I own a commercial/residential painting company and am fully covered by workmans comp and general liability. I have 10 guys that work for me. We are fully professional and work in complete uniforms. My goal has always to bring professionalism to my chosen trade and to offer this at a very competive rate. I want to increase to 20 guys by this summer…I want some good ideas on how to expand to double where I am at now…Thank you for any suggestions I am willing to try new marketing stategies….Joe

Getting your name out there as visibly as possible is probably most important. I’m assuming you have already investigated whether or not you are competitive. Painting sometimes is a huge expense and some people don’t understand the overhead involved, so they’ll go with a cheaper company that might not be worth a darn. However, you have to at least stay competitive.

Also you need to try to determine what you can provide your customer that no one else can.

Ask yourself these questions:

1) What are my customers current alternate choices? [example answer: a) they can hire company X b) they can do it themselves]

2) What are my strengths and what are my weaknesses over the alternate choices? [example answers: a) I deliver a faster service than company x b) People don’t have the time or equipment to do it for themselves c) My services are 3x what it cost to do-it-yourself if someone had the time

3) How can I explain or defend my weaknesses? [example answers: a) time is money b) I can provide a warranty c) I provide no-hassles.

4) What’s in it for them? Why should they spend their money with your company versus Company X or just do it themselves?

Once you have all these questions answered…and write as much as you can…you’ll have the basis of creating a plan to making your customers happy and making your business stronger. Use this information in your literature, you sales pitches, Your advertising….everything. It becomes the basis of who you are.

Also explore things like warranties and customer referral rewards.

Good luck.