Best Way to Find Clients for House Painting

[stevent2323]

What do you think the best way to find clients for house painting is?

I currently work a 9-5 job and make close to 6 figures in finance. I don't want to do this my whole life and want to start my own business. I am a 23 y/o male near the DMV area. I want to start a house painting business (interiors so there is less risk of injuries) as a side hustle and see how it goes.

Also, I flipped used electronics and clothes as a side hustle and made about $10K in 12 months. The reasons I am moving to house painting are: blue collar jobs are run by older men who do not understand social media like younger people do, there will always be a need, I am in a wealthy area that will pay well, and most importantly I want to HIRE people. You cannot hire people and scale flipping the way you could a blue collar business. Which is why I believe lipping will always be a side hustle.

Does anyone know how to find clients if I have no experience?

I have created a FB page but I will NOT link it here as it is against the rules.

Update:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sweatystartup/comments/xax8xf/update_hired_my_1st_employee

 

[alphanoodle]

@stevent2323 I have a friend in MT that is a housepainter. Every year he gives away a free exterior paint job to a person nominated on his fb business page. The goodwill and word of mouth on this is ineffable.

 

[lbrox]

@alphanoodle I’m not a painter but I’m taking this idea!

 

[nesha012]

@alphanoodle the simplicity of this…

 

[petervonverkannt]

@alphanoodle Absolutely agree with you! The generosity your friend shows by giving away a free exterior paint job each year is truly commendable. Such acts of kindness not only help those in need but also build a strong, positive reputation for his business within the community. It's a brilliant example of how businesses can contribute to their communities and thrive by fostering goodwill and trust. This initiative surely encourages more people to engage with and support his business, proving that acts of goodwill can create invaluable word-of-mouth promotion. Kudos to your friend for setting such a wonderful example!

 

[amcm93]

@stevent2323 Buddy of mine left white collar work and started his own remodeling company seven years ago. He started with house painting, just like you. Once he decided to jump in with both feet, he went to a local property management company, gave them a list of services he offered, and offered them a discount on labor in exchange for bulk projects. On my urging, he started leaving a magnetized business card on the refrigerator of each home he worked on. Fast forward five years: most of the property owners eventually became customers on their own, and spread the word to their friends who needed painting and remodeling services. Now he's in with the country club set in his area, has hired a crew, and is still growing steadily each year.

Talk to the local property management companies in your area. They are ALWAYS looking for reputable contractors, and will give darn near any one a shot if their prices are reasonable. Be sure you're leaving business cards everywhere you go, especially at your local paint shops, and set up a Google My Business listing to capture local leads. You should start seeing leads come in steadily in no time.

 

[stevent2323]

@amcm93 Thank you, this is VERY helpful information

 

[amcm93]

@stevent2323 Glad to help! Feel free to reach out any time if you need any more specifics. And GOOD LUCK!!

 

[frankdux]

@amcm93

Buddy of mine left white collar work

Can you elaborate more on this? I'm contemplating leaving my office job. I'm 5 years out of university and I don't like the idea of wasting away in an office.

 

[puddy]

@frankdux One week of painting interiors I made 4k pure profit in 7 days of work. One interior job 5 days and one cabinet painting job 1.5 days

 

[that1gurl77798]

@stevent2323 If you already have FB page, get a FB Ads expert to help you run some local ads for the areas you want to target with your house painting services. This or Google Ads are your best bet. Hope this helps!

 

[stevent2323]

@that1gurl77798 Thank you that is helpful. I think I'm going to try to hire a college student for 5 hours a week. If that doesn't work I will just have to use fiverr for SEO and other website work

 

[lbrox]

@stevent2323 Get door hangers printed and go to the wealthiest parts of town and hang them on thousands of doors.
Go on Nextdoor and post about your business.
Go on Facebook and post in local groups, potentially offering a heavy discount on a set number of customers as you’re getting started.
Do these things before you start running ads or paying anyone. If I see a Facebook ad for a company, I would Google them before hiring them and I wouldn’t hire them if they have 0 Google reviews.
Good luck!

 

[jimmy2356]

@stevent2323 Find handymen who don't like painting and take gigs from them. Keep in mind that some clients like to sacrifice some aesthetic details for cost savings, while others want things perfect, and this can cause a huge difference in price. If people want things to look really nice, I quote twice as much as for the more efficient, less expensive paint jobs. Also, some customers are going to ask you for more coats of paint than is actually needed because they're reading instructions that apply to paint formulas from 30 years ago, or for the cheapest possible paint. On some jobs, you can get away with one coat of a good paint/primer mix (I usually go with the 2nd most expensive Behr paint). If you're painting onto freshly mudded drywall, don't use Bullseye primer. It asks you to let drywall mud cure for a few weeks first, because if you don't, the Bullseye primer will pull the mud off the wall when you roll it on. I just never use Bullseye primer and I'm fine.

I got started in the trades trying to open a painting business under a handyman LLC in Florida, but it just ended up turning into an actual handyman business, and later a general contracting company. I didn't have any professional experience in the trades when I started, but I had been fairly involved as an amateur in the trades, and I did a great job of figuring it out on the fly. My plan was also to just hire out all the labor, but I ended up doing most of the work for a while and have been stuck in production management since I started 6 years ago because I keep moving and reopening my business. Don't sell work for too little and hire a great production manager, and you'll do better than me.

Depends on where you are, but it's gonna be hard to make it work if you're charging anything below $35/man-hour. You'll want to charge more if you can, but people seem to tend to try to pay less for painting than for other trades. That's part of why I started doing general handyman stuff, but also because filling the schedule is easier with more services being offered.

I usually get plenty of work through word of mouth, but when I'm starting up, I make a Google business listing, a website, a Facebook page, and I use thumbtack/buildzoom to fill time if I really need to. I've never bothered much with the Facebook pages and never got anything from them, but that's just because work is so easy to come by, I didn't need to put effort into Facebook. Do a map Search for rental property management companies in your area and drop off your information in the offices (make a flyer listing your services, rate, business name, UBI, EIN, etc.). Not all property management companies will want to pay your rate, but some might. General contractors subcontracting you out would probably be trying to pay you the least. If a GC tries to get you to do a job for them on a bid or per square foot, be careful. Don't let people try to sneak additional work into your bid either.

 

[stevent2323]

@jimmy2356 Thank you. I appreciate the detailed comment and will take this information into consideration.

 

[613jono]

@stevent2323 Join the local facebook group for real estate investors. Always people looking to have investment properties painted and lot of these people own more than one property.