Are you “secretly” painting for $12.00 per hour?

The other day, I was on the phone with a painter that I like a lot. He is a great guy to talk to and is headed in the right direction to be sure. He had hit a patch of “good luck” and closed a lot of work, but it was stressing him out and for good reason.

Here’s what was keeping him so very “busy”. Too busy, in fact, to work on his marketing plan to “even out” the feast and famine cycle that had lead him to the APPC in the first place.

He was spending 60+ hours per week…

1. Running tons of low-quality online “lead service” calls that didn’t go anywhere…
2. Taking paint, equipment, and tools out to “forgetful” painters on his crews…
3. Slowly writing up estimates that were “fuzzy” because they were days old and not completed “on the spot”…
4. Doing administrative paperwork, invoicing, paying bills, and checking emails…
5. Conducting daily walk-throughs on jobs…

Granted, all of this “stuff” has to be done. But, the truth is all this “busyness” was going to cost this painter thousands in profits. In fact, you may be making these sames mistake too. Let me explain…

You see, most of this work is, frankly, $12.00, $15.00, and maybe $17.00 per hour work.

These are the kinds of activities and processes that SHOULD be outsourced, streamlined, or delegated. This low-pay, low-skill work was keeping this painter from a VERY important project: His Customer Reactivation Campaign!

I won’t bore you with the details, but our APPC members report that our Quick-Start Customer Reactivation Campaign typically produces a response rate of about 7-9% depending on the time of year. About 70% of those jobs close because of the PowerPaint Presentation Process™ with past customers.

Because this particular painter had a list of over 350 names, an average ticket sale of $3,500, and gross margins of 30%, this marketing campaign was going to bank him about $18,000 in profits. If you want to be SUPER conservative call it $9,000 for the nay-sayers.

All in all, the campaign will probably take him about sixteen hours over thirty days to administer, oversee, and execute with some part-time help. This means his effective hourly rate for the marketing project is about $1,125.46 conservatively speaking.

What’s keeping him from doing it? You guessed it: $12.00 an hour work, or a loss of $1,113.46 per hour!

Know this: Marketing your painting services is the ONLY place

in your business that you can produce

these types of hourly returns on your time!

Let me ask you this: What’s keeping YOU from marketing? Whatever it is, make a list of it and figure out how to outsource it, delegate it, or streamline it F-A-S-T!

If I asked ANY owner of a painting company if they’d be happy to work for $12.00 an hour, they’d look at me like I was absolutely crazy! But in fact, many painters “hire themselves” to do this low-pay, low-skill work for hours and hours every week!

Want to get ahead? Stop this practice ASAP and turn your attention to where the REAL money is: Marketing your painting services!

Do this and you’re assured to see your business grow!

Brandon Lewis, B.S., M.B.A.
Director of the Marketing Department
The Academy for Professional Painting Contractors
Department: 423-800-0520