Where to Look For Quality House Painting Contractors. Five Break-through Ideas to Immediately Increase Profits and Improve Cash Flow

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Chances are, if you see a painting contractor's truck at various locations throughout your neighborhood, they do quality work at a fair price. A professional vehicle with the name of the contractor on the side indicates that the company takes pride in their work.

- Yellow Pages

You may be surprised to see the Yellow Pages listed, but they are still a good source of qualified business names. The Yellow Pages require an outlay of money, so the average moonlighter or fly-by-night operation will not invest in this kind of advertising. And remember, a lot of painting contractors will include coupons in their ads, saving you additional money and you still get professional results.

- Direct Mail

Direct mail is another form of advertising that requires a commitment from the painting contractor. Direct mail is targeted in the area that the contractor works in and it will include all the pertinent information, so you know where exactly the contractor is located and how to contact them.
- Website

You have the ability to research any painting company before you even contact them. A search engine such as Google can yield kudos and complaints as well as information on the owners, the services they offer, before and after photos and customer testimonials.
- Jobsite Signs and Neighborhood Flyers

Painting contractors will usually ask the homeowner of a current jobsite if they can post a lawn sign. They may also distribute flyers to nearby homes, listing the address of the home they are working on and maybe even offering discounts or coupons if you hire them within a specific period of time. Take this opportunity to drive by, view the property and talk with the owners if possible.

- Paint Stores

Paint stores can be a virtual jackpot of information on local painting contractors. If a paint store employee refers a painter it's more likely that they will continue to buy their products.

- Referrals

The number one way to find a qualified, professional house painter is to ask for a referral from a friend, neighbor or family member. If you see a paint job that you like, stop and ask who did it. Too often in business we get trapped into reviewing our sales numbers without analyzing the all important "profit" number. This is commonly referred to as the "bottom-line" of a business.

1) Under Pricing Kills Profits!

Many small businesses have thinner profit margins than larger firms do because they tend to under price their products or services. So why not just raise prices? My client, Steve Lopes of Stanley Steemer based out of Edison, NJ had a positive experience from raising prices about a year back. After giving me much resistance to my advice to raise prices, Steve agreed it would be prudent to test it. The result? Sales and profit went up for the month in which he raised prices and Steve was pleasantly surprised at the little, if any resistance he got from his customers.

Since then, Steve has increased prices 2 more times. What happened to sales and net profits? Sales surged by 25% for that 12-month period and net profits for that same period skyrocketed by 84%. Since Steve's sales are in the 7 digits, these sales and net profit increases equate to very significant numbers. Still unsure about raising prices?

2) Is The Marketing Working?

Make your advertising accountable. You've probably heard the familiar maxim: "Twenty percent of my advertising brings in 80 percent of my business, but I don't know which 20 percent!" I see that as a common problem with many small-businesses. They don't track their marketing to know what's working, what's not. This problem stems from a bigger problem and that is not being aware of the difference between institutional and direct-response advertising.

Institutional advertising, also known as image advertising, is all about you, the business owner. How great you are, your qualifications, years in business, "full-service" product line, etc. You see institutional ads every day in print or in TV. They're often cute, creative, funny, utterly ineffective and not trackable. Simply put, an institutional ad has no way to track results and is there to keep the company name in front of the public. By contrast, direct response advertising is all about your customer and his or her needs. Keep a lid on spending! Resist the urge to spend freely. You may like the way a lavish office and expensive furniture looks, but does it really contribute to your business? In some businesses, a fancy office is critical; in most it is not. I once had a small business owner who spent $5,000 on his front office desk in a business operation that had no "office visits." Needless, to say, this business owner did not survive too long in business due to this and other extravagances.

Important caveat: Don't compromise when it comes to spending money on your own self-development. Small business owners don't give this enough importance and thus spend far too little money in this area. You are the most important asset in your business. Most small-businesses ignore the easy money to be made with a back-end sale. Yet, the really smart business owner never forgets that the most profitable words in the history of business were: "Would you like fries with that?" I have read that these words instantly doubled the total sale. Your biggest expense is reaching a new customer. If you succeed to winning him over to the point that he pulls out his wallet and gives you money. . . he will often continue to give you money if you offer something else. Savvy small-business owners will have something more expensive to sell, and something less expensive.

One of the battle cries in business today is to determine the one thing that your business does best, become even better at it, and outsource absolutely everything else. 

A quality painting contractor is out there, just waiting