Category: Business Strategies
Paint Industry Education: Takin’ it to the Streets.
Prep to Finish training… Like most paint contractors who are still paint contractors, we have been paint contractors in three different decades now. It is no secret that one of the biggest flaws our industry has allowed is the continued decline in young people entering the paint trade. Too many paint contractors sitting behind computers, complaining [...]
Does Size Matter?
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 [...]
How much does a tool cost?
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 [...]
Decisions, Decisions
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 [...]
Don’t Measure the Job…
…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 [...]
Business Practices: the Strangle Factor
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 [...]
Paint Contractors and Marketing: Eggs and Baskets
**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. [...]
Determining your Growth Strategy as a Paint Contractor (2010)
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 [...]
Growth Gap: No customers = No business
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 [...]
RRP Rules…to be followed
I really enjoy reading Jerry Rabushka’s perspective on paint industry issues. RRP appears to be here to stay. For the best coverage of topics related to that legislation, visit this site.
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