I Finally Figured Out What Is The Root Of All Evil In The Painting Industry

Mike Finley

College Pro Painters.

I saw a crew of them in a Subway sandwich shop a few days ago. Looked like they had to walk there because none of them looked old enough to drive.

ProWallGuy

You just figured that out now?
Were you able to identify the poor bastard who was going to loose his ass this summer?

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Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation

dougchips

Really odd timing............my summer helper who is in college asked if we could pick up his friend after we finished working yesterday. His friend does not have his license yet and works for............College Pro. The kids brother runs/owns the local franchise. On the ride back the kid was pointing out all of the University Painter signs (they have a ton of site signs placed everywhere except in front of houses).

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Mike Finley

I'm watching these kids playing grab ass and a lot of thoughts go through my head.

How the hell do these kids paint a house?

Would I ever want this company to paint my house? Hell no.

Who the hell is hiring them to paint their houses?

How did the painting industry get to the point where your customers wouldn't just laugh these kinds of companies off their front porch.



Seriously, you painters need to get some sort of organization together to promote your craft and raise the consumers expectations.

ProWallGuy

Mike, on the PDCA board, there was a lot said about them. The PDCA president wrote an article or press release basically blasting their system of scamming kids. The paint co. sued the PDCA and lost. In the paint community, everyone knows they are a joke. And most of the people who would hire an outfit like that aren't really my target customers anyway. I have been hired to fix some of their jobs, several years back. They don't offer interior work anymore, and I'm pretty sure you know why.

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Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation

dougchips

Mike, view the buying decision from the eyes of an average customer:

Kids in school=must be cheap.

It's not my kitchen or bath, it's just the outside of my house.

What's the worst that could happen? If they spill paint I'll have them clean it up. If they damage my bushes I'll deduct it from the final payment.

The outfit is all over the nation so someone has money to stand behind their work.

I'd much rather have college kids painting my house than the high school drop outs.

*once again the mind set of the average customer?

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To get the best replacement windows, or sun rooms contact the replacement windows experts at FHI Vinyl Window Company.

Brushslingers

Naaa, biggest problem is crack. :P

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Benn

SeanATL

people who would hire some college kids to paint their home are not my target market.

Anyone looking for the cheapest way to get something done is not my kind of customer. I make that clear. I'd be shocked if I ever even quoted the same project as one of those outfits.

slickshift

They are a fascinating study
But then, so is Hitler

Here's a cut from their promo material selling franchises
Notice that their target customers (to buy franchises) is college students:

College Pro assumes three things when we are looking at students(By students they mean students looking into buying a franchise):

1 – That you’ve never painted before
2 – That you’ve never run your own business before
3 – That you don’t have any money

College Pro is a franchise system – much like a McDonald’s or Subway restaurant. The biggest difference is we don’t ask for any money up-front. College Pro receives a royalty (a percentage) of the sales that you produce during your work in the summer.

College Pro will train you during the spring on all of the aspects necessary to run a painting business, including teaching you about paint and painting, marketing, estimating, people hiring and management, customer service and financial management. We teach, support and coach you both in the classroom and out in the field, while allowing you to gain hands-on experience in a lot of those elusive skills that future employers are looking for. These skills aren’t specific to the painting industry – these are real life skills that you’ll be able to use in the future, regardless of your future career options!

During the spring, your job will be to do estimates for homeowners for the painting of the exterior of their homes. We’ll teach you how to properly price out the paint job using our 35+ years of estimating standards, and we’ll teach you how to sell the paint jobs to the homeowners. Our franchisees are busy on a lot of the weekends during the spring doing estimates – but we don’t set your schedule – you do! So if you don’t want to do something on a particular weekend, or if you have a big test to study for, you can choose to not do estimates on a weekend.

During the summer, the franchise managers oversee the selection, training and production of their work force. Our average franchisee oversees 2 to 3 crews of three to four painters each during the summer. You are their boss! You are responsible for setting their wages, their hours, and for their work.

How do franchisees make their money? College Pro doesn’t pay their franchisees a set wage. The way our franchisees make money, is the same way all businesses in the country make their money – they collect the revenues of the business (the amount paid by the homeowners), and the franchise manager has profit after paying out all of their expenses (their labor, their supplies, and College Pro). As a franchisee, you’ll be in charge of the money, and the responsibility of where that money goes.

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Signature Quote

Quote:

Originally Posted by ModernStyle I have never used this crap before and I pray to the paint gods that I never have to use it again, I would rather use Behr

slickshift

Yeah, crack quality is a problem around here too
I hate it when I get hosed

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Signature Quote

Quote:

Originally Posted by ModernStyle I have never used this crap before and I pray to the paint gods that I never have to use it again, I would rather use Behr

mahlere

alright finley, enough picking on the youngsters...1st you have a problem with Gen y'ers...now you got a problem with Gen Z'ers? man, you are just old...

Workaholic

Crack and alcohol you mean.

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Sean

KellyPainting

Spray the little bastards with this first.



http://www.contractortalk.com/attach...1&d=1183068628
2504_Good-ByeCracks.jpg

Attached Images

 

MakDeco

Funny I have a neighborhood I have done around 15 exteriors (only 40 houses on the 3 block sub division) in the last 6 years, these are house in the 700 - 900k range, mostly cedar with bricks fronts etc... College pro has been in the area working down the street from me when I was working in there... They all look young and certainly not painters I want with me, blue jeans, paint covered all over them etc.. All tho I have seen supposedly "painters" and they look the same

They are not cheap from what I here and yes to me it seems like a scam for the kids. I would suppose there is a lot of money from the total price that goes elsewhere other the the "painters"

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MAK Deco

Wolverine-Eric

I thought this was going to be about...

SW !!!

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Some things just shouldn't be mixed... like... Kids & Paint

http://www.wolverinecoatings.com/Pic...kids&paint.gif

paint_booger

From a busness owner's stand point .. copy it ... make some money ... from a painter who knows the busness, and loves the craft ... those kids are going to screw up houses that we have to fix.

firemike

Your right. My nephew worked for a similar company. He is a college student up at Michigan State, he has worked with me on several jobs, and is a fairly decent painter, conciencious worker, etc. He wanted to make some extra money over the summer, so he went to work of one of those "college painter" companies.

After a couple weeks, he got is first paycheck. It was for $232. I jokingly said that he didn't work very much in two weeks, and he said thay worked 52 hours. I started thinking about it and told him that your check should be for more than $232, minimum wage is almost $7 an hour, how much did they take out in taxes?

He said they took out about $21 in taxes. That's $253 gross for 52 hours, they are only paying you $4.86 an hour? You'd better find out what's going on. He checked with his supervisor (another 20 year old kid) that he told him that they don't get paid for the hours they work, they get paid for the hours "budgeted" for that particular phase of the job. If the budget allows 12 hours to paint trim and it takes them 15 hours, all they get paid for is the 12.

Needless to say he quit! I am guessing they are even calling the kids subcontractors so the company gets out of comp and other costs.

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-Mike-

MakDeco

Yes they pay by the job or phase of job like you said. There is a large painting Co here in the Chicago area that pays the polish guys that way. ( I am assuming most are here illegal) its a great way for the guys on top to rake in the profits.
I guess from a owners stand point its not a bad system. All tho the quality of work has to suffer if guys start rushing the job as to get paid sooner and to make more per hour since they got it done faster.

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MAK Deco

paint_booger

I followed one of their estimator's trucks around for a good part of the day, and mailed each house he went to a flier.

I see their cheapo signs pop up 15 feet high on telephone poles, and planted on the side of the road in "no man's land" (until someone cleans up). I used to pay my guys $1 per sign that they brought me. They shouldn't advertise like it's election week. It just doesn't seem right!

THINKPAINTING

Certa Pro Painters and Illegals are just as bad if not worse than CP.