Ho,Ho,Ho!

Seasons greetings everyone,
I have not posted in a while so I first want to say I'm sorry for that. Been busy wrapping up the jobs that have been a big part of what we did this year and of course getting ready for the Christmas season(shopping, etc...)but that brings me to the reason that I decided to post today.
This time of year professional painters as with any other types of contracting business usually find that the jobs are becoming harder to find because people are holding on to their money with Christmas and New Years right around the corner. The same thing happens every year and I'm hear to tell you that it will happen again next year and the year after that and so on, but as a business owner and a professional you need to stop panicking and quit worrying because everything will be fine.

What you need to do is exactly what you have been doing(or should have been doing)all along and that means that you need to keep advertising, promoting your business any way you can.
Calling your past customers and asking if they need any painting work done or if they have any neighbors that need any painting. There are many ways to get your name out there in front of potential customers, but the bottom line is you need to work as hard to acquire new customers as
you did with the customers that you had this previous year. You'll find that you'll build your pipeline back up again and be able to continue to move forward with building and growing your business and that is what we all strive to do.

Good luck in the new year and beyond.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Communication

That's the key to avoiding a lot of problems in our lives isn't it?
Think about all the problems we would avoid if we only had better communication skills.
We would have a hard time making our marriage work if we were not communicating well with our partner or we would make our relationships with our children very difficult if we were not on the same page with them.

The same is true in business,when we do not communicate very well with our customers ,our employees, our vendors, we will not succeed in our field. When you decide to own your own business you had better sharpen up you communication skills because you will use those skills as long as you own your company.

When you are in business as in any thing else you want to succeed(marriage,parenting,etc...)you should always strive to be the best that you can be. When you don't put communication high on your priority list then you are doomed to fail before you even begin. Once again too many businesses end up that way. So I hope you will try to make this more of a priority so that your business will be everything that you envision it to be.

Now go home and talk to your wife and kids.

R -E- S- P- E-C -T

Those words are very important in our life and in our business.
Respect people and you will get respected. That should be everyone's goal when your in business, that to me is an overlooked part of too many companies now a days.
All that seems to be in the business owners mind is to get in and get out and get a check and that is the end of the whole transaction when in fact it is only part of the deal.

When dealing with a client you have to give them your undivided attention when you are with them so you can understand their needs and that in the end will lead to a quality job.
Too many painters have the attitude that they will do what they want to do and the customer will have to understand, well that is how you end up sitting at home wondering why you have been with out work for months at a time. People just want you to listen and respect their opinion.

My mom was always an inspiration to me in soo many ways in my life, and she would always have a saying for everything. I would like to pass on these two:

1).You can never learn anything by talking, only listening.
2).Treat people the way that you would want to be treated.

I think that says it all.

Building a winning team

I thought I'd write a post about a topic that is not mentioned often enough and that is the topic of surrounding yourself with good employees. When you think about having a successful business of any kind you think about all the obvious things(tools,supplies,etc...)but you don't often think about one of the most important things to any business and that is having good people to do the work.

Lets face it I can not be in 10 different place at the same time so I need to know that I can have reliable people in those places who can do the job and do it the way I want it done. I feel really good every time I hear one of the other trades comment on how good my guys are and how hard they work. As in employer I can take pride in hiring guys who know how to get it done.

As employers we also have to learn to play to our employees strenghts and weaknesses, as an example I would not want to put a man in a situation that he would not excel like if I knew that an employee is a good painter but might not be the best people person then I might want to not have him on a residential job alone where he would have to have a lot of interaction with a customer, I might want to use him in more of a new construction setting.

You get the idea, that just comes with experience. Remember in the end an employer is only as good as his 0r hers employees.

Owning your own business

When you set out to start your own business no matter what business it is there are always going to be obstacles in you path, but I'm going to try to get you started off on the right foot.I find it very important to have a plan in mind that you can follow to make it a little easier to get a jump on your competition. You have to planto set aside some money for advertising as well as setting aside some capitol for your license and insurance.

You need to open a business account with your local bank and if your like me you have to purchase a license for every town that you plan to work in. You need to decide if your going to be a one man(or woman) show or if your going to hire employees. Have a plan as to how big you want your business to become and set out customizing it to fit your vision.

Make sure to follow some or all of these suggestions because all to many businesses don't make it past the first year because they thought that would be a waste of time to have a plan before they just jump in.

Prep,Prep,Prep

Were all into instant gratification, were only interested in the bottom line, the final product is what gets our attention but in the world of painting it's really only a by product of a lot of hard work.
The client sees the fruits of our labor and upon being satisfied pays us and we go on but the real magic goes on behind the scenes,

1. Sanding
2. Patching
3. Taping
4. Priming

These are the things that seperate a good job from a great one. Lets face it anyone can paint but the secret lies in the Preperation,when that step is skipped it can ruin a whole job and the customer will not sign a check over to a person that does a half assed job.Painters please spend more time on the little things and you will always produce professional quality work.

Finding & keeping good help.

I was just sitting here thinking that when you are busy enough that you need to hire some help is that a good thing or a is it another headache that you don't need?
I want to make as much money as I possibly can and still remain reasonably sane so for me the only way to do that is to try to assemble a crew.

If you haven't done this before and are used to just being a one man show then you are going to be then you are going to be extremely frustrated. Because this is not as easy as it sounds.
If you are as concerned about quality as I am then your finding the right people to accomplish this is going to drive you nuts.

When your lucky to be able to find people that do a good job(maybe not as well as you would want but..) then you have to make sure that they being paid well so as to keep them or they will jump to someone else who will pay them more.

This is a delicate balance that you are constantly juggling. I am not apposed to hiring inexperienced help and teaching them but that can also slow your production down.
I currently have a crew of 4 that I employ(not full time) so I understand the work that has to be put into accomplishing this so I will be writing more on this subject as I think it is very important to anyone looking to expand and grow in this or any other business.