If you enjoy working on large painting projects, it might be a good idea to start your own house painting business. It can make a significant change in your painting career and give you a better chance to grow and become a better painter.
This article shows you how to start a painting business, the costs to expect, and how much you should charge as a painting contractor.
Let’s begin!
How to Start a Painting Business: Understand Your Market
Perhaps the most important thing to figure out when starting a painting business is to understand your market. This means researching to know if there is enough demand for painting in your area.
Does your town or city have commercial areas or big neighborhoods? Do you live in a state with brutal winters, and will you be able to get enough interior projects to work during the cold months? While it is great to be optimistic, you should also be realistic.
To start a successful painting business, you must have in-depth knowledge of the available opportunities in your market. One of the ways you can get insight is to interact with other painters. There are bound to be successful professional painters operating or residing in your locale already. You shouldn’t be afraid of asking their opinion.
What type of clientele is available for your painting company? Are there enough painting customers to support a new painting business? Do they provide exterior painting or interior painting services? Is there a demand for a specialty painting niche?
Regardless of the answers you get, what you will have is a better understanding of the professional painting market before you invest your resources, energy, and time into starting a painting business.
By the way, you might want to learn some of the best businesses you can start with $1000.
How to Start a Painting Business: You Should Always Practice
To start a painting business means that you should be able to offer professional painting services that others will pay for. You have to consider your current skills and how you can improve them.
A property painting business is a meticulously detail-oriented career. For many painters, the ability to work outside can be a massive perk that comes with the job. That being said, it can also be quite physically demanding.
Most times you will have to paint from the top of a ladder. The work involved in preparing a space before painting can be quite challenging. Keep in mind that you will have to scrape, patch, and sand a surface before you even think about painting.
Conversely, learning how to start a painting business also has a creative fun side. For example, do you have the creative ability to recommend matching color schemes? Can you offer decorative faux painting work such as murals or stencils? If you can tap into your creative side while building on your skill, it won’t be too long before your services as a new business are in high demand.
The most effective way to become a great professional painter is to consistently practice. You should get a lot of painting experience before you even think about providing a professional service. To help you improve, ask family members or friends if they need any painting. You can also choose to get some in-field experience by working at an already-established painting business as an employee for a while. This is the best way to get some experience.
Also, you need to consider your people skills. Running a painting business is a lot more than just picking up a brush and painting a wall. You will need excellent people skills as a professional painter because you are going into people’s businesses and homes. As a small business owner, you will also be speaking with clients, bidding on projects to gain new business, and personally handling any issues that may arise during a painting project.
For these reasons, you must put your best foot forward. Be professional, punctual, friendly, and remain considerate of your client’s space and time. If clients love your work and personality, they will be more inclined to recommend your services to others and become repeat painting customers.
How to Start a Painting Business: Concentrate on Your Finances
Now that you have built your skills up and there is demand, it is time to talk about money. People just starting a business tend to have two questions on their minds:
- How much do you need to start a painting business?
- How much should you charge for your services?
These numbers can be a little tricky to pin down, but you can simply calculate the expected expenses associated with starting a painting business.
A professional painter will need tools such as high-quality sprayers, rollers, and brushes. The specific types you need will depend on the project. For example, you can purchase broader wall brushes for about $30 while angled brushes suitable for window sashes will cost less than $15.
If you want to go a little more high-tech, you can get a sprayer. Sprayers can be quite useful for jobs involving exterior spaces. They are relatively fast and easy to use. You can purchase an airless paint sprayer for about $250.
One gallon of paint typically covers 350 square feet, and a quality paint brand might cost anything from $30 to $50 per gallon. The number of gallons you will need typically depends on the size of the project, but you should budget for about 11 gallons to paint the exterior of your average 1500 square foot home.
If you plan on doing some exterior and interior painting, you should plan on getting two ladders. A 12-foot ladder goes for around $100, while a longer 32-foot ladder costs about $300. When starting, consider renting an interior scaffold for painting interior spaces.
You will also need trays, tape, and drop cloths. And while these do not have to be overly complicated, they should be present and be able to get the job done. Typically, you can expect to pay about $100 for everything.
Transportation is an important aspect of any professional painting job. This should be one of the first things to invest in if you don’t have a vehicle to move you and your equipment to the various project sites.
Some painters prefer moving around in a van since it is a lot easier to stay organized in a van. A brand new cargo van can cost about $32,000, so you might want to go the used vehicle route.
Take the time to shop around for a great deal and if you are indeed getting a van, you should get one that comes with a ladder rack to help you safely and easily move your ladder from one site to another.
Great marketing is an important tool that every business owner, including new ones, should have. When starting, you don’t want to spend quite a ton of money on marketing, and it is easy to understand why this is so. You can begin with a simple Facebook page for your painting business and even print out some business cards for less than $100. You can even create brochures to pass out to prospective customers.
How to Start a Painting Business: Scheduling Some Office Time
It is important to schedule office time for the first couple of months of your business operation. The first few months are bound to have quite a bit of administrative work and it is an integral step in operating your painting business. Taking the time to go through these steps at the start of your business will help you avoid likely frustrations you might encounter when having jobs to deal with later on.
Local and state regulations will differ depending on where you live and where you plan to operate your business. If you aren’t sure how to begin, you can visit the website of the Small Business Administration. You can also visit your city hall or town office to get additional information.
You should also make time to sort out things such as invoicing and taxes. The following should be on your list if you intend to start a painting business:
- Register your business
- Obtain the necessary permits
- Open an account for your business
- Purchase business insurance
- Create a bookkeeping system
- Organize receipts for your purchases associated with the painting business
- Create an online presence for your brand
- Market your services to potential customers
While this might sound like quite a lot of hard work, you shouldn’t be discouraged. It is important to understand what it is you are getting into when starting a painting business. And these steps are necessary to make sure you are compliant and your business goes on smoothly. For example, you need insurance to protect your business entity and it doesn’t have to be complicated.
Keep in mind that liability coverage can help to cover the costs of an accident. It also shows every prospective customer that you are a serious professional. In addition to these, having insurance gives you peace of mind to focus on what is important to grow your painting business.
