Selling Paint Jobs is About Confidence NOT Competition

The two most powerful ways to quickly increase your confidence level and skyrocket your profits are:

• Knowledge - The most successful painting business owners ALWAYS KEEP LEARNING.

Confusion stifles confidence and causes inaction, which leads to stress, frustration and failure.

Hands down, the fastest way to gain the level of success you desire is to 'learn from other peoples success.'

Begin to associate yourself with folks who are doing or have already done what you are trying to do.

Find out what goals they set... what actions they're taking... what books they're reading... what courses they're studying... what knowledge they're gaining!

KNOWLEDGE builds confidence, and confidence (not cockiness) sells painting services...

• Systems - The most successful painting business owners always develop systems.

To some people the word 'systems' can be frightening... The first thing to understand about creating systems for your business is that, they don't have to be complicated or confusing.

In fact, the KISS philosophy (Keep It Simple Stupid) is a good way to describe how to develop systems for your business.

However, an even better and more accurate way to describe it (KISS) would be Keep It Simply Structured.

You will gain ultimate confidence once you have simple structured systems for each core component of your painting business!

Here is a link to an article I posted on our 'how to bid paint jobs blog' the other day...

It outlines a simple system for the "Client Call-in script" and it streamlines the process of gathering the most important information every time someone calls you for an estimate.

The main idea behind systems, is to create a simple structure so that each task is done exactly the same way every time... Once you know what you are doing and how you will do it, you no longer have to think about it.

Developing systems for your painting business will save you a huge amount of time, energy and frustration in the long run.

ATTENTION Painting Contractors: NOW Is The Time For Action

America's Strongest
Building Markets

By Prashant Gopal of BusinessWeek

Where permits are on the rise

Across the country, there are signs of life in the real-estate market as requests for building permits once again begin to pick up. So far this increase is more of a trickle than a flood, but the trend is nevertheless encouraging.

For the most part, the affected markets can point to a specific reason behind the uptick, such as it being a military base, campus town, major energy town, state capital, site of a natural disaster or a combination of all of the above.

The market with the greatest increase in building permits was Lake Charles, La., which has been battered by two major hurricanes since 2005. And while half of the top 20 markets on this list saw positive growth, the other half continued to post negative gains. The reason they were included is that they still outperformed every other market in the country.

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My fellow painting contractors... the writing is on the wall!

NOW is the best time in history to take action and position your painting business for growth in the re-emerging residential painting market...

As new homes are being built again and property values are on the rise, painting contractors need to focus their attention on tightening up their brand and image, as well as streamlining and systemizing their core process.

There has never been a better time to build WEALTH with your painting business.

Our advice is simple:

1. Set new goals
   
2. Create the proper Marketing Mindset and keep a positive attitude
3. Get rid of old excuses and bad habits that have been working against you.
4. Reconnect with past customers.
5. Begin to apply a handful of the proven marketing strategies laid out in Painting for Profits on a consistent basis.
6. Start building Joint Venture relationships with other professional business owners in your area.
7. Improve your brand and image by putting out more signs, get t-shirts (uniforms) for your employees, get a web site built and optimized for your local market.
   
8. Look for ways to get involved with your community and then let the local media know about it.
9. Be a FANATIC about your business and take MASSIVE - CONSISTENT ACTION!
10. Plug into a quality, respected source of information, (like this blog and our 'Painting Contractors Perspective' Newsletter).

It has been a LONG three years... This is the time we have all been waiting for... The light at the end of the tunnel!

Man, I haven't been this fired up in a long time! If there is a topic you would like us to specifically cover, leave a comment and let us know.

Now get out there and make it happen!

Pro-Active Painting Business Promotion for Fall

Fall is a funny time of year... Homeowners are in a hurry to schedule last minute painting projects and painting contractors are in a hurry to kick up their marketing efforts before the holiday season starts.

One of the best ways to take advantage of the Fall season (and get a lot of great FREE publicity) is so to organize a block party!

Block parties are a great way to get to know your neighbors, as well as create relationships with other small business owners in your community.

Here are a few guidelines to help get your "Block Party" started:

• Check local laws and ordinances in your community - Give the County Clerk of Court a call and tell them what you want to do. They will be able to make you aware of the laws and give you details regarding any permits that may be needed.
  
  
• Contact & encourage local business to participate - Block parties are a great way to network with other local business owners... It's a fun win-win situation where everyone can benefit from the added exposure.
  
  
• Set a date - Weekends are typically the best for turnout, however if you plan on holding the block party in an area of town where participating business are located, a weekday afternoon will work just fine.
  
  
• Get the word out - The local media outlets love stories like this and most times are happy to write a story about it, but it's up to you to let them know the who, what, when, where and why of it all. Write a press release giving the details just before the event date... Be sure to contact local radio stations as well.
  
  
• Make sure you have your marketing offer ready - Have a good idea of what you want to accomplish... will you be passing out a flier or coupon? What about holding a contest for a free paint job? Spend some time coming up with something creative that will benefit the people attending and also helps your painting business stand out.
  
  
• Seek follow-up publicity - Be sure to let everyone know how much fun was had at your block party, as well as anything eventful that may have happened. Did the Mayor show up? Write a press release about it... Did someone win your free paint job contest? Put it in the press release!

With a few hours of research and a little effort, you can gain a ton of free publicity and create a lot of good will among homeowners and business owners within your community.

Sit down and brainstorm how you can put this powerful 'Creative Marketing' strategy to work for you!

Leave us a comment and let us know how your block party turns out.