ProPainter   Advice   Blog

With the busy season just around the corner for many painting contractors, it’s a good time to remember that there’s more than one way to run a successful painting business. It’s also important to remember that there are (at least) hundreds of ways to run one into the ground.  Two especially effective ways to sink a business are always saying yes, and always saying no.

Always Saying Yes

During most businesses’ first months, any customer is a good customer.  That’s not because every job is profitable – it’s because each job is an opportunity to earn a new referral source.  During those first months, you treat every customer like family because you want them all to tell their friends and co-workers that you treated them like family.

But as successful painting contractors continue to grow, they learn that always saying yes is a bad way to drown in work.  They realize that some work isn’t worth the hassle.  Jobs that were fine in those first months start looking too small or too far away, or it becomes obvious that certain jobs come along with a nightmare customer.  Saying no to these money-losing jobs is one of the first steps to profitability.

Always Saying No

It’s easy enough to see why a painting contractor would fall into the trap of always saying yes.  But why would anyone always say no to new work?

Most often, it’s because they’ve already said yes too many times.  Their calendar is full of low-margin work, and they have to turn high-margin business away because they don’t have time to take the job – or even answer the phone.  The painter might not even know they’re turning away high-margin work, because the customer can’t reach them to ask for a quote!

This problem turns into larger problems when angry callers rate the painting contractor poorly online for not answering their phone, or mark their business as ‘closed’ on Google after reaching out to them multiple times and getting no response.  This is why it’s important to get back in touch with people asking for a quote even if you can’t help them.

Saying Yes to Profitable Work

The best-run painting businesses have marketing that provides more work than they can handle, especially during the busy seasons.  This allows them to select only the most profitable work, leaving less desirable work for other painting contractors to take.  Importantly, they always leave time in their calendar to talk with potential customers, so they can determine what jobs are worth taking and which ones are worth politely declining.

Of course, there’s a risk that you’ll end up with a couple of empty spots on your calendar if you decline a low-profit job.  That risk is small, however, compared to the risk that you’ll have nowhere to put a great opportunity that falls in your lap.

This is why it’s important that your marketing activities bring you more work than you can possibly complete during the busy season.  Some of that work simply won’t be worth completing – and if you’re not saying no to that work, then you’re leaving money on the table.

To learn how ProPainter Websites can bring more customers to your painting business, call us at 855-385-1134 or email us at Team_PPW@ProPainterWebsites.com.

Every business owner has parts of their job that they love, and parts that they don’t like at all.  That’s especially true for small business owners, who find themselves doing a little bit of everything.  Maybe you love painting, but hate sales.  Or maybe you enjoy both, but hate dealing with taxes and bills.

It’s probably not so much that you dislike parts of your job – it’s that you have three jobs, and you really wish you only had one.

Back in 1986, Michael Gerber published a book called the E-Myth.  A lot has changed since then, but one thing hasn’t – every business needs an entrepreneur, a manager, and a technician.  And if you’re the only person at your company, then you have all three jobs.

The technician is the job you probably want – the person who focuses on doing the task at hand.  Technicians pride themselves on doing good work, and doing a lot of it.  But as you know, it takes more than just the physical act of painting to make a painting business successful.

The manager is the planner.  They enjoy running processes – scheduling, bills, ordering and receiving paint, and generally trying to reduce business costs and increase profits.  The manager’s job is to make sure that all of the painters are doing whatever they can do at that minute to make the most money for the business.

The entrepreneur is the visionary.  Their job is to look five years down the road.  They build a long-term plan for the manager to execute.  They focus on growing the value of the business, so they can sell it and move to the next project or phase of their lives.

Unfortunately, all three are required.  If you aren’t doing enough painting, then there’s no work time or money for the manager to manage.  If you don’t pay your bills or taxes, you’ll find your paperwork burden taking up too much time to achieve any success no matter how hard you work.  And if you don’t have a plan for where you’re taking your business, five years from now it’s likely to look a lot like it does today – or worse.

So if you find yourself painting day and night but not getting where you’d like to be, stop and ask yourself if it’s time to spend some time doing your other two jobs.  It might be difficult to be your own manager, but you’ll be surprised at how much it can help!

To learn how ProPainter Websites can help you grow your business, call us at 855-385-1134 or email us at Team_PPW@ProPainterWebsites.com.