How To Increase Billable Rates as a Painting Contractor

Painting contractors that want to grow their business know that there are others in the industry that can take them to the next level.

Meet Brian Reis.

Brian aspired to grow his business and to be a million-dollar company. He was also smart enough to realize that to make that mark he would need to seek the help of other successful contractors and use their marketing techniques for painting contractors. Once Brian started working with Brandon, it didn’t take long to see the results.

Question number one. What are the biggest financial or business growth results you receive as a member of the APPC? So I would say our biggest result is basically increasing our billable rate by 32% and that’s even on top of adding in more prep time to the actual scopes for those jobs. To give you an actual number on it, right now it is November and we’re actually sold for the current spring season next season, well over six figures already and that’s with no customer reactivation. And at that new billable rate we’ve easily are going to be making over $30,000 more than we would have if we would have been selling at the rate that we were before we actually talked with Brandon from the Academy. So I think that’s huge. It’s going to be game changer for next year and we’re very excited.

And question number two. Thinking back to before you joined the APPC, how do you feel differently about your role as an owner, the day to day running of your business or your potential just to see now versus then? And how have your feelings or thinking changed? So I would say before joining APPC I was more focused on doing tasks in the company versus working on it. And this Academy actually helped me understand and have a different perspective in terms of actually working on systems and structures that are scalable for your company. So in other words, right now I actually have more of a mindset where I’m taking a step back, “taking a step back” and just thinking it’s okay to be in the office. It’s okay to take time out of your day to actually work on systems, work on documenting everything. My focus is just making sure, how can I optimize my team and what they’re doing? And from there you just keep bringing more people in. So I would say it’s a total different feeling, totally different vibe. And it’s really helping us be able to be a scalable company and a lot more organized, which is pretty cool.

Question number three. If an owner was skeptical about getting on the phone with me for the 60 minute call, what would you tell them to help them understand the value and necessity of it? So, I think the easiest way to kind of describe this is there’s always something to learn and it doesn’t matter what size your company is, what experience you have, there’s always somebody that knows a little bit more than you do. And the second that you’re willing to admit that and be humble enough to just learn and admit that you don’t know everything. This Academy, it’s not just Brandon and what he can offer, it’s the people that are actually in the group as well. Meaning, six months ago, whenever I actually had the call with Brandon, he tossed me a statistic saying the average member in this group ran a $1.4 million company. And for me, I didn’t need to hear anything else after that. I was immediately sold even though we did go on for another 20 minutes talking about it. Because for me, if the average person’s making 1.4, I’m obviously going to gravitate more towards what everyone else is doing. If I’m just consuming everything that they’re saying, what they’re doing, what they’re going through.

So I would say in order to understand the value of it, if you think there’s anything that you have questions about that you might not be doing correctly right now. If you’re not making as much money as you think you would be, there’s a heck of a lot more to learn. Brandon’s going to help you systemize it, compound it exponentially over time, and just create a systemized and scalable company that’s actually going to be predictable and be around for a really long time. So Brandon, I hope this helps. I love the Academy. It’s awesome. And I’m looking forward to seeing you in January.