I’ve been active on various paint contractor forums for 8+ years. During that time I’ve seen changes within the industry. And I’ve also witnessed several constants.
The most glaring constant has been resistance to sound business practices. The resistance is expressed in numerous ways—“You don’t understand my market”, “That won’t work in a small town”, “Nobody around here does it that way”. All of these claims have the same hidden meaning: The principles that successful businesses use all around the world simply do not apply in a given town.
This is akin to claiming that the law of gravity doesn’t apply in Topeka, that supply and demand only works on Wall Street, or the sun sets in the east in Laredo. Despite the absurdity of such claims, they persist year after year.
Another constant through the years has been the parade of names associated with these claims. Refusing to embrace sound business practices, the claimants invariably go out of business, only to be replaced by a new group of ostriches.
I can only shake my head when I see someone start making claims like the above. I’ve seen where that attitude leads. I’ve seen the outcome for those who refuse to learn business skills. I’ve seen it every year this decade, and I will continue to see it. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.
© BEP Enterprises Incorporated 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
Marketing for Painting Contractors
Marketing your paint contracting business does not need to be complicated. It doesn’t need to be expensive. But it does need to be consistent.
Marketing should occur year round, rain or shine, in busy times and in slow times. Leads are the lifeblood of a contracting company. Without leads you cannot sell jobs. Without jobs you can’t bring in money. Without money you can’t eat (or market).
I hear many painting contractors claim that they don’t need to market. They say that they stay busy just through referrals. This may be true, but I believe that they are fooling themselves.
Referrals are certainly a good source for leads. But referrals can also be a bane. They can create a false sense of security.
Most referrals are of a passive nature—they depend on the actions of others, and can therefore be inconsistent. If one depends entirely on one source for leads, the business can be vulnerable when that source dries up. This is even more true when that source is passive.
Insufficient leads can have many consequences beyond the obvious. When leads become precious desperation can set in. Each lead can mean the difference between eating or not. The contractor becomes tempted to lower his price or take on jobs outside of his core competency. The results are often worse than simply passing on the job.
As with any activity, consistent marketing will create consistent results. Inconsistent actions create inconsistent, and unpredictable results.
© BEP Enterprises Incorporated 2008
Marketing should occur year round, rain or shine, in busy times and in slow times. Leads are the lifeblood of a contracting company. Without leads you cannot sell jobs. Without jobs you can’t bring in money. Without money you can’t eat (or market).
I hear many painting contractors claim that they don’t need to market. They say that they stay busy just through referrals. This may be true, but I believe that they are fooling themselves.
Referrals are certainly a good source for leads. But referrals can also be a bane. They can create a false sense of security.
Most referrals are of a passive nature—they depend on the actions of others, and can therefore be inconsistent. If one depends entirely on one source for leads, the business can be vulnerable when that source dries up. This is even more true when that source is passive.
Insufficient leads can have many consequences beyond the obvious. When leads become precious desperation can set in. Each lead can mean the difference between eating or not. The contractor becomes tempted to lower his price or take on jobs outside of his core competency. The results are often worse than simply passing on the job.
As with any activity, consistent marketing will create consistent results. Inconsistent actions create inconsistent, and unpredictable results.
© BEP Enterprises Incorporated 2008
Sunday, March 2, 2008
One Bad Apple (Don’t Spoil the Whole Bunch)
I know this will date me, and perhaps raise a few eye brows, but I once saw the Osmond Brothers live, in concert. And I enjoyed it. (I was only about 10 years old, and it was the first “rock” concert I ever attended.) Their hit song at the time was One Bad Apple.
As Donnie so eloquently sang, “One bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch girl.” (Lest I be accused of some kind of sexism, the same applies to boys. But I doubt Donnie would have had thousands of young girls screaming his name if he sounded like he was singing to another boy.)
I don’t generally look to Donnie Osmond for intellectual inspiration, but there is truth in those words. Simply because one apple is bad doesn’t tell us anything about the other apples in the bunch. Tossing them all out is potentially a waste of a lot of apples.
You may wonder what this has to do with painting. Since you asked I will tell you.
Many painting contractors like to categorize an entire group of people by the actions of a few members of that group. For example, they declare that lawyers are bad customers, or Asians hire only on price. In effect, they declare the whole bunch bad because of one (or maybe several) rotten apple. They are wasting a lot of apples that aren’t rotten.
Sure, you could “save” a lot of time by tossing out the whole bunch of apples. You wouldn’t have to go through them and identify which are good and which aren’t. If you toss them all, you won’t have to go through this effort. But how will you make a pie? You’ll have to go to the store and buy another bunch of apples. That takes time and money, so how much are you really saving?
Certainly some customers are rotten. But there are also some rotten contractors. We don’t like it when customers make blanket judgments about contractors, and it’s no better when contractors do it to customers.
© BEP Enterprises Incorporated 2008
As Donnie so eloquently sang, “One bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch girl.” (Lest I be accused of some kind of sexism, the same applies to boys. But I doubt Donnie would have had thousands of young girls screaming his name if he sounded like he was singing to another boy.)
I don’t generally look to Donnie Osmond for intellectual inspiration, but there is truth in those words. Simply because one apple is bad doesn’t tell us anything about the other apples in the bunch. Tossing them all out is potentially a waste of a lot of apples.
You may wonder what this has to do with painting. Since you asked I will tell you.
Many painting contractors like to categorize an entire group of people by the actions of a few members of that group. For example, they declare that lawyers are bad customers, or Asians hire only on price. In effect, they declare the whole bunch bad because of one (or maybe several) rotten apple. They are wasting a lot of apples that aren’t rotten.
Sure, you could “save” a lot of time by tossing out the whole bunch of apples. You wouldn’t have to go through them and identify which are good and which aren’t. If you toss them all, you won’t have to go through this effort. But how will you make a pie? You’ll have to go to the store and buy another bunch of apples. That takes time and money, so how much are you really saving?
Certainly some customers are rotten. But there are also some rotten contractors. We don’t like it when customers make blanket judgments about contractors, and it’s no better when contractors do it to customers.
© BEP Enterprises Incorporated 2008
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Fun with Numbers, Epilogue
During the past week I have looked at several key numbers we can use in managing our paint contracting business. There are certainly other numbers that we can and should utilize.
The importance of knowing your numbers cannot be overstated. Numbers provide us with objective measurements of past performance, and a means for making realistic projections about future performance.
It is certainly possible to run a successful business without a comprehensive grasp of one’s numbers. But it is also possible to paint the entire interior of a house with a 2” brush. The fact that something is possible does not mean that it is efficient or wise. If you were going to paint an interior you would use the tools that provide the greatest efficiency. You should do the same in operating your company.
Effectively understanding and using our numbers requires that we capture specific data. The greater the amount of that data the more accurate our numbers become. Small samplings can be very misleading due to aberrations. Numbers do fluctuate, sometimes significantly. Large samplings even out these fluctuations.
For example, a particular piece of marketing may not generate any leads one week and 5 leads the next. If we looked at each of these weeks independently we would draw vastly different conclusions.
It takes time to collect sufficient data. The sooner you begin collecting that data, the sooner you can make meaningful evaluations. It is also possible to reconstruct data by reviewing your records.
Developing a system for collecting data will make the process efficient and more useful. A simple written form can suffice. A simple spreadsheet can be used to compile and analyze the data. In other words, this does not need to be a complicated process.
If you do not have the necessary data, the time to start collecting it is now. The future will arrive. Your numbers will tell you how you got there.
© BEP Enterprises Incorporated 2008
The importance of knowing your numbers cannot be overstated. Numbers provide us with objective measurements of past performance, and a means for making realistic projections about future performance.
It is certainly possible to run a successful business without a comprehensive grasp of one’s numbers. But it is also possible to paint the entire interior of a house with a 2” brush. The fact that something is possible does not mean that it is efficient or wise. If you were going to paint an interior you would use the tools that provide the greatest efficiency. You should do the same in operating your company.
Effectively understanding and using our numbers requires that we capture specific data. The greater the amount of that data the more accurate our numbers become. Small samplings can be very misleading due to aberrations. Numbers do fluctuate, sometimes significantly. Large samplings even out these fluctuations.
For example, a particular piece of marketing may not generate any leads one week and 5 leads the next. If we looked at each of these weeks independently we would draw vastly different conclusions.
It takes time to collect sufficient data. The sooner you begin collecting that data, the sooner you can make meaningful evaluations. It is also possible to reconstruct data by reviewing your records.
Developing a system for collecting data will make the process efficient and more useful. A simple written form can suffice. A simple spreadsheet can be used to compile and analyze the data. In other words, this does not need to be a complicated process.
If you do not have the necessary data, the time to start collecting it is now. The future will arrive. Your numbers will tell you how you got there.
© BEP Enterprises Incorporated 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
