How To Set Up A Painting Business

How to Showtime a Painting Business: An Easy Guide (With Proficient Communication)

Painting contractor from Painters Enterprise

Learning how to starting time a painting business the correct style tin can assistance you get more than customers, turn a profit, and do what you lot love for a living.

Have it from Graham Audenart, founder of Painters Enterprise, who's helped thousands of homeowners since starting his company in 2003. With some of Graham'southward advice, nosotros'll walk y'all through how to get started in the painting industry and build the foundation for a successful painting business concern.

1. Learn professional house painting skills

Learning how to paint professionally tin save yous from making mistakes that cost you money and clients. Before you get your first job, here are some professional person house painting skills that all painters should know:

Proper scraping, patching, and sanding techniques to prep a room for painting
Bones painting techniques to become an even coat and avoid touch-ups
How to employ brushes and rollers
How to cut in paint
How to use different kinds of paints (oil based, latex, acrylic, etc.)
When to use primer (for most interior painting jobs except bear on-ups and refreshes)
The all-time way to paint rooms (from top to bottom)

Getting easily-on experience is the best style to learn. Many painting contractors start past working for a painting company for one or two years. This experience can also requite y'all insight into the manufacture and how to starting time a painting business of your ain.

Quote

Yous have to know at to the lowest degree the basics. Just go piece of work for someone for two or three years. Learn everything y'all perhaps can. You can also learn tons of stuff from the internet... but y'all still need to get hands-on experience before starting.

Graham Audenart, Painters Enterprise Quote

2. Register your business organisation, get a license, and painting insurance

Y'all demand to ready up your business legally before you paint your first house. Follow these steps carefully to make sure you lot're registered, licensed, and insured properly.

🗄 Choose a business construction and register your company proper noun

Once you've called a unique company name, you're gear up to complete the paperwork you need to run your business legally.

Start, make up one's mind what business structure you want to register your business as. These are the typical options for pocket-size businesses:

Sole proprietorship — You run your operations alone and want consummate control over your business organisation.
Partnership — You're opening your painting business with two or more than people who are still legally considered self-employed.
Limited liability visitor (LLC) — You run a medium or loftier-hazard concern, and you want to protect yourself from personal liability.

READ MORE: Should I comprise my small business?

So you'll need to register your visitor proper noun. This process is dissimilar depending on where you live:

United States: As long every bit nobody else in your state is using your painting company name, y'all can trademark it and register your domain name.
Canada: If it'south the same equally your personal proper name, you lot don't need to register your business organisation name. Otherwise, register the trade proper noun and trademark it to protect your brand.
United Kingdom: Choose whether yous're a sole trader or business partnership, check your proper noun availability, search for a trademark, and register your visitor proper noun and business organisation.
Commonwealth of australia: If your concern isn't using your personal name, you'll demand to annals your business proper name through the Business Registration Service, ASIC, or a private service provider.

Pro Tip: Blazon "YOUR Metropolis NAME + business laws" into Google to detect your local regulations for painting businesses.

📄 Become a business license

A business license is what legally allows you to run your business. You demand a license to operate your business concern—no exceptions.

The specific kind of license you lot demand will vary from country to state, and then contact your local Bedroom of Commerce or the Modest Business Administration (SBA) to find out what you demand.

Licensing and registration can cost between $75 and $400 USD per year, depending on your region. Yous'll need to display your business license in your part or when asked to provide proof of registration.

🔒 Get painting business concern insurance

Painting insurance protects y'all, your business, and your future employees from losses caused past injury, belongings damage, or other unexpected incidents. At that place are unlike types of insurance you can choose from, depending on the coverage you need:

General liability insurance
Health insurance
Vehicle insurance
Workers' compensation
Business owners' policy
Employment practices liability

Insurance is your condom net, and information technology'due south an essential part of running your painting business. Store effectually for the right insurance programme for your minor business and check out various providers in your area.

3. Gear up accounting and bookkeeping

Open a business bank account to keep your business organization's finances and assets split up from your personal ones. This is the first pace to easier bookkeeping, and it's a requirement if yous decide to comprise your business.

A separate account is as well important for monitoring concern cash period and so y'all can pay overhead costs, yourself, and your employees or subcontractors.

READ MORE: Accounting vs. accounting: which one do you need for your business organisation?

In the future, y'all might want to rent an auditor to salve time and stress. You could also invest in painting contractor software that syncs with QuickBooks so you tin can hands manage your invoicing, payments, and accounting online.

Generate a painting invoice in minutes

Use the template

4. Decide which types of painting services to offering

Choosing what services you desire to offer will help hone your skills, focus your marketing strategy and save y'all from promising work that yous're not prepared to do.

Here are some types of painting services you might offering:

Interior painting
Exterior painting
Construction painting
Repaints
Staining
Drywall repairs
Wallpaper removal
Metallic door painting
Deck reconditioning
Pressure level washing or ability washing

The painting services y'all offer should depend on what you desire to do, what you lot're good at, and what your clients need.

🎯 Choose your target clients

Start past deciding whether you want to offer residential or commercial painting services. Residential and commercial jobs will touch on your business plan and bottom line in different ways:

Residential painting clients are easier to book and the jobs are simpler, but it's less probable you lot'll get recurring work. Yous'll have to piece of work hard on getting a big client list to stay assisting.
Commercial painting clients are more than likely to requite you recurring piece of work and more than assisting projects, just greenbacks flow is much slower. You'll need to pay more for people, expenses, and materials—and yous'll get paid less frequently.

In one case you have your kickoff clients, figure out what they typically want and focus on those service offerings. If you have a client who asks for specific paint services that y'all don't offer, yous can ever subcontract that out.

5. Choose your painting equipment

Painting equipment tin be expensive, then beginning by investing in the essentials and build your inventory of equipment over time.

If y'all're a business firm painter, y'all'll need the following painting supplies:

A few brushes of unlike sizes
Roller
Paint tray
Drop cloths
Sandpaper
Painter's tape
Scrapers
Ladder and a caulking gun (for exterior paint jobs)

You can hire advanced tools, like paint sprayers, when you actually need them. Those can cost over $500 to buy and eat into your other of import startup costs.

For commercial painting jobs, you'll absolutely demand:

A ladder
Sheet drop cloths
Caulk and chemical compound
Sandpaper and scrapers
Industrial primer
A pressure washer
A tape measure
Stir sticks
An extension pole
Edging tools

Graham recommends always keeping your paint tools with you, and not borrowing supplies from your clients, or the painters you're working with.

"As soon equally you observe yourself in a situation where you demand a specific tool, go out and become the tool. You need proper tools to get the task washed properly!"

READ MORE: Painting equipment list: 50 must-have tools for professional painters

vi. Learn how to approximate painting jobs and toll your services

Yous demand to estimate your painting jobs properly to keep your small business assisting. To create an accurate estimate:

Visit the client's dwelling house or building and audit the weather condition of the space
Estimate how many hours it will take you to complete the task
Multiply the fourth dimension by the cost of labor
Add together your materials, overhead costs, and your desired turn a profit margin
Use software to total the estimate and send your client a copy of the quote

READ More than: How to judge and quote a painting job

Estimate software tin assist you summate costs and quantities automatically, add markup, and include photos of products you lot tin can offer. When the job is done, it's easy to convert your estimate into a painting invoice using Jobber's quote management software.

A painting quote made in Jobber
An interior firm painting quote created with Jobber.

Pro Tip: Use a CRM to keep track of your pricing over fourth dimension and the changes you brand. Finding the right pricing that supports your business is a process!

📄 Learn how to write painting contracts

Painting contracts are legal agreements between you and your clients that outline the services you lot're providing. In one case you've sent a painting cost estimate and your client has approved it, you should send a final quote that lists the scope of work, total costs, and your contract that states your terms and weather.

READ More than: How to get painting contracts

Find information technology difficult to create quotes for your painting contracts? You tin use our free painting approximate template as a quote template—information technology already has all the sections you need.

Apply our free painting estimate template

Start now

7. Get your beginning painting customers

The commencement pace to marketing your painting business is establishing a brand and an online presence. These make your business piece of cake for a potential customer to find.

🎨 Brand your painting business

Your make is how the public sees your business organization. It's the look and personality of your company, and it should hint at what sets you apart from your competitors. To build your make:

- Know your value proposition. What makes your painting company dissimilar? It could exist your main client base (e.g., senior citizens, clients who work night shifts), your values (due east.g., being eco-friendly), or a personality trait you're proud of. Write a short, memorable line that summarizes that.
- Create a logo and cull your company colors. Try an online logo generator like Looka to make something simple and piece of cake to read. Your logo and colors should reflect what makes your business unique.
- Get a dedicated business phone number and email address. There are costless email options available, or yous can utilise a custom name after the '@' symbol if you've purchased a domain proper name for your website.
- Choose a uniform. This helps you lot (and your team) represent your company when yous're on the chore. You could social club t-shirts with your name and logo, or even pants, hats, or face masks that match your brand colors.
- Make branded business cards and vehicle decals that include your logo, company name, phone number, website, and email accost.

💻 Build an online presence

Most of your futurity clients are looking for businesses online. Setting up your online presence helps potential customers easily find your business concern on the internet and contact you for your services.

Here are a few simple ways to build an online presence:

Create a Facebook business page and share before-and-subsequently photos, customer reviews, and discounts on services
Create profiles on Instagram and LinkedIn
Merits your Google My Business listing
Make a uncomplicated website (using online website builders like Wix or Squarespace)
Create listings on online directories like Yelp, Houzz, HomeAdvisor, or Angi

READ MORE: How to build an online presence for your business organisation: four low-toll steps

📣 Beginning marketing your painting services

With a make-new business, you need to piece of work extra hard to find clients who'll hire you. Here are some of the best low-toll marketing strategies for new painting businesses:

Create tear-away flyers and pin them to customs message boards
Start a referral program and advantage clients for spreading the word nearly your business organisation
Pass out business cards with your contact information at your local grocery store
Join pay-per-pb online marketplaces similar Porch or Thumbtack
Run Google's Local Services Ads to announced on Google when people search painters in your area
Join networking groups, like Business Network International (BNI) or home service entrepreneur groups on Facebook

READ More: 3 painting flyer examples and templates to become more leads

Graham Audenart business card

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I try to get my guys to do a lot of one-to-one networking in the field. We review our invoices and quotes each month, and we track where they come from. A lot of clients come from BNI. That'south why we focus our advertizement and marketing at that place.

Graham Audenart, Painters Enterprise Quote

eight. Hire subcontractors or employees

Subcontractors are great for projects that require specific skill sets, while employees are great for on-going, long term projects.

Hiring painting subcontractors has helped Graham consummate more piece of work, take on bigger jobs, open up more locations. Y'all can rely on subcontractors to supply all their own materials, which is one less expense and responsibleness to worry about.

Employees, on the other paw, will stay with yous on a consequent, permanent footing—then you have a squad y'all can train and grow with. Keep in heed that on top of salary, you lot'll accept to budget for employee benefits, grooming, and additional pigment tools.

READ MORE: Subcontractors vs. employees: a complete overview

Pro Tip: Make sure you've read your local subcontracting laws before you lot start hiring a subcontractor.

Quote

Nosotros need to become jobs done fast and well. Our regular subcontractors are able to finish some jobs in five hours for about $500 for the day.

Graham Audenart, Painters Enterprise Quote

Build a profitable painting business with the right tools

Running a painting concern and doing what you love is going to be extremely rewarding. You're taking a big step—but if you lot make a conscientious concern plan for your service offerings, estimating, advertising, and hiring, you'll build a business that succeeds and grows.

Come back to this guide when y'all need aid, and bank check out our painting business organization resources for more than advice.

COUNT ON JOBBER TO Keep YOUR Business concern ORGANIZED.

Utilize painting business organization software to send quotes and invoices, manage your schedule, stay in touch with clients, and collect payment for a chore well washed.

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Originally published in September, 2022. Final updated on March 1st, 2022.