Archive for the 'Painting Business Articles' Category

Here are 20 tested and ‘mostly’ proven ways to get painting leads, derived from our own experience running large painting companies for the last 16 years. It took a lot of trial and error to form this list (and wasted marketing budget). Hopefully you can learn from our mistakes:

First off, what size company are you?

How to Get Painting Leads (For Small Painting Co’s ~70%)

Most of your time is likely spent painting or on the job site. This makes dedicated time for advertising more difficult. It’s usually a challenge to have responsive follow-up on existing leads or referrals
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We’ve painted over 2,000 homes and choosing the right amount of paint is still tricky. Paint is expensive and you don’t want to overbuy (paint stores will not refund an already tinted gallon of paint).

We recommend only buying about 80% of the estimated paint you need at first and then buying the remainder when you’re almost finished. This keeps you from overbuying paint.

However, sometimes you don’t have time to make 2 trips to the paint store and you have to take a leap of faith. This guide will help you decide how much paint you need:

Exterior House
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A carefully crafted estimate process is invaluable. Why? Because:

• You can make more sales.
• You can sell at a higher price point.
• You can set better expectations with your customer.
• You can provide a better customer experience.
• You can spend more money on marketing because you sell more jobs at a higher price point.

Overall… your business grows significantly! The higher your company sales rate, the faster your company will grow. It’s the most valuable part of your business to make improvements on.

In this article, we’re going to outline what a good estimate process looks like from start to
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We’ve painted houses for 15 years now and still run into situations that are difficult to bid, but over time we’ve developed a simple process that can teach anyone to bid a painting job; exterior or interior.

The 5 big considerations for estimating a paint job are:

• Paint
• Materials
• Labor
• Marketing
• Your Mark-up

That’s why we love painting businesses; they’re simple. We’ll break down each of these categories in detail.

1. How Much is Paint?

A gallon of paint can be anywhere from $15-$120. It really depends on the brand, the quality and the contractor discount you’re getting.

A homeowner
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Experienced painters know how many different scenarios come up when painting a house. We’ve painted houses for 15 years and still come across obstacles that are difficult to estimate.

However, as a rule of thumb, almost every painting project will fall between these prices:

Exterior House Painting Cost/sq ft.

If you don’t have effective marketing as a painting contractor, you usually don’t get much work outside of word-of-mouth referrals. Here are some proactive things you can do to start getting your painting company out there, including the importance of online visibility (and reputation).
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We’ve called thousands of sales leads over the years. We’ve also worked with over 5,600 painting companies and seen their sales process with paint job leads. We’ve discovered that some companies have a WAY higher closing rate than others. Some companies will literally sell eight jobs out of 10 leads. Others will MAYBE close one job out of 10 leads.

What’s the difference?
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Sounds impossible? Hear me out. You can start a painting business with just these few steps:

• Register your company – $100
• Create a website – Free
• Get insurance – $100 per month
• Painting equipment – Free (I’ll explain later)
• Bid for jobs
• Getting your first painting customer – $100
• Make a profit

What’s the Best Exterior House Paint? – We Asked 12,000 Painting Contractors.

Does anyone really know what the best exterior paint is? Few of us can accurately experiment with different brands and see how they stand up over 10 or 15 years.

Painting contractors would know. They do exactly this. Many paint their whole lives trying different products throughout their career, quietly observing which brand lasts over time.

We asked 12,000 painting contractors; ‘What’s the best exterior house paint (based on duration and value)? We also provided 3 categories to rank the brands:

Exterior house paint can vary in
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One of the biggest questions we get is “How do you find good help? Everyone I hire seems to be unreliable.”

This is a valid point. Many subcontractors are not reliable. They either show up late (or not at all) and their work is shoddy.

If you’re trying to grow your painting business, bad subcontractors can really put a wrench in your operation. You have to show up to the job site to make sure everything’s ok, or go to the paint store to get something they forgot. THEN you have to deal with an angry customer who’s not satisfied
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