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 [...]
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.
Next event is Phoenix on November 30! More information here! Still thinking about RRP Certification?
I wrote Craftsmanship in Contracting almost two years ago. I would appreciate if you would click the link and read it in its entirety. Along with Despermating, it was one of the top five pieces, in terms of reader feedback, I have ever written for publication in any format. When I wrote Craftsmanship, I wondered [...]
“Within my own paint contracting business, the focus has been much more on networking, sales and marketing, scheduling, differentiation, and retention than on which paint roller cover spatters the least. That is to say, we are really good at painting houses, but the challenge of growing during a historical recession is uncharted territory.” Read “Complacency [...]
When you toss enough words around in print, sooner or later you start making up some of your own. In 2009, the one that I felt needed to get right out in the open was “despermating”. This seemed to resonate with paint contractors around the country, as I received more feedback from this article than [...]
Just a little reminder that more important than all of the products, processes, tools and tricks of the trade are the people involved in all aspects of a contracting business, both internally, externally and on the supply side. It requires a tremendous amount of resources to build a paint contracting company. The human resources are [...]
In order to not become stagnant, it is important for contractors to avail themselves to educational opportunities. There are many, from trade associations like the PDCA to publications like APC with its Training Days events. This article discusses the value of continuing education, and the improvements it can make in your paint contracting business.
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 [...]
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