ProPainter   Advice   Blog

As many states began to shelter-in-place a week ago, we offered some ideas on what painting contractors could be doing right now if they are running low on painting jobs.

Here are seven more:

Target the Exceptions – Most people and businesses are less likely to want painting services right now.  But for a few, it’s a great time.  For example, retail locations are rarely empty, but in many places they are right now. For those businesses, it’s a great time to get a facelift without interrupting their business.

Request Payment for Completed Work – Asking for money from people who owe it to you is never fun.  But if you’re not able to work enough new jobs, it’s one of the easiest ways to bring cash into the door.

Touch Up Job Resumes – If you are planning to hire a painter (or an estimator) in the future, it’s a good time to research job descriptions that other painting contractors have placed online to see what is required in a competitive job description.

Update Your Portfolio – Have you recently done great exterior work on houses, but forgotten to take photos?  Now is a great time to revisit those houses and take some photos (if the houses are still in good shape, of course).  Nothing makes a painting contractor’s website, flyer or postcard shine like a well painted house.

Update Your Online Presence – Are you active on social media?  Is your Google My Business page set up and updated with recent photos?  Does your website have up-to-date content, pictures, and a list of the services you offer?  These things are all great for getting new customers, but they take a while to start working.  If  you want to be ready when America opens again for business, now is the time to be working on these things.

Build a Pricing Strategy – There are many aspects to building a profitable business, but one of the most important (and most overlooked) ones is a pricing strategy.  How much money does it take to complete a 2,000 square foot house?  How much of your time does it take?  How much profit would you like to make on each job, and how can you reach that profit ratio?

Build a Budget – Once you have a pricing strategy and a goal for number of jobs each month, you can build a monthly budget.  How much money do you plan to leave in the business each month?  What will you spend that extra money on?  More employees?  Better business services or software to make managing your business more efficient?  New equipment to allow you to do more types of jobs, or to do jobs more efficiently?

To learn how ProPainter Websites can help you earn more business, call us at 919-424-6121 or email us at Team_PPW@ProPainterWebsites.com.

These are not normal times for much of anything.  Virtually every business in the United States has been affected by the global pandemic.  A handful of them are busier than they can possibly handle – businesses like hospitals, internet providers and delivery companies.  The rest of them are trying to find ways to survive in the new reality; unfortunately, that’s where many painting contractors find themselves.

Here are three things you need to be doing to stay afloat during the next weeks or months.

Stay Informed

People are glued to the news right now.  Unfortunately, you can’t do anything with most of the news out there.  It’s just informational.

As a business owner, however, you need news you can use.  American Painting Contractor has put together a page of resources specifically for painting contractors, however, and it’s full of things you can do.  There are emergency plans, templates for emails you can send to customers, and information on Small Business loans for affected companies.

Stay Busy

Many people have frozen up in the past few days, paralyzed by shock and panic.  The businesses who are going to come out of this doing well are the ones that are thinking (not worrying) and acting quickly. 

Customers don’t want you in their house – so market exterior services.  They don’t want to be close to non-family members – so offer to interact via phone.  They’re worried about money – so, if you can afford it, offer payment plans.

These things alone aren’t likely to keep you busy for 40 hours a week – but crises create opportunities as well as threats.  For businesses that are financially stable, it’s a great time to get their office painted without worrying about how the fumes will affect employee productivity.  If you haven’t offered small and mid-size business services before, now might be the time to try.

And if there’s not enough painting work, the need for delivery services is beyond anything the world has ever seen.  Whether it’s groceries, business-to-business courier services, or even transportation of medical tests to the diagnostic lab, there are opportunities for entrepreneurs to work right now.

Stay Ahead of the Curve

The world six months from now is not likely to look like the world did last month.  Finding jobs will be harder.  Finding employees will be easier.  The government will be flooding the market with money, including businesses, but that money will likely come with strings attached; those who hire new employees will be rewarded.

If you’ve ever wanted to build something bigger than yourself and give back to your community, there may be an opportunity in a few months to do just that.  If you want to help your community, and your country, rise from the ashes of a recession and come back stronger than before, this is the time to start planning for how you might do that.  When the opportunity arises, you won’t be able to grab onto it if you haven’t built a strong business plan.

To learn how ProPainter Websites can help your painting business earn new customers, call us at 919-424-6121 or email us at Team_PPW@ProPainterWebsites.com.