How To Start A Painting Business

How to Start a Painting Business

Starting a painting business with no experience is a lot easier than you might think. Unlike restaurants or retail shops, a painting business has several advantages that make success easy. First, you don’t need to be experienced because you can easily teach yourself the skills. Second, there will always be a demand for painting as most people don’t have the time or talent to paint themselves. Additionally, once you see growing success, a painting business is relatively easy to scale. And finally, it requires minimal start-up costs. In this guide, we walk you through how to start your own painting business.

If you’re ready to start your painting business, we can help. Sign up for CraftJack today to begin receiving painting leads in your area.

A Step By Step Guide To Starting A Painting Business

A Step-By-Step Guide To Starting A Painting Business With No Experience

1. Establish Your Business

If you’ve never established a business before, you likely have no idea how to start a painting company. You’ll need to:

  • Register your business name and get a business license.
  • If you don’t have a partner, you’ll want to file LLC paperwork.
  • Apply for an EIN. An EIN is like a social security number for your company.
  • Open a business bank account.
  • A handful of states require painters to have a builder’s license. Do some research to see if your state requires this.
  • Purchase general liability insurance, which will protect you if someone tries to sue your business or if there’s an accident on a job that damages the client’s property.

After doing all this, you’re officially a business owner! Now, let’s move onto the next step of how to start a painting business.

2. Create A Website

You’ll need to have a website to promote your business, offer more information about the services you provide and allow clients to request a quote. Many websites, such as Upwork and Fiverr, have talented workers who can build you a fantastic website at an affordable price.

Part of being a smart business owner is understanding which tasks to outsource. Unless you have a background in website development, it’s probably best to just hire out for this project.

3. Learn The Skills

Painting isn’t necessarily tricky work, but there is a skill to it. You want your clients to be happy with the work you do, so you must lock in excellent painting skills. First, read guides and watch some videos online for the tips and tricks other professional contractors use.

Next, you’ll want to practice a few times before you take on a paying client. Consider painting your own home a few times for practice. You can also offer to paint homes for friends and family for free to get some extra practice.

When you feel you’ve gotten the painting skills down, the next skill you’ll need is giving painting estimates to potential customers. Clients won’t be happy if you provide them with a job estimate and need to increase it significantly when the work is done. You’ll need to learn how to quickly evaluate a job space and determine how much you’ll want to charge. Check out our detailed post on how to give a painting estimate that will both you and the customer happy.

4. Get Your Equipment

You’ll notice in this “How to start a house painting business guide” that we’ve really thought about the order of things. Ultimately, you’ll need to purchase painting equipment to get your business off the ground. One common mistake new business owners make is buying too much inventory or equipment up-front at a time when they’ve generated little to no revenue. You need equipment, but you also don’t want to overbuy.

This is why Step 2 (Learn the skills) is so important. As you practice painting, you’ll have the time to understand which tools serve you best. Then, after just a few training sessions, you’ll have a good idea of what kind of equipment you need to purchase for future jobs.

5. Hire Employees

Hiring employees is an investment in your business. While this is an extra expense, you should see the benefits an employee can bring to your business. Having more workers means you can get each job done more quickly. This will help you have happy customers, as people tend to hope that painting contractors get the job done as quickly as possible. Additionally, if you can get jobs done faster, it also means you can fit more jobs into your weekly schedule.

We recommend starting with one employee until you find that you need more.

If you do hire employees, don’t forget about insurance! Your insurance will cover you if an employee ever gets hurt on the job.

6. Generate Leads

Now that you have your website, equipment, and employee(s), you’re ready to start accepting customers. However, you might not have any idea where to start when it comes to generating leads. Luckily, this is another area you can outsource.

CraftJack can provide high-quality painting leads in your area. After creating a profile, you can filter down to the type of painting leads you want. Only interested in exterior painting jobs? Then that’s what CraftJack will supply you with.

We offer a straightforward solution to lead generation so you don’t have to worry about marketing and can focus on completing jobs.

7. Collect Reviews

Everyone knows today that customer reviews can grow or kill a business. Approximately 93% of customers say an online review influenced their purchasing decision. Reviews are especially significant in the contractor world. Unlike a physical product that a customer can return, a customer who hires a painting company essentially has to hope they do a good job. So, they turn to online reviews to find the best painters.

Keep this in mind as you work with each customer. Always do your best work, ask for a review from every happy customer, and respond to all online reviews with a personal note.

Did you know that CraftJack offers free online review collection? This way, contractors that keep their customers happy are rewarded with more and more work!

8. Scale

This isn’t just a “How to start a painting company” guide — it’s a guide on how to start a successful business that has the potential to scale.

The home industry has grown by 5% in the last five years. Clearly, homeowners see the value of hiring professional painters. This is an excellent indication that, if you run your business well, it can quickly grow.

As demand grows, you’ll want to respond quickly. Hire more painters, purchase more equipment, and reinvest in your business by purchasing more leads. CraftJack’s unique approach to lead generation offers a reliable and steady way to grow your business. All you have to do is be ready to take on the work!

Get Started Today

Hopefully by now, you see that starting a painting business with no experience is a lot easier than you might have realized. Nothing is stopping you from starting your own painting business today! CraftJack can help you grow your business so you see continued success.