How to start a painting business

So you want to start a painting business? Do you have what it takes and how do you go about getting started in this business? This article will help you get a start in the painting industry.

First, let’s hope that you have some experience in the painting industry. For instance, before I started my own painting business I had many years of experience working in a paint store which gave me a great education in how paint works, how to properly apply it, and how to trouble shoot paint problems. I also, (like many people) had helped family paint their homes and painted my own place many times. I also worked on construction sites and was generally a hands-on type of guy with DIY projects. After you determine (convince yourself) that you have then necessary abilities or experience you can move on to the following issues.

There are two basic questions you need to answer for yourself before actually setting up your business. These questions are as follows.

1. What kind of painting are you doing? Are you focusing on residential or commercial properties. Maybe you will choose to do a bit of both? Maybe you only want to do new construction or work with remodelers. There are tons of options out there for what niche of the painting market you can get involved in.
2. Are you only specializing in a certain type of painting, or are you going to be a general painter offering many types of services? Here are some questions that clients will ask if you offer: interior painting, exterior painting, pressure washing, staining decks, staining concrete, wallpaper removal and application, drywall repair, garage floor finishing, etc. There are tons of different jobs that you as a painter can choose to do or not to do. Only take on the jobs that you feel confident that you can accomplish in a professional manner. For instance, I would never take wallpapering because that is not something I like doing and I did not feel confident in my papering abilities.

Once you have determined what kind of painting business you want to do you can move on to the following steps.

1. Come up with a name for your business.
2. Do any necessary legal filings. Are you filing as an LLC, Corporation, partnership, or sole proprietor. There are benefits and downsides to filing in each of these ways. I personally filed as an LLC because it saved me thousands each year in taxes. You should talk to an attorney or CPA regarding setting up your business in any of these ways.
3. Set up accounts at your local paint stores and forge relationships with the employees there. I set up an account with Sherwin Williams and it was probably one of the best things I did. I was able to offer my clients top quality products and get huge discounts (which I passed along to my customers on their bill for materials as a way to keep them happy). There are many paint stores to set up contractor accounts at: ICI, Benjamin Moore dealers, PPG, Sherwin Williams, Duron, Home Depot, Lowes, ACE, etc. Getting on friendly speaking terms with the managers and employees at these stores will also get you business through referrals by them down the road. While you are at these stores make sure to pick up all you basic necessary equipment and materials to get started. Some things can be charged to a client (like paint, tray liners, tape, roller covers, etc), while some things are expected that you will have (spackle, putty knives, roller frames, brushes, trays, etc.).
4. Decide if you are going to start a website. More on this topic later.
5. Start a business banking account. Most banks offer free business checking accounts.
6. Order business cards. More on this later.
7. Install any business or accounting software that you might want to use on your computers. Also, get organized! Make sure you are ready to set up files for each of your customers and determine how you want to keep track of bids and completed jobs.
8. Come up with a form you want to use when creating bids for customers.
9. Set up a phone line for your business. This can be done using a system that routes calls through your home line, installing another line, or setting up a cell phone.
10. Determine if you want to set up a fax machine at home or use a public one (kinkos).
11. Obtain liability insurance on you and your business. Also, look into personal liability and health insurance plans if you are not covered elsewhere.

Now you have some of the basic issues covered in setting up your new enterprise, but how do you get customers?

1. One of the best ways to get customers is to start by letting people know that you are painting. Just letting friends and family know that you are now painting will likely get you several leads. You will be surprised at how many of your family members, friends, and people that your family and friends know, absolutely hate to paint and will be eager to hire you. You don’t have to be obnoxious or pushy looking for work, just casually mention that you are now painting. I am a very non pushy person and hate to advertise myself (especially to friends and family), but just a casual mention of my new career landed me many job leads and eventual work.
2. Make sure that you put business cards wherever you can. This can include paint and hardware stores, local coffee shops, grocery stores, etc. This will slowly generate business.
3. Get friendly with other painters you may know personally. Although painters are competing against each other, you will be surprised at how many times a good relationship with other painters (especially large busy contractors) will get you some side jobs or sub-contracting work. One of my first jobs was sub-contracting work that I received from a painter that I was on good terms with. Many times, painters who are very busy with large jobs and large operations don’t want to be bothered with smaller jobs (example, a lady only needs one room painted) and are more than happy to refer them to someone else (you). Also, many times a painter will take on too much work and will sub-contract some of the work to you. This is an excellent way to get work.
4. Website! Make sure to get a website up and running. Even if it is a simple site with a couple of pages on who you are, what services you offer, and how to contact you. Customers love websites as it makes you seem more professional and easier to contact. I received many jobs through my simple 5 page website. If you really know how to optimize traffic to your site you will do even better than someone like myself did.
5. Place advertisements in the local papers. This is hit or miss in my opinion. Sometimes this strategy worked well for me and sometimes it did not work at all. Aim for specialized editions, for instance, a couple of times every year the local papers had special home improvement sections and I would place a nice looking advertisement in during those weeks. Also, ask for any discounts if you advertise for multiple weeks or months.
6. Advertising in phonebooks. This is one strategy that I never employed, however, I do know people that benefitted from advertising this way.
7. Send out flyers and business cards advertising yourself to the local building and remodeling contractors in the area. This strategy usually takes a while to work, but when it does you can land some really nice jobs.
8. Visit businesses that really need painting on a regular basis such as; restaurants, office buildings, hotels, apartment complexes, etc.
9. Signage! Get some nice looking yard signs (affordable online). Use these (with the customers permission) in the yard of every property that you are working at. Also, if you get enough signs made up you can even place these in common areas around your neighborhood and community (check local guidelines).
10. Magnetic vehicle signs. These can also be found relatively inexpensive online and led to several jobs for myself.

Now that you have all of this accomplished you WILL start receiving calls for bids. Your first few bids can be nerve racking, here is what you do.

1. Always arrive a few minutes early to the bid.
2. Make sure to take something to write on and a tape measure to the bid.
3. Be courteous, listen to what the customer wants done and write it down.
4. I always found it helpful to repeat exactly what the customer wanted done for each room before we would move on to the next room.
5. Carry some color swatches/fandecks with you to the job. These can be had (typically for free) from any paint store. The customer will be thankful that you carry these samples with you, and always be willing to leave them with the customer.
6. Don’t spend to long or to short an amount of time there. Nobody want to be tied up for an hour with a contractor doing a bid, at the same time, customers will worry if you only spend five minutes looking around and leave. I typically spend around 15 minutes looking around, writing down the measurements and what rooms were to get what colors, and asking questions.
7. Unless the customer demands it, never give the bid on the spot. You should take the information home with you and go over it again to make sure you have a good understanding of what the job entails. You will also want to figure out how long the job will take you and figure out the materials required.
8. Call the customer within 24-48 hours to give a bid. My customers loved when I would call them the next day with the bid. Many times they would go with my bid over less expensive bids from other contractors that were not received for a week or two. As you get more comfortable at bidding jobs and get better at it (this is a skill in itself) you may find that giving bids on the spot is not a problem at all.
9. Set the date that the work is to be done and leave some extra time in your schedule and in the timeframe that you tell the customer it will take you to complete the job. Jobs many times will take longer than you expect.

Finally, you show up for your first job. Here are some general tips to make sure that your customers are happy and come back to you for future jobs and recommend you to their friends and family.

1. Dress as neatly as is practical. You don’t need to show up in a button down shirt and freshly starched khakis, but you do want to look neat. Make sure the clothes you wear aren’t in tatters and falling off of you, make sure you personally look clean, and make sure that you are always conscious of your shoes on their carpet or other flooring. I always carried a pair of shoe covers with me in case someone was worried about their flooring.
2. If you drop paint on something or break something in the customer’s home, make sure to own up to it. It is always easier on you, to own up to a mistake then to cover it up.
3. Always speak to the customer respectfully and treat their home with care and respect.
4. Try not to stand around chatting all day to the client or on your cell phone. The client will want you to finish the job in the shortest and most direct way possible.
5. If you are unsure of anything, ask! Don’t assume anything when working at someone’s home. It is ALWAYS better to ask and make certain than to guess or assume.
6. Carry rags and cleaning solutions with you. Many times overspray from the roller or a drop or two of paint can be cleaned with minimal effort if taken care of immediately.
7. Leave the customers home how you found it. Clean up after yourself. It’s always best to use a shop vac if there was a lot of dust or paint flakes created by you that did not land on the dropcloth.
8. Finish on time and in budget. This will go further than almost anything else than in assuring word of mouth advertising and future work from your clients.

Here are some final tips and suggestions learned from my years of running a painting business.

1. Always return calls as quickly as possible. If you put customers off they will go elsewhere.
2. Always go the extra mile. Whether this means showing up quickly for touchups or putting an extra coat on a wall that does not look quite right.
3. Always create a simple contract for each and every job with both parties signing it. This does not need to be a complex legal document, rather, it should be a simple contract spelling out the terms of payment, nature of work to be done, and dates to be accomplished. This will protect you from unscrupulous people.
4. Don’t schedule yourself too tightly. Leave some wiggle room on your calendar book.
5. Get a gps. This sounds silly but there were many times that I would be on the road and get a call from someone who wanted a bid ASAP. I could simply plug in their address and stop there on my way home from whatever job I was at that day. Worth it’s weight in goal.
6. Stay organized. For me this meant keeping a palm pilot loaded with all the contact information for everyone along with quotes and scheduled jobs. For you it might mean something else.

Good luck in your new profession as a painting contractor!