It is an ego thing…the discussion of size. How many guys you got? It really means nothing. In the corner to my left, you have superheroes who can do the work of 15 men by themselves. And in the corner to my right, you have the fat businesses with 25 employees, whose workload could likely [...]
The answer to this question may not have as much to do with the price you pay for the tool as it does with how quickly you can get the tool to pay for itself and become a profitable company asset for the remainder of its lifespan. Notice I do not say “whether” you can [...]
Todd and I just got back from the 2012 PDCA Expo where we were booth guests with Festool USA, and had the opportunity to talk shop about abrasives and tools with hundreds of paint contractors. Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas was a great venue for the show, because it provided plenty of space for the [...]
Looking to get your videos out to a broader audience? Let’s face it, if you are taking the time to make videos, it is much more rewarding when you know that people are watching them. The magazine that I write my monthly print column in, American Painting Contractor, has launched a new program for 2012 [...]
I love percentages. Mostly because I am a baseball fan. A successful manager plays the percentages and makes well informed decisions based on history as expressed in data. The data informs the manager on how to build his lineup for each game, when to have a runner steal a base, which outfielders to challenge on [...]
…Measure your business. Many paint contractors, especially in the early years of their business, struggle with the metrics of how to measure the performance of their business, their employees and themselves as owners. Even with accurate financial statements, sometimes the business data isn’t enough to wrap our minds around the whole picture. Here, Scott explores [...]
True Story about Customer Service This is another archive piece, published last year but just now hitting the blog. Sometimes when focusing on bringing customers the best possible experience, I have to remind myself of the worst experiences I’ve had as a consumer. This one ranks right up there, and it is especially explosive because [...]
**Click: Paint Contractors and Marketing (2010) The above linked article is a time capsule piece that I wrote 18 months ago and was published in APC magazine, discussing marketing strategies for paint contractors. It’s been funny that way, the last few years. I frequently go back into the archives in times of reflection and read. [...]
Click here for Scott’s Growth Tips This could just as well be called: “some of the ways contractors fail”. This piece was originally published in APC in mid 2010, and the topic continues to recur more than a year later as paint (and other) contractors constantly try to balance their workforce with their workload. I’ve [...]
Where ever you fit into the great supply chain that is the paint industry (raw materials supplier, manufacturer, dealer, rep, contractor), this is a simple equation that sometimes gets lost in the daily grind. As a surfer of many online trade related forums (painting, carpentry, pressure washing, small business), one of the recurring questions is [...]
We are currently working with a Titan 440 Multi Finish air assisted airless sprayer that was provided to us by Titan for testing and review as part of our ongoing air assisted airless technology testing. It is important to us to look at all the categories of sprayers from as many competitive manufacturers as possible. [...]
We have been running the Graco 9.5 Finish Pro hvlp pretty hard for well over a year now both in the shop and on site in the field. This week, we mobilized it for some miscellaneous cabinetry on a new construction project using oil primer and oil based enamel paint. The 9.5 continues to be [...]
Apollo 1050vr: Function and Form
In our ongoing quest to make sure that the paint industry fully understands that there is much more to spraying than straight up airless blasting in the 2000 psi range, we are pushing a little further into other spray technologies in 2012. We have done alot of research and testing in the spectrum of hvlp [...]
Waterborne Trim Paints and One Trick Ponies: Ever think about the impact of your products and proces... 41 comment(s) 
Ipe Deck Finish: 5 things not to do: In my little corner of the northeast, ipe has built qui... 33 comment(s) 
Graco 395 Finish Pro Air Assisted Airless Review: I probably won't have space in my APC columns in 2011 t... 31 comment(s) 
Festool Sanders and Dust Collection for Paint Contractors?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4bHOcBuAf0&feature=chan... 22 comment(s) 
Topcoatreview.com Contractor Blog Shootout Winners: The results are in, and a big thank you to Darren Slaug... 21 comment(s) 
Connect with and Share Topcoat Review!