a long business name.

If you keep your business name short and simple it will not only be easy and quick to say but people will also be much more likely to remember it. It’s very important that people remember your business name.

Make It Memorable

Your business name needs to be memorable. If you look at every major brand out there they are all pretty easy to remember. That doesn’t exactly meant that it needs to be cute and catchy like “In-N-Out Painting” even though that’s not too bad but it does need to be easy to remember. Again, the longer it is, the harder it is to remember. Even something like “Jim’s Quality Painting” is pretty easy to remember. Chances are if you include your name in there people will just remember your name and not your actual business name. I suppose that’s not so bad though. That way if they refer you to a friend, they will be referring to you by name. That always more intimate and personal and that builds trust much quicker.

If you do decide to choose something more cute and catchy make sure do don’t go overboard. Say the name out loud quite a few times. If it’s a tongue twister then it’s not a good choice. Something like “Cover All Painting” would be a good choice. It’s very easy to say and it’s got a nice ring to it.

Make Sure You Can Register The Domain Name

This day in age it’s important to be able to register the domain name for your business name. This will inevitably narrow down your list of names because some of those domains will already be taken. As you are thinking of names for your painting business, head on over to http://namecheap.com and type the domain name in as you think of different names so you can see if it’s available. The worst thing is to come up with a great name and find out that the domain name isn’t even available.

Ask Friends and Family

Who knows, you might just get some good suggestions. You can even make a contest out of it. Tell them you’ll award the winner X prize if you decide to use a name that they thought of. Thinking of a name for your painting business can be fun. Create a list of at least 5 or more really good names to choose from and then try to pick the best one out of the bunch. Say the names out loud many times. Also try to imagine the name as a logo too. If the name is fairly short and looks good on paper there is a good chance that it will look good as a logo.

Receipts

Lets start with receipts. You’re going to want to make sure you can claim as many deductions as possible on your taxes. Every business expense needs to be accounted for. That means you’ll need to keep every receipt for every purchase you make for the business. Keep every receipt for paint supplies, office expenses, gas for your vehicle; everything.

Organizing Reciepts

Organization of your receipts is what’s really going to help you maintain your sanity when it comes to tracking your expenses. Here’s what I suggest:

Create a folder and put it in a file cabinet. This folder should have 12 sub folders in it. You’ll need one for every month. It helps to use 12 different tabbed manila folders for this. Write each month on each folder and place them in order in your filing cabinet. Every time you have a business expense receipt, make sure you record it in whatever accounting software you are currently using (ie. Quickbooks) and file it in the folder for the current month. Do this the same day the expense occurs so you don’t build up a huge pile of receipt. If you let that happen, procrastination will get the best of you and you’ll never want to file all those receipts away. I’m speaking from experience here; It works best when you file them right away.

When the calendar year is over you should have a nice stack of receipts in the folders. Go ahead and take all the folders out and store them in a safe place. Write the year on them so you know what year those receipts are for. You’ll need to store them for 7 years minimum in case of an audit. For the new year, go ahead and create the same 12 folders again and start the process over. This will ensure you always have records for every business expense you make.

Invoices

Do the same thing you did for receipts for invoices. After recording the invoice in your accounting software, file it away in a manila folder for that month. Use different monthly folders than the ones you used for your receipts. After the years ends, go ahead and store those along with the receipts and save them for 7 years also. Doing this will ensure you have accurate records in case of an audit. No one wants to get audited, but an organized business owner will be able to get through an audit a lot faster by using these simple tips.

Taxes

Tax time can be a real nightmare if you don’t have accurate records detailing what has happened with your business throughout the year. At any point throughout the year you should have a good idea how your business is doing and come tax time, you should be able to see exactly how you did the previous year. You should be able to print income and expense reports, profit and loss statements and many other useful reports that your accountant or tax preparer will need when filing your taxes. Accurate record keeping throughout the year will make this process much easier.

Stay Organized, Be Happy

Chances are you’re going to have a lot of painting customers throughout the year. That means you’ll have a lot of paperwork to file. This can be overwhelming but it really doesn’t have to be. If you file away your paperwork everyday you’ll avoid building that overwhelming stack that adds stress and needless pressure to your life. It’s nice to have a clean desk and organized business. It allows you to feel like your business isn’t running you but you are running it and have complete control. This also lets you focus on the more enjoyable aspects of being self employed like spending time with your family and enjoying vacations. A painting business can be a very lucrative and enjoyable business to run, but an unorganized one can create a lot of unnecessary stress on your life. Avoid that completely by following the tips above!

All things set aside, if you don’t provide quality service to your customers they aren’t going to call you back for more jobs. As a painter, repeat business and referrals from a growing customer base is key and it’s all you need to stay booked all year long. When you do good work, people want you to come back. They’ll forget about even thinking of hiring anyone else and you will be their go to guy. This is such a simple concept to think about but it does take some dedication to keep in place.

Don’t Cut Corners

Make it a point to complete every job without cutting any corners, using low quality paint and materials, or doing sloppy work. By taking this mentality with you on every job, you will find that your jobs run smoother, and you feel better about your work at completion. Not to mention you will also feel more confident about every paint job you do.

Once you engrave this “promise” into your business be sure to never stray from it. Don’t let a bad day ruin your quality of work. If you don’t do the job right the first time, not only will you have to go back to fix it, but your customer just might think twice about calling you back for the next project. It’s inevitable that you will have to go back to a job on occasion to fix something so don’t add to the headache of having to go back for more jobs than you have to.

Quality Service Is More Than Just Quality Painting

Don’t limit quality service to just the painting you do. Spread this level of quality all throughout your business. A painting business is a service trade and everything you do for your customers is a part of that service. That means sticking to your appointments, showing up on time, invoicing, and returning phone calls are all a part of your service. Make it a point to have excellent customer service all throughout your business. It really doesn’t take much more effort to provide your customers with excellent service but you will need to make it a habit. If you wait days to return phone calls, show up to jobs 30 minutes late or are lacking in any area break the habit immediately and remind yourself that you aren’t the average painter. Once you build good habits with quality customer service it will come naturally to you and people will take notice and your fully booked calendar will reflect it.