Anyone in the painting business goes into it with the goal to knock it out of the ballpark and hit a home run.
Depending on what stage you are at in your business, you need to focus on high-priority tasks to reach your goals.
I’m going to use a baseball analogy below to describe the different stages of business…
FIRST BASE
You need to have a consistent steady stream of new customers coming in month after month.
Without a steady stream of work (cash flow) plus a good team (crews, trucks, equipment), you’ll never be able to round the bases to get home.
The cash flow your business needs on a weekly & monthly basis is the foundation to grow your business.
If you need cash flow, focus on residential repaints.
Residential work usually doesn’t take more than a few days to a week to complete on average. And you get paid in full at the completion of the job.
That monthly cash flow will help fund your future growth to enable you to scale your business.
With more residential repaints and cash flow coming into the business, you can hire more painters and build out your paint crews.
SECOND BASE
To keep growing you need consistent work to keep your paint crew busy and booked out for weeks in advance.
Then you can hire more painters to build up your crews, equipment & trucks.
This will enable you to continue growing your painting company.
You also need to make sure you are charging enough to make a good profit.
Many lose thousands of dollars and lost time by getting caught in the trap of playing the “price war” game.
Don’t undersell yourself! Charge enough to be able so you can grow and scale your business to the next level.
Know your numbers so you can shoot for at least 50% gross profit margin.
And keep improving proven systems and processes so your company can handle growth.
You’ll also need to build your business on a solid foundation based on success principles – systems and processes.
This is where having an experienced coach (YOU – the leader of your team) can make or break the team.
Sometimes the coach needs coaching – we can help guide you to become an effective leader.
THIRD BASE
It’s a lot of work to get here but it starts to become more rewarding as you have more money and free time.
To keep growing, you’ll need enough cash flow to hire necessary staff…
- office manager / receptionist
- estimator / salesperson
- project manager
- bookkeeper
…so that you can focus on building and growing your company into a real business that runs with or without you.
At this stage, your business will not need you as much as it did before. Your paid employees will manage the day-to-day operations.
Once you’ve got a full team of players your business will be able to…
- answer the phones and schedule estimates & jobs
- bid jobs to bring on new work
- make sure crews have what they need and jobs run smooth
- manage invoicing, payroll, and accounting to keep overhead strong, lean, and profitable
Now you need to focus on growing and scaling your business into a million-dollar company.
Level up by focusing on large and profitable projects – commercial, multifamily, industrial. (depending on what makes the most sense in your market and your experience)
These big projects will bring in 5, 6, and even 7-figure paydays sometimes.
SCORE ON HOME
Bring it on home once you’ve got a full team of players…
- an office manager to answer the phones and schedule estimates & jobs
- dedicated residential & commercial estimators to bid on jobs to bring on new work
- a project manager to make sure crews have what they need to make jobs run smoothly and get done properly
- a bookkeeper to manage invoicing, payroll, and accounting to keep overhead strong, lean, and profitable
… so that you can take time off with your family to go somewhere special to spend quality time together and still have your business making you money.
That’s the dream and many painting contractors are living it…
What about you?
What base are you on and do you know how to get to the next base?
Are you stuck on base?
Do you need help scoring on home and hitting a home run?
Note – the baseball analogy is just a rough example. It is meant as a simple way to explain the various stages of growing your painting business. Depending on your specific situation you may need to do things earlier or later than shown in this example.