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What happens when your biggest customers are actually your biggest problem?
In this episode of Success Beyond The Brush, we revisit a conversation that Scott originally had on the Beyond A Million DollarPodcast, sitting down with Phil VanderLaan of PMV Painting to unpack a journey that many contractors quietly experience: growing revenue while losing profit.
Phil shares how a major commercial project left his company over $200,000 in debt, why his new construction work was draining his margins, and how a strategic shift toward profitable services transformed his business.
Through disciplined focus, better financial visibility, and the courage to say no to the wrong customers, Phil repositioned his company for sustainable growth and long-term scalability.
PMV Painting operates with a strong leadership structure, a highly efficient spray division, and, at the time of the original recording, saw a clear roadmap toward a $3M revenue target — all without sacrificing culture or quality of life. Today, PMV is well beyond that mark, and maintaining all of those identifiers of a healthy and growing contracting business.
If you've ever felt stuck between growth and profitability, this episode provides a practical roadmap for making smarter decisions about customers, services, and leadership.
🔗 Links from This Episode
PMV Painting in Kalamazoo, MI.
✨ Free Discovery Call with Scott Lollar
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/discovery-call/
🏗️ Consulting 4 Contractors Website
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/
⚙️ Operations Module Demo Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/0IUmPWk4GRI
✌️ Operations Module 2.0 Update Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/JTHtbLXyMBI
📲 C4C on Instagram
👉 https://www.instagram.com/consulting4contractors/
👥 C4C Facebook Community
👉 https://www.facebook.com/consulting4contractors/
💼 C4C on LinkedIn
👉 https://www.linkedin.com/company/70241567
📧 Want to Be a Guest?
Send us an email → [email protected]
🎧 Credits
🎙️ Hosts:
Scott Lollar — Founder, Consulting4Contractors
Phil VanderLaan — CEO, PMV Painting, Kalamazoo, MI.
🎵 Production:
Siren Mastering — Original music, artwork, transcripts, show notes & audio engineering
https://www.sirenmastering.com
Spring brings more than warmer weather for painting contractors — it also brings a flood of marketing pitches, lead generation promises, and pressure to spend money fast.
In this episode of Success Beyond The Brush, Mark Black and Scott Lawler break down how contractors should think about marketing spend, where most owners go wrong, and how to actually measure whether marketing is producing results.
Scott explains why mature companies often spend far less on marketing than newer businesses, how past customers and referral databases can become your most profitable lead source, and why many contractors are making emotional marketing decisions instead of data-driven ones.
They also unpack the difference between cost per lead and cost per acquisition, why that distinction matters, and how contractors can build a marketing plan that supports growth without burning cash.
If you’ve ever thrown money at Google, Facebook, magazines, billboards, or a marketing company and hoped it would solve your pipeline problems, this episode will help you approach marketing with much more clarity and control.
In this episode, Mark and Scott discuss:
Key takeaway
Marketing should never be treated like a vending machine. Contractors need to know how many leads they actually need, what those leads are costing, how many are converting into jobs, and whether the return justifies the spend.
If you found this discussion helpful, you may also want to listen to Episode 12 where we explore how data-driven thinking helps contractors create predictable growth and make smarter financial decisions.
🔗 Links from This Episode
🎧 Episode 12
✨ Free Discovery Call with Scott Lollar
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/discovery-call/
🏗️ Consulting 4 Contractors Website
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/
⚙️ Operations Module Demo Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/0IUmPWk4GRI
✌️ Operations Module 2.0 Update Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/JTHtbLXyMBI
📲 C4C on Instagram
👉 https://www.instagram.com/consulting4contractors/
👥 C4C Facebook Community
👉 https://www.facebook.com/consulting4contractors/
💼 C4C on LinkedIn
👉 https://www.linkedin.com/company/70241567
📧 Want to Be a Guest?
Send us an email → [email protected]
🎧 Credits
🎙️ Hosts:
Scott Lollar — Founder, Consulting 4 Contractors
Mark Black — Owner, Men In White Painting, Mt. Vernon, IL
🎵 Production:
Siren Mastering — Original music, artwork, transcripts, show notes & audio engineering
https://www.sirenmastering.com
Incentives Drive Behavior — So What Are You Really Paying For?
Most contractors think a salary is a compensation plan.
But according to Consulting for Contractors’ Scott Lollar, that mindset might be quietly costing your company money.
In this episode of Success Beyond The Brush, Mark Black and Scott Lollar break down how contractors should think about compensation plans for overhead positions — especially sales and production leaders.
Instead of paying fixed salaries regardless of performance, Scott argues that anyone directly responsible for revenue or production should have a meaningful portion of their income tied to results.
Why?
Because incentives drive behavior.
When compensation is structured correctly, it creates motivated “hunters” who are focused on hitting revenue targets, protecting gross profit, and driving company growth.
When it's structured poorly, it often creates comfortable employees who earn the same paycheck whether the company wins or loses.
Scott and Mark unpack:
• Why 100% commission sales roles often outperform salary models
• The difference between estimators and true salespeople
• Why paying commission on gross profit instead of revenue matters
• The hidden risks of promoting technicians into management roles
• How draws against commission help bridge the training period
• Why operations leaders should also have performance-based compensation
• How company-wide profit sharing can align the entire team
If you’ve ever struggled with questions like:
“What should I pay a salesperson?”
“How do I motivate my operations team?”
“Why are my overhead employees expensive but not productive?”
This episode gives you a framework for designing compensation plans that reward performance while protecting your company’s profitability.
In This Episode, We Cover
🔗 Links from This Episode
✨ Free Discovery Call with Scott Lollar
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/discovery-call/
🏗️ Consulting 4 Contractors Website
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/
⚙️ Operations Module Demo Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/0IUmPWk4GRI
✌️ Operations Module 2.0 Update Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/JTHtbLXyMBI
📲 C4C on Instagram
👉 https://www.instagram.com/consulting4contractors/
👥 C4C Facebook Community
👉 https://www.facebook.com/consulting4contractors/
💼 C4C on LinkedIn
👉 https://www.linkedin.com/company/70241567
📧 Want to Be a Guest?
Send us an email → [email protected]
🎧 Credits
🎙️ Hosts:
Scott Lollar — Founder, Consulting 4 Contractors
Mark Black — Owner, Men In White Painting, Mt. Vernon, IL
🎵 Production:
Siren Mastering — Original music, artwork, transcripts, show notes & audio engineering
https://www.sirenmastering.com
What does excellence really mean in a contracting business—and is it still worth pursuing in today's fast-moving market?
In this episode of Success Beyond The Brush, Mark Black and Scott Lollar explore the idea of pursuing excellence in business, leadership, and customer experience.
Many contractors wrestle with the same question:
Do customers really care about excellence… or is “good enough” good enough?
Mark shares how the concept of the pursuit of excellence was instilled in him from a young age and how that philosophy shaped the way he runs Men In White Painting today. But when running a business, excellence can come with a cost—higher standards for hiring, tighter quality expectations, and more time invested in the customer experience.
Scott brings a broader perspective from working with contractors across the country, explaining why excellence is less about perfection and more about systems, culture, and leadership.
Together they break down how pursuing excellence affects:
They also discuss the critical shift happening with modern customers—who expect faster responses, easier communication, and a seamless buying experience.
Ultimately, excellence isn’t just about craftsmanship.
It’s about creating a company that customers trust, employees respect, and competitors struggle to match.
🔗 Links from This Episode
✨ Free Discovery Call with Scott Lollar
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/discovery-call/
🏗️ Consulting 4 Contractors Website
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/
⚙️ Operations Module Demo Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/0IUmPWk4GRI
✌️ Operations Module 2.0 Update Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/JTHtbLXyMBI
📲 C4C on Instagram
👉 https://www.instagram.com/consulting4contractors/
👥 C4C Facebook Community
👉 https://www.facebook.com/consulting4contractors/
💼 C4C on LinkedIn
👉 https://www.linkedin.com/company/70241567
📧 Want to Be a Guest?
Send us an email → [email protected]
🎧 Credits
🎙️ Hosts:
Scott Lollar — Founder, Consulting 4 Contractors
Mark Black — Owner, Men In White Painting, Mt. Vernon, IL
🎵 Production:
Siren Mastering — Original music, artwork, transcripts, show notes & audio engineering
https://www.sirenmastering.com
Leadership isn’t a destination. It’s a mirror.
In this episode of Success Beyond The Brush, Mark Black sits down again with Rick Holtz of Holtz & Sons Painting for a powerful conversation on personal development, servant leadership, and the uncomfortable growth required to build a sustainable company.
Rick shares his journey from “brute force” leadership as a young second-generation contractor to developing a culture built on accountability, boundaries, and authentic care for his team. They discuss:
Rick also shares how he built a multi-million-dollar residential painting company not by hiring perfect people — but by developing them.
If you’re a contractor who wants to grow but feels tension between being “the nice guy” and holding people accountable, this episode will challenge you in the best way.
Because leadership isn’t about tactics.
It’s about who you are.
🔗 Links from This Episode
✨ Free Discovery Call with Scott Lollar
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/discovery-call/
🏗️ Consulting 4 Contractors Website
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/
⚙️ Operations Module Demo Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/0IUmPWk4GRI
✌️ Operations Module 2.0 Update Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/JTHtbLXyMBI
📲 C4C on Instagram
👉 https://www.instagram.com/consulting4contractors/
👥 C4C Facebook Community
👉 https://www.facebook.com/consulting4contractors/
💼 C4C on LinkedIn
👉 https://www.linkedin.com/company/70241567
📧 Want to Be a Guest?
Send us an email → [email protected]
🎧 Credits
🎙️ Hosts:
Mark Black — Owner, Men In White Painting, Mt. Vernon, IL
Rick Holtz - President, H.J. Holtz & Sons, Inc., Richmond, VA
🎵 Production:
Siren Mastering — Original music, artwork, transcripts, show notes & audio engineering
https://www.sirenmastering.com
In this episode of Success Beyond The Brush, Mark Black and Scott Lollar tackle one of the most overlooked — and most expensive — weaknesses in a contracting business: job documentation.
From unclear scopes to missed closets, from time overruns to frustrated customers, this conversation exposes the hidden costs of vague work orders and poor internal communication.
You’ll hear real-world stories — including a garage door contract written by the customer — and practical strategies to create documentation systems that:
If you want freedom in your business, better documentation isn’t optional — it’s foundational.
🎯 In This Episode, We Cover:
💡 Key Takeaway
If your phone rings all day with clarifying questions, your customers try to take advantage of your miscommunications with your crew leaders, or your constantly giving guidance that should've been communicated beforehand, you don’t have a people problem — you have a documentation system problem.
Solve it once. Fix it forever.
🔗 Links from This Episode
✨ Free Discovery Call with Scott Lollar
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/discovery-call/
🏗️ Consulting 4 Contractors Website
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/
⚙️ Operations Module Demo Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/0IUmPWk4GRI
✌️ Operations Module 2.0 Update Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/JTHtbLXyMBI
📲 C4C on Instagram
👉 https://www.instagram.com/consulting4contractors/
👥 C4C Facebook Community
👉 https://www.facebook.com/consulting4contractors/
💼 C4C on LinkedIn
👉 https://www.linkedin.com/company/70241567
📧 Want to Be a Guest?
Send us an email → [email protected]
🎧 Credits
🎙️ Hosts:
Scott Lollar — Founder, Consulting 4 Contractors
Mark Black — Owner, Men In White Painting, Mt. Vernon, IL
🎵 Production:
Siren Mastering — Original music, artwork, transcripts, show notes & audio engineering
https://www.sirenmastering.com
In this episode of Success Beyond The Brush, Mark Black sits down with Rick Holtz, owner of a $6 million painting company with 50+ field employees, to unpack what it actually looks like to transition from operator to CEO.
If you’ve ever wondered:
Rick shares candid insights about letting go of ego, building systems, stopping exceptions, and evolving from “hero problem-solver” to coach and culture builder.
This episode is for contractors who want to grow — but grow the right way.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Key Takeaways
1️⃣ Scaling Changes Your Role — Not Just Your Revenue
At $2M, you’re in the weeds.
At $6M, you’re looking at systems, KPIs, and leadership development.
But that transition doesn’t happen accidentally — it takes intention.
2️⃣ Stop Making Exceptions
One of the biggest growth breakthroughs Rick shared:
“One of our goals one year was for me to stop making exceptions.”What works at $1M creates chaos at $4M.
3️⃣ Production First. Sales Second.
If you're a $1M company wondering who to hire first:
✔ Hire production/operations
✔ Keep selling yourself
✔ Add sales support once production runs smoothly
4️⃣ Growth Should Be Demand-Driven
Rick didn’t grow because he wanted bigger numbers.
He grew because:
“The pressure of our success created demand.”That’s a completely different mindset than chasing volume.
5️⃣ Soft Skills Are a Competitive Advantage
Technical skill matters.
But customer experience is what creates legacy clients.
“I want our clients to feel like Chick-fil-A, not the DMV.”That’s a culture decision.
🔗 Links from This Episode
✨ Free Discovery Call with Scott Lollar
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/discovery-call/
🏗️ Consulting 4 Contractors Website
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/
⚙️ Operations Module Demo Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/0IUmPWk4GRI
✌️ Operations Module 2.0 Update Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/JTHtbLXyMBI
📲 C4C on Instagram
👉 https://www.instagram.com/consulting4contractors/
👥 C4C Facebook Community
👉 https://www.facebook.com/consulting4contractors/
💼 C4C on LinkedIn
👉 https://www.linkedin.com/company/70241567
📧 Want to Be a Guest?
Send us an email → [email protected]
🎧 Credits
🎙️ Hosts:
Mark Black — Owner, Men In White Painting, Mt. Vernon, IL
Rick Holtz - President, H.J. Holtz & Sons, Inc., Richmond, VA
🎵 Production:
Siren Mastering — Original music, artwork, transcripts, show notes & audio engineering
https://www.sirenmastering.com
In this listener Q&A episode, Scott Lollar shares his origin story—how an entrepreneurial streak as a kid (yard work, snow shoveling, even cleaning an elderly couple’s home) eventually led to painting, then scaling companies, and finally launching Consulting4Contractors (C4C).
From there, Scott and Mark tackle big questions contractors face: how to choose a coach in a noisy market, how to stop living in the “firefighter” mode as an owner, how to think about hiring key people when cash feels tight, and what it takes to stop being the center of the business. Along the way, they reference practical frameworks like the “5 Whys,” the urgent-vs-important quadrant, and the idea of building a vertical org chart where people truly own outcomes.
What we cover in this episode
Notable frameworks & references mentioned
Key takeaways
🔗 Links from This Episode
✨ Free Discovery Call with Scott Lollar
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/discovery-call/
🏗️ Consulting 4 Contractors Website
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/
⚙️ Operations Module Demo Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/0IUmPWk4GRI
✌️ Operations Module 2.0 Update Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/JTHtbLXyMBI
📲 C4C on Instagram
👉 https://www.instagram.com/consulting4contractors/
👥 C4C Facebook Community
👉 https://www.facebook.com/consulting4contractors/
💼 C4C on LinkedIn
👉 https://www.linkedin.com/company/70241567
📧 Want to Be a Guest?
Send us an email → [email protected]
🎧 Credits
🎙️ Hosts:
Scott Lollar — Founder, Consulting 4 Contractors
Mark Black — Owner, Men In White Painting, Mt. Vernon, IL
🎵 Production:
Siren Mastering — Original music, artwork, transcripts, show notes & audio engineering
https://www.sirenmastering.com
In this episode, Mark Black and Scott Lollar break down why scheduling is one of the biggest hidden profit leaks in a contracting business.
They unpack how going over budget doesn’t just cost you on the job — it steals capacity from the next job (the “double whammy”), why “my board is full” is meaningless if it isn’t tied to revenue targets and headcount, and how crew sizing, overtime, job rounding, and even supply runs can quietly wreck production.
If you want more predictable revenue, smoother operations, and fewer end-of-job surprises, this one is a must-listen.
What you’ll learn in Episode 10
🔗 Links from This Episode
✨ Free Discovery Call with Scott Lollar
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/discovery-call/
🏗️ Consulting 4 Contractors Website
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/
⚙️ Operations Module Demo Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/0IUmPWk4GRI
✌️ Operations Module 2.0 Update Video (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/JTHtbLXyMBI
📲 C4C on Instagram
👉 https://www.instagram.com/consulting4contractors/
👥 C4C Facebook Community
👉 https://www.facebook.com/consulting4contractors/
💼 C4C on LinkedIn
👉 https://www.linkedin.com/company/70241567
📧 Want to Be a Guest?
Send us an email → [email protected]
🎧 Credits
🎙️ Hosts:
Scott Lollar — Founder, Consulting 4 Contractors
Mark Black — Owner, Men In White Painting, Mt. Vernon, IL
🎵 Production:
Siren Mastering — Original music, artwork, transcripts, show notes & audio engineering
https://www.sirenmastering.com
📝 Episode Summary
Risk management isn’t about playing scared — it’s about playing smart.
In this episode of Success Beyond The Brush, we dig into the reality that as your painting business grows, so does your exposure to risk. From everyday jobsite mistakes to insurance blind spots, safety shortcuts, and financial vulnerabilities, this conversation reframes risk as something to be managed, not avoided.
Through real-world examples — including costly adhesion failures, overlooked safety protocols, and underinsured scenarios — we explore how contractors can protect their companies without slowing momentum or stalling growth.
If you’ve ever felt like you’re constantly reacting instead of leading, this episode will help you rethink how defense, systems, and preparation actually fuel long-term success.
🎯 Key Topics Covered
🔗 Links from This Episode
✨ Free Discovery Call with Scott Lollar
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/discovery-call/
🏗️ Consulting 4 Contractors Website
👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/
⚙️ Operations Module Demo (YouTube)
👉 https://youtu.be/0IUmPWk4GRI
📲 C4C on Instagram
👉 https://www.instagram.com/consulting4contractors/
👥 C4C Facebook Community
👉 https://www.facebook.com/consulting4contractors/
💼 C4C on LinkedIn
👉 https://www.linkedin.com/company/70241567
📧 Want to Be a Guest?
Send us an email → [email protected]
🎧 Credits
🎙️ Hosts:
Scott Lollar — Founder, Consulting 4 Contractors
Mark Black — Owner, Men In White Painting, Mt. Vernon, IL
🎵 Production:
Siren Mastering — Original music, artwork, transcripts, show notes & audio engineering
https://www.sirenmastering.com
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