Pro Painter Podcast

Welcome to an all-Nick episode of The Business Brush. This week, the Brush presents Nick's talk from the recent PDCA Expo about how Wall By Design uses systems and processes to deliver consistent service.

On this week’s episode of the Business Brush, Nick welcomes Travis Ulrich to the show from Webfoot Painting in Bend, Oregon. Ulrich is the systems and operations guy in his business he started with Gavin Hepp in college, thinking they would quit and move on once they’d graduated. Now, 15 years later, Webfoot did almost $6 million in revenue with sights set on $8.5 million for 2019.

Ulrich takes Nick on a deep dive into what kind of work Webfoot does, where it does work and when it was the right time for each segment of the business to blossom.

Welcome back to the Business Brush. This week, Dan Petrulak of D.P. Ready 2 Paint from the Business Brush groups brings Nick a question he’s working on about how to schedule clients who aren’t sure they want to hire contractors who are booked out two months in advance. The answer to that question evolves into a thorough discussion of how phones serve contractors as marketing tools.

On this PDCA edition of the Business Brush, Ryan Gill, owner of Brush Strokes Quality Painting in Augusta, Georgia. Gill learned how the business of painting worked as a kid working with his dad who ran an industrial painting business, sandblasting and repainting bridges and grain silos.

This week on The Business Brush, Nick sits down with his old friend and former co-host Johnny Battle to talk about door hangers and how any exterior-focused business like Walls By Design or Johnny’s Erbert Lawns can best use traditional marketing materials.

This week on the Business Brush, Nick talks to Indianapolis-basis painter Luke Reynolds of All-IN Painting about his journey from working summers with his dad's painting company to pilot and aerospace administration major to owning his own painting company.

Managing a business with technology

Early in the life of his business, Reynolds started to use Business Brush sponsor Estimate Rocket to manage his crew of 10-15 painters and all his company's projects because it was an easy way to keep track of increasing business. Luke and Nick compare experiences using the platform and how they each use it.

Finding the right niche

They also discuss the tricky process of finding the best way to run a painting business. It's individual. Some companies naturally fall into subcontracting and make that work where others can't, and those companies might be most profitable doing residential. Reynolds discusses his trial-and-error process finding what works best for All-IN.

To see examples of All-IN working its best, go to goallinpainting.com and visit All-IN's Facebook page.

Welcome back to the Brush. This week, Nick chats with Craig Bunting from Benjamin Moore about what he does as director of end user marketing and what services the company offers to build relationships with its end users- painters. And he invites Ryan Toelkes back onto the show to discuss how he handles the winter months and what he hopes to implement in 2019.

Welcome back to the Business Brush. To start season 5, Nick gets back to the Brush’s marketing roots in a chat with John Neubert, who’s been running Neubert Painting since 1975. They discuss all the ways marketing for paint contractors has changed and the best ways to engage potential clients and convert them into actual clients.

This week, on the Business Brush, Nick learns about how to contractors work in certain kinds of medical facilities. J.P. Carlton is a Virginia-based contractor whose focus is not entirely on paint. After leaving the company he started at right out of college, he launched Carlton Building Services. With his own company, he eventually found a niche in retirement communities and assisted living facilities where Carlton is often the only bidder on contracts that last months at a time.

On the first Business Brush of 2019, Nick sits down with Craig Cody, a certified public accountant who focuses on helping small business do their taxes as efficiently as possible. Cody explains how he runs his business to help other business owners keep as much money as they can at the end of every year.