Call Me Crazy- New Business Tips Anyone?

CaptainAmerica

How in hell anybody could go into a business requiring a skill one does not have, is beyond me. Painting is the one thing in "construction" everybody thinks they can do. That is until they start doing it, and I'm just talking about home owners. When you start taking that mentality, and applying it to "professional" painting, that's when I get a bit irritated. Who's is going to go behind your employees making sure the job is done right? Another employee with 3 years experience, that knows his bosses wouldn't know how to go behind HIM? Because EVERYTHING that happens on a job is YOUR responsibility, and there's no passing the buck when your the owner. Ultimately the responsibility's not going to be on the employee, no matter how skilled and experienced he is at the end of the day. It's just psychological.

Personally myself knowing whats involved in being a "professional" painter I'd feel like I was stealing offering someone a service, not having the qualifications in which to do so. This may be something anybody can "DO" but IMHO it takes more time developing skills as a "pro" painter than any other occupation in the construction related field. Most other trades can be taught, and once you know how, you know how. The skillzzzz requiered to be a "pro" at painting take YEARS to develope.

George Z

We have had tons of so called "professional" working for us,
most of them don't last a week, some get fired on the first day.
In our mind we are all the best there is, you too.
In the meantime, we make good money keeping our customers happy.

Hundreds of handwritten testimonials, almost all of them references:
http://www.ecopainting.ca/testimonials.html

The point is, if you don't have the skills, hire the skills.

__________________
Toronto Painters Commercial Painting Commercial Painting Toronto Toronto Office Painters
Painting Toronto Blog

Double-A

First of all, is this person really an employee or just someone that gets paid by the job for using your and your husband as apprentice painters? Know and understand the difference between an employee and an independent contractor. You have different wage reporting requirements for each. Be honest with yourselves or your youth and enthusiasm is going to write a check your inexperience can't cash.


Let's face facts. At this point, you are working full time to support you and your husband and now you both have entered into what is a full time, 70-100 hour a week hobby. And you want your salary to subsidize this hobby. I'm willing to bet you're going to risk your credit scores on this hobby as well.

Jennelle, call your insurance agent and get a name of a commercial insurance agent from him. Call that person and get a quote on general liability, workers comp, and riders for your tools. Be honest with them and tell them you have 3 employees, two of which might be exempted, but one of which can't be.

Can your home budget (supplied from your salary from your full time job) pay those premiums?
You're accustomed to seeing WC rates in the pennies or small dollars per 100 of renumeration. Welcome to contracting. You're about to see some much bigger numbers.

Now for the reality check. How much would your average plate of 2 eggs, a rasher of bacon, hash browns, toast and coffee cost if you had to travel to your customers home and prepare this meal for each and every one of them? What happens to the price if they call you to tell you they want breakfast, but when you get there, they need a table for 8 and they all want roast beef instead? Oh, and the best part is, they want to wait until Friday to pay, or will pay you when they get paid (but the real estate folks need an invoice showing some made up price paid in full faxed over to the closing company today, before 5:00 P.M., because they are closing on the property in the morning.)

As a contractor, this is exactly what you will face day in and day out. Your customers will set your prices for you, set your schedule for you, ask for one thing and expect another, be unclear and indecisive, evasive and outright lie to your face. Day in and day out.

"All trim to be sprayed with latex" will become "You need to brush all the trim and use oil. The client's father told her that trim must always be brushed with oil paint or it will peel in two years and look horrible. He also told her that your price was for brushing oil and you just want to shoot latex on it to gouge her and get by with substandard work."

Yup, welcome to our world. My best advice? Send your husband to work for Mr. Three Years Experience for a couple of years and put him on a diet of books for small businesses from Gerber, Stone, Rohr, and about 15 other folks.

As George said, you MUST know what you don't know. How? By educating yourselves before you need to know.

I can tell you right now honestly, you and your husband are the two tastiest things on the menus of your general contractor and real estate folks menu of choices. They are going to eat you up and ask you to pick up the tab.

Good Luck

__________________
"My clients’ wishes are the center of my attention." -- David Guido, a contractor in Woodstock, N.Y.
New York Times, July 20, 2006

Mike Finley

Wow! I don't know what to say, that's a pretty good reality check there from double-A.

I guess what I would want to know is how many successful businesses have you started up and ran?

If you have a history of being able to do new businesses I'd give you a better chance, since really, once you've been around the block for 10 or more years and done this a few times (successfully, no matter what businesses you've had) you've pretty much seen it all and understand 90% of what most contractors in business still don't understand.

If this is your first business or 2nd after a failed one. LOL - oh my!

thom

It's easy, just ask the guy at Home Depot.

ewingpainting

Well, after reading this I think I will start my own practice in plastic surgery. I need clients pleases call 555-555-5555 I give free consultation.

I'm waiting.


Still waiting.


Come on give me a call.

If you cant trust me with your face, why would i trust you with my house?

__________________
Riverside County Painters

paintr56

I am going to disagree with the common thread here. If you really have business skills tell your husband to quite trying to learn to paint. You can always hire painters. Plan on hiring painters with more experience then three years. Concentrate on running your business. You should set a goal of having six full time painters and another four to six seasonal painters working for you within eighteen months. This should be a good start and will pay your salaries and leave a profit for the business. To start out with business skills and then learn to paint is going backwards. The head of General Motors doesn't assemble cars.

Jim

osborn

Shes not crazy. Shes 23. Sorry to any young pros. But thats my 2.

CaptainAmerica

Nail meet head.


GM? ... There are many businesses that requier little to know experiance in said field. Opening a scuba diving store comes to mind for instance. Painting however simply does not lend itself to this route in my point of view, however.

Any Season

I don't think age has anything to do with it if its the right person. I was 19 when I got started, and I'm 27 now.

CaptainAmerica

I call bull*****!!!


If you started at 19, theres no way you'd have made it to 27. You'd have been dead a long time ago.

Any Season

This summer has nearly finished me off. I am considering hypnosis for stress.

Brian

I've been a painting contractor for 22+ years, and I suspect that virtually anyone reading this (except maybe the OP) can paint better than I can.

As George Z alluded to, there is a difference between being a painter and being in the painting business. Being a painter requires knowing how to put paint on the wall. Being in the business requires knowing how to estimate, sell, manage people, manage cash flow, etc. These are vastly different skill sets, and one can have one without the other.

Brian Phillips

__________________
Houston Interior Painting
Houston Exterior Painting
Houston Painting Contractor

CaptainAmerica

Sure, if daddy gives "anybody" enough cash to start, they could do pretty much anything. However, I could think of easier more lucrative business opportunities for someone that doesn't know how to "paint" to take advantage of.

CaptainAmerica

How the hell does someone that doesn't know how to paint, insure they're curtomers of a top quality job, if that person doesn't know what that is?

rbsremodeling

Knowing how to do something and actually being able to do it is two different things.

I know if my plumber or electrician does good work. But I damn sure won't try to do their jobs myself. But I can pull them up on shoddy or half ass work, doesn't make me a plumber or electrician

__________________

CaptainAmerica

Do you employ an electrician or sub it out to someone with their own business, and something to loose? BTW you ARE aware that those positions require a license?... even for employees.

I could paint the door frame to your living room, and have it looking PRISTINE!... for about three weeks if it had previously been painted in oil, and I'd decided to go over it in latex.

rbsremodeling

did you even read my post?

__________________

Brian

Captain,

I started with $20 and a willingness to learn. My daddy didn't even know what I was doing. I will not begin to claim that others couldn't do the same.

You seem to think that the only want to have a successful painting business is to know everything about painting. I disagree.

If one knows what his customers want, expect, and are willing to pay for, he doesn't need to be able actually put the paint on the wall. He does need to deliver the final product, but that doesn't mean he has to do it.

There may be easier ways to make money. So? Are you saying that paint contracting can't be lucrative? If so, speak for yourself.

Finally, don't end sentences with prepositions. It really diminishes the public's perception of our industry.

Brian Phillips

__________________
Houston Interior Painting
Houston Exterior Painting
Houston Painting Contractor

CaptainAmerica

I hardly lift a paint brush myself these days. In fact I've had to learn quit a few things "on the fly" as it were. Such as how to read conduit electrical plans "AS" the city inspector is going over them with me (and without him knowing). I'll say it AGAIN! Painting simply DOES NOT lend itself to those that DO NOT know how to paint professionally ,as a lucrative business. I could go on and on as to the reasons behind this, but I won't.

Oh! and worry about how you end your own sentences. You might give people the perseption that everybody in our industry is a jackass.