December 12, 2025 • 29 mins
In this episode of The Profitable Painter Podcast, Daniel sits down with José, founder of Refined Painting in Washington State, one of the fastest-growing painting companies in the country.
José’s story is wild:
He entered the industry as an estimator for only 3–4 months, had zero painting experience, then quit to launch his own company, and proceeded to hit $1 million in just eight months, followed by $2 million in year two, all while painting is only possible 3 months out of the year in Seattle.
His growth engine? A high-performance door-to-door team, smart recruiting, premium pricing, strong subcontractor relationships, and relentless action-taking.
Whether you want to scale fast, build a canvassing team, or boost your pricing and margins, this episode is packed with gold.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- How José launched a painting business with no painting experience, and still crushed $1M+.
- The door-to-door system (from Trade Launch) that generated the bulk of his leads.
- How he built a canvassing team of up to six reps, and kept them motivated with weekly pay + strong commissions.
- Why outbound marketing costs (like 6% commissions) are a bargain when scaling aggressively.
- How he secured reliable subs, paid them fast, and kept them loyal.
- The leadership mistake that caused his revenue to dip, and how he rebuilt his D2D team.
- How pricing upgrades (like Emerald instead of SuperPaint) massively boosted profits.
- The mindset shift that allowed José to let go of control and scale.
If you're serious about building momentum, quickly, this is one of the most actionable episodes of the year.
Subscribe now to learn how to grow your painting business with speed, systems, and smart strategy!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Profitable Painter Podcast.
Making this podcast is simple tohelp you navigate the financial
and tax aspects of starting,running, and stealing a
professional painter business.
From the breadths and letters tothe spreadsheets and balance
sheets, we've got to cover.
But before we dive in, a quickword of caution.
Always strive to provideaccurate, up-to-date financial
(00:20):
and tax information.
Nothing easier on this podcastshould be considered as
financial advice specificallyfor you or your business.
With you to share generalknowledge and experiences, not
to replace particular advicefrom a professional financial
advisor or tax consultant.
We strongly recommend speakingindividualized advice or making
any significant financialdecisions.
SPEAKER_01 (00:42):
Welcome to the Profitable Painter Podcast, the
show where painting contractorslearn how to boost profits, cut
taxes, and build a business thatworks for them.
I'm your host, Daniel Honan,CPA, former painting business
owner, and your guide tomastering the numbers that drive
success.
So let's dive in and make yourbusiness more profitable, one
episode at a time.
Super excited today.
(01:06):
Super excited to talk to youtoday.
Jose, how's it going?
SPEAKER_02 (01:09):
It's going great, Daniel.
How about yourself?
SPEAKER_01 (01:12):
Doing well.
Excited to jump into theconversation.
So just to give folks a littlebit of background on yourself,
could you uh let us know how didyou get started in the painting
industry and what have been somemajor milestones along the way?
SPEAKER_02 (01:26):
Yeah, so I got started in the painting industry
as an estimator at anotherpainting company here in
Seattle.
And I was there for threemonths, four months, and I
decided that I was ready tostart my own painting business.
Uh no painting experience uhever.
Um I barely knew how to estimatewhat I was estimating already.
Um, and I decided to go uh takethe leap of faith and start my
(01:48):
own painting business.
Um now we're one year in.
Uh we hit were able to hit uh$1million our first eight months
in business.
Now we are a year and a half in,um, and we're on track to hit uh
over two million dollars oursecond year in business.
SPEAKER_01 (02:05):
So you're you're gonna hit two million dollars by
the end of this year?
Correct, yes.
Wow.
So year two, two million dollarsin the first eight months.
You said that you did uh amillion dollars in the first
eight months.
SPEAKER_02 (02:19):
Yeah, so we started in February last year.
Um, and come December we wereable to hit um surpass our one
million mark.
Um, and then obviously uh 2025,we started to fresh late, and
then now we're um gonna behitting over$200 in revenue.
SPEAKER_01 (02:34):
Awesome.
And so you're you're doingresidential repaint exclusively?
SPEAKER_02 (02:38):
Yes.
Uh we did do a little bit ofcommercial to keep our guys busy
last winter.
Uh, but primarily I would say95% of our work is residential
repaints.
SPEAKER_01 (02:47):
Okay, cool.
So what how were you able togrow so quickly?
Like what do you attribute thatthat growth to?
SPEAKER_02 (02:56):
I attribute a lot to uh I was able to come across
Justin.
Um he owns Tradem, uh, where heteaches you how to do door to
door.
Uh I was able to come across himvery early on.
Um, and thankfully the majorityof our business was uh driven
through door to door.
Um so yeah, that was majority ofthat's the main reason for our
success.
And obviously, just takingaction is also another part of
(03:18):
it.
SPEAKER_01 (03:18):
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that's huge.
Um that's great stuff.
So uh so you worked with Justinat Trade Launch, and for those
that don't know, Trade Launch,they focus pretty much
exclusively on door-to-door,building a door-to-door team
that can go out now and getleads uh so that you can grow
your painting business that way.
(03:39):
And uh he's gotten some greatresults over there.
So um what did that look like?
Did you like from day one justwent with Trade Launch in their
system?
Or like was there a time whereyou didn't have that working
with them?
SPEAKER_02 (03:52):
Or no, I I wish I wish he was like this.
Um, obviously, like any paintingbusiness, you know, there's like
a risk that goes into it.
And I found out about Justin, Ibelieve, in December.
Um, and I've been following himfor a little bit and I happen to
call, I believe, late, lateJanuary.
And he was like, the time is nowif you want to do it.
And it was a big risk for mebecause I've never, you know,
(04:17):
paid for any programs or anymentorship.
Um, and once I got that going, Iwas able to hit boots uh on on
ground uh come February.
Um, I was able to build mydoor-to-door team relatively
quick.
Uh, I have a sales background,so it was something easier for
me to tackle.
Um, and then we just startedhitting the doors, building our
(04:38):
team up, and then we startedgetting more work.
And obviously now there'sreferrals and repeat clients.
Um, and in Seattle here, Daniel,uh, you can only paint three
months in the whole year.
So it was we were ready, we'reoff for the races come June.
Um, and thankfully that helpedus get to our one million mark.
SPEAKER_01 (04:56):
Okay.
So June uh is kind of when youbecause you're focusing
exclusively on the exteriors oryeah, so that's most of our our
our business is exteriors, um,and it's because we only have a
limited time to paint.
SPEAKER_02 (05:10):
So everybody's like, you have to fit like 200 plus
exteriors in three months.
Uh it's very tactic, but it'spossible.
Um, so that's how we were ableto, you know, get the business
that we got and maximize on itfor our first year business.
SPEAKER_01 (05:25):
So, how did you source um how many door-to-door
canvassers did you source in thebeginning to to help you hit
that one million dollars inrevenue?
Like how many um, how large of ateam were you running?
SPEAKER_02 (05:39):
Yeah, so in the beginning with just me and my
brother.
Um, my brother also has a salesbackground in uh with car sales.
Um from then we started buildingup the team.
We got up to a point where wehad uh six door-to-door reps at
a point.
Um, and Daniel, door-to-door isa difficult job.
Um, I mean, you're gettingrejection across rejection.
So sometimes we would have fourguys and then we would hire
(06:02):
again and then it would be six.
But the most amount of people Ithink was able to have that were
part of my team collectively wassix people.
So uh six people was our team.
SPEAKER_01 (06:12):
So how did you how do you deal with the because you
mentioned the churn is prettyhigh for door-to-door?
What what are the things thatyou're doing to to keep those
folks around as long aspossible?
Like what have you found thatworks to keep them motivated,
well trained, and to stickaround, you know, to get some
good results?
SPEAKER_02 (06:32):
Yeah, I mean, I think the the beginning is um we
were doing hourly rate.
So that allowed us to bringpeople into the business uh
because you're you know lettingthese people get the taste of
sales without going the way ofbecause most painting companies
or most sales companies standyou are like commission only,
and that's it.
So we were able to bring inpeople through an hourly pay,
(06:54):
uh, which allowed us to open upthe demographic to uh applicants
that were applying for us.
Um and then from there we werejust higher, we're offering
higher um commissions.
Um, and then Justin has a thingwhere it's like an A lead, a B C
a B lead, and a C lead, um,which is the type of lead that
your door-to-door apps aregetting.
Uh, and we would paysignificantly more for eight
(07:15):
leads.
We were we're we were paying themost in in all of Seattle.
Um so I think that was also whatallowed us to get the talent
that we were able to get.
SPEAKER_01 (07:25):
Yeah, I think is it like six percent of what they of
the lead that you have?
SPEAKER_02 (07:29):
Yeah, yeah, looking back at it now, it's like six
percent.
I mean, I know there was timeswe were running like fifths and
it ended up being like eight toten percent at some times, but
yeah, it was the um averagingsix percent.
SPEAKER_01 (07:40):
Okay.
So for for those A-leads thatthat close, they're getting six
percent of that.
SPEAKER_02 (07:48):
And so that was your average job size like a five
thousand dollars or something,or no, uh in Seattle our X RCs
and our average job size wastwelve thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_01 (07:57):
12,000?
Yeah, so 12 six percent oftwelve thousand is seven hundred
and twenty dollars.
Yeah, so that's that's a lot ofmoney for uh a door to door
person, and that's good.
I mean, that's like I mean,because um and Justin, we you
know, just at the the paint conum listened to Justin talk on
(08:19):
this.
So and and I I definitely seethe same thing looking at
people's financials for uh forFacebook or Facebook's a good
example because Facebook isoutbound where you're you're
getting in front of people whoweren't thinking about painting,
you know.
Same thing with door to door,you're getting in front of
people who may might not havenecessarily been thinking about
painting.
So it's an outbound topmarketing strategy.
(08:41):
And so for Facebook, it's notuncommon for folks to pay you
know 10, 10, 12 um on ad spend,you know, to to get customers.
So six percent might sound a lotif sound like a lot of uh if
you're used to just sitting backand and waiting for someone to
(09:04):
Google your company or um youknow find your website somehow.
Six percent might sound like alot, but that's more like an
in-bound strategy, which is alot a lot lower cost.
But if you're actually trying togrow aggressively, which you
obviously were and did, umoutbound type marketing costs
(09:26):
typically range uh on the lowend, five super low end would be
five percent, but typically it'ssomewhere around 10 and maybe
even 15% of marketing spendingto get uh so you know for the
for the listeners, like sixpercent might sound like a lot,
but typically is actually foroutbound type marketing, it's
more like 10% typically.
So um now the six percentcommission, are you were you
(09:51):
paying your door-to-door folkslike employees or like
subcontractors?
SPEAKER_02 (09:56):
So I was paying them as employees.
I believe that one of the firstquestions that we would get when
we were hiring is am I gonna bea 1099?
And the reason why is becausethey were doing so many
interviews for door-to-door thatthe 1099 was something that got
brought up right away.
Uh and I wanted I want my guysto feel like they're part of my
team.
Because realistic, I mean theyare part of my team.
So I don't want them to feellike, oh, you guys are your own
(10:17):
tenant.
So I I brought them on as W2employees, and well, another
thing that we were able to do tokind of get more talent, Daniel,
was we were paying on a weeklybasis.
A lot of companies often pay,hey, we'll pay you the
percentage once the job closes.
We are paying you guys like oncesorry, when the job is produced,
we were paying them as soon asthe job closed because we had
(10:38):
healthy margins and a profit forus to be able to do that.
Um so that's why we did, andpeople like that.
Because a lot of people wereoffering, like, yeah, we'll pay
you this much, but it's untilthat job produces.
And it's like, I don't want youguys to sit around waiting two
to three months for your guys'payment.
So those two things are whathelped us out a lot.
SPEAKER_01 (10:54):
Yeah.
So for the employee piece, um,you know, I I think you were
right in because you you usuallyhave to train door-to-door folks
on how to do it right.
Train them on the script, showthem the neighborhoods.
I mean, you can maybe get awaywith doing paying them as a
subcontractor, like if ifthey've done it before and just
(11:16):
give them the script and likehave them run through it.
But I think it it could makesense either way.
But uh with with the employees,I definitely see you know um
that argument, and especially ifyou want them to wear your your
your gear and stuff, and uh andif especially if you're growing
them to be maybe a futuresalesperson, uh like a closer.
(11:37):
Um but uh so the six percent iswhat they're getting in
commission, it's probably a noteto say like you probably had to
pay payroll taxes on that, soit's really gonna end up on your
profit and losses like seven, alittle over seven percent.
Um, but still, even with that,it's still pretty pretty good,
pretty low for outboundmarketing, which is awesome.
(11:59):
Now, the other thing wementioned was like you're paying
them right after the job isclosed.
I'm assuming you were doing somesort of deposit, like you're
taking a deposit for the jobsthat you booked, is that right?
SPEAKER_02 (12:11):
Or yeah, and so we were doing 50% deposits on all
of our projects.
Um, so that allowed us to have50% up front.
Um, and then Danny, we run asubmodel, so um there's no
upfront costs or things that wehave with our painters.
SPEAKER_01 (12:25):
Cool.
Yeah, so you're so you're ableto uh get that cash from the
customer, use that cash to payyour your customer acquisition
costs, you're basically yourdoor-to-door people.
Um so and then I'm uh I'massuming your your closers as
well.
unknown (12:41):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (12:41):
Uh so that makes a lot of sense.
So you're able to maintain goodcash flow by basically using
your customers' money to thenpay down your customer
acquisition costs, which is yourdoor-to-door people and your
closers, immediately.
So you're reinforcing that when,you know, where they they got
that lead, you know, it wasbooked a few days later, I'm
assuming, on the on the calendarfor that for an estimate.
(13:04):
And then, you know, potentiallythey got that bonus, that six
percent commission, you know,within a week or two uh on on a
lot of them.
Is that right?
SPEAKER_02 (13:16):
Yeah, and it was great.
There was time in Daniel wherewe're doing closing jobs in
March and April, and we weren'tdoing their jobs until August.
So we had 50% a couple months inadvance, um, which was great.
Um, Daniel, one thing I do wantto talk about is um people
sometimes they have to in theirmind, they're like, I can't get
50%, or I can't charge thisamount of money.
(13:37):
Um, and the the good thing thatI've had Daniel is I worked for
a painting company that was oneof the most expensive ones where
they were I was used to as anestimator or closer to get 50%.
And we were the one of the mostexpensive.
So when people hear our averageticket, they're like, that's a
high average ticket.
And it's because I was alreadymy mind, was already used to
selling higher ticket items.
(13:57):
So that's also helped us get toa million dollars in revenue, is
because we were selling projectsat higher price.
SPEAKER_01 (14:03):
Um, so yeah, this good point.
So like uh twelve thousanddollar average ticket, and and
this is mostly because it wasfull exterior.
Did you do like a good betterbest type option or something
like that?
How did you how did you get theuh the average?
Was it just larger homes thatyou were targeting, or were you
doing some sort of um upsellprocess there?
SPEAKER_02 (14:25):
It was mainly upsell.
I wish I would have had the goodbetter best.
Uh that's something that we'reactually doing now, uh, but it's
not something that I did backthen.
So um back then, what we weredoing is we were just this is
where we're at, and we wereusing products that other
painting companies weren'toffering um or doing, and we
would just offer them as anupgrade, and that's why we were
(14:47):
able to charge more.
So a lot of painters here thatused to be paid for body and
trim.
We're in the rainy state wherewe get really harsh weather,
like right now, it's like 40something degrees.
Um, and we want we upgraded themover to Emerald for trim.
Those slight upgrades was ableto bring in a couple thousand
dollars of a difference.
So that's what helped us out alot.
SPEAKER_01 (15:53):
Nice.
So with those upgrades on paint,um, you're able to basically not
really those upgrades mostlywent to the bottom line.
So it probably really helpedwith not only your your average
job size, but also your justbottom line in general.
Because I'm I'm assuming thoseupsells were uh pretty minimal
(16:16):
in terms of the cost to you.
SPEAKER_02 (16:19):
Yeah, our guys like using emerald anyway, so it
worked out with a win-to-win.
Um so it was a nice nice.
SPEAKER_01 (16:27):
Um cool.
So going, I'm just curious aboutthe you know, we talked about
attracting the the door-to-doorfolks.
You had you paid them weekly,you pay paid them quickly, you
know, after the job was booked,you pay them a very uh a high uh
(16:48):
commission relative to otherfolks.
Um did you did that really kindof solve the churn, or did you
still have a higher churn?
Like I'm I'm assuming you know,a lot of the challenges that I
hear with door to door is thatyou know you bring someone on
(17:09):
and you might think that they'regonna work out, but then they
kind of just they getdiscouraged because you know,
getting the door slammed in yourface hundreds of times uh can be
can be challenging to deal with.
So like uh do you did you learnanything on I on identifying the
right people, or or did you kindof already have a good talent
(17:32):
base to work from that thesewere door-to-door people who
were familiar with it and it waspretty much just giving them a
new script?
SPEAKER_02 (17:41):
Um, I will so I I I want to share something as well.
So we did really good, Daniel,with door-to-door.
Um in the round, no, the August.
Um, so we had our highest monthin July.
I'm giving you this for context.
Um, our highest month was inJuly, we did 316 uh in the month
of July.
And then after July, Daniel, ourbusiness went like this.
(18:02):
Um, so what happened?
Was that he got reallycomfortable, very complacent,
and he was like, Oh we just did316 and the next month we did
horrible.
And what happened was I did 316,my head just felt like this big,
and I was a became a bad leader.
I wasn't showing up like Ishould anymore, um, and I wasn't
(18:24):
giving my guys the training thatthey deserved, and I ultimately
lost my door-to-door team.
Um, and it's the reason why I'mgetting at this is because when
it comes to door-to-door, Iprimarily was looking after
people who had no experience.
Um, people usually um peopleusually like to hire people with
experience, and I think that'sgreat uh for certain roles, but
I think for door-to-door, um,you want to be able to have
(18:46):
someone who has a clean slate soyou can show them, hey, this is
what we do, this is why we doit.
Oftentimes when you hire peoplewith experience, they already
have certain things in theirmind, and that's how they do
them, and there's no way you getout of that state of mind.
So that's my reason why I hiredprimarily people who've never
done door-to-door.
Um, and I think the reason why Iwas able to hold my door-to-door
(19:06):
reps and have not an insaneamount of turnover for the first
few months of my business wasbecause I was training every
single day with them and I wasgiving them the training and
attention that they deserved.
Um, after July, um, I ended upletting go of the training and
attention that they deserved,and that's why I lost my team.
I'm very happy to share withyou, Daniel, now that in the
last month and a half, we wereable to regain our door-to-door
(19:29):
team.
So for about eight months, uh,nine months in business, I had
no door-to-door team.
Um, and what ended up happeningas well when I lost my
door-to-door team is I now hadcash flow and I was able to
bring on uh Tritis as mymarketing uh company.
And we did really good withTritis, and I like doing my
door-to-door team, but I uh Inow have a door-to-door team.
SPEAKER_01 (19:51):
Yeah, nice.
Well, that's that's a killerstack there with uh doing uh
social media outbound and alsodoor-to-door outbound.
I mean, so that's uh especiallyif you have both dialed in, so
it sounds like you definitelyhave the experience with running
door-to-door team and thenadding that on top of your
(20:12):
social media, um, which I knowtried us gets gets good results.
Um and uh so that's that'sawesome.
So it sounds like you know, youhave the marketing really
figured out, but you know, withwith the marketing, you know,
comes that you you actually haveto produce the work too.
So how are you able to ensurethat you had enough of a team to
(20:37):
actually produce all the workthat you were booking?
SPEAKER_02 (20:41):
So I was interviewing people February,
um, and I actually landed a job.
It was it was too complicatedfor me to understand.
And I ended up hiring a subteam.
For me, this was like a smalljob, small two to three-day job.
And what actually needed tohappen was we had to remove all
the taping on the ceiling andretape it, mud, texture, and
(21:02):
everything.
And I came across asubcontractor, his name's
Editor, and Editor told me, Hey,Jose, I want to work with you.
I know you have a lot ofpotential.
This job was severely underbid.
And he said, Don't worry though,like I want to build a
partnership up with you.
And um, we got along very well.
Daniel was a very honestcontractor, and unfortunately,
(21:25):
you don't find many of those.
Everybody's just like up, and Iunderstand you know they want as
much money as possible.
And we were able to build up aconnection, a partnership, and
he did primarily all of ourproduction when it came to 2024.
And we we just counted on him,and he brought in two, he
created two teams.
So we were able to get all thework done with two teams, and
(21:47):
then we'd hire we would hiresub-teams to help out on our on
our more busier weeks, uh, butprimarily just interviewing
them.
Justin has a really good systemin his group where he shares
with you how to interview whatquestions to ask for for your
subs to make sure that you'regetting the best subs possible
as well.
SPEAKER_01 (22:04):
Okay, so you you brought in this basically like a
production manager to kind ofmanage the uh the crews, is that
right?
SPEAKER_02 (22:12):
No, uh, he was uh a sub, but his name is Editor, and
he was the guy who taught meeverything I needed to know
about him.
I was production, I was sales, Iwas all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01 (22:22):
Gotcha.
Okay, so he kind of justmentored you, and and then you
took the that uh learning andthen kind of implemented it from
there.
Correct, cool.
Um so with the uh so youbasically were able to um get
some mentorship, and then alsoyou were screening, you had a
(22:44):
screening methodology to screensubs and to get them.
So what how are you gettingthose candidates, those sub
candidates in?
Like, how are you actually likewhat was your channel?
Were you posting on Craigslist?
Were you using uh going to thepaint store?
Like, how were you actuallygetting those leads in?
SPEAKER_02 (23:02):
Um Daniel or not, sorry, Justin has uh a thing
where he just says, Hey, justlook up painters in your local
uh contractor pages on Facebook.
Uh and I went ahead and did thatand thankfully I was able to
find um a few crews to to workwith within that group.
SPEAKER_01 (23:17):
Cool.
SPEAKER_02 (23:18):
So basically just searching on Facebook and and
DMing those painting businessesjust being like, hey, uh looking
for painters, and everybody justI didn't have to DM anyone, it
would just would attach theirnumbers and I would just go
through a whole list of peopleand call them and meet meet up
with them at a at a Starbucks.
It was really funny.
I had like 30-minute slots foreveryone.
(23:39):
Like you're I met like sevensubs in one day, like it was
crazy.
Uh but yeah, it was great.
SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
Okay, so you're doing a Facebook post on it in a
Facebook group.
SPEAKER_02 (23:48):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:49):
Okay, gotcha.
All right, so you're findinglike a local uh Facebook group
in your area and saying, Hey,I'm looking for painters, there
and then you're giving themlike, hey, show up here, this
time and location, and thenyou're just doing like kind of a
group interview or like runningthrough uh a group interview and
going through candidates there.
Is that right?
SPEAKER_02 (24:09):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (24:10):
Yeah, okay, awesome.
Good stuff.
And and uh you would just dothat kind of periodically, or
was it just when you needed it?
SPEAKER_02 (24:18):
Or well, we only did it once.
Uh we did it a few times, but Ithe primary one was one time,
and that's I was able to findfour of the sub teams that I
used throughout the year.
So it was great.
unknown (24:28):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:28):
Okay.
So it sounds like you're uhyou're able that first uh effort
you know really paid off becauseI know some people go through
subs, you know, um prettyfrequently.
So it sounds like you found somegood some good folks, and or you
had a really good system to makesure clear expectations were you
(24:51):
know on on each side, that youguys worked well together, that
there's a good communication.
I guess tell me about that.
Like um, how are you because youyou found your four main subs on
the first try, and then you'veyou've kept them the entire
time, it's been like a year ormore.
SPEAKER_02 (25:06):
Yeah.
Um, so I think the primaryreason, Daniel, is most people
see contractors and subs aslike, let's pay them the least
amount of money as possible.
And you know, obviously what'simportant is understanding what
your margins are and what youwant your your split to be.
So for me, I believe in uhpaying uh our subs well and
paying them uh you know a goodwage.
At the end of the day, you wantto make sure you're tracking
(25:27):
certain talent.
I mean, you have this type oftier of subs and you have this
type of tier of subs.
The only difference is obviouslythe experience, and obviously
they're gonna want more money onthis side.
So if I can get this kind ofsub, um, an A-player sub, then
that would be really great.
So we pay people, we havesystems in place, we pay them
right as soon as we got a finalpaycheck, we would pay them
right away.
Um, as opposed to othercontractors, we'd be like, oh,
(25:50):
hey, we'll pay you 30 dayslater, a couple weeks later.
We didn't believe in that.
Like as soon as you're done,here's your month, um, which is
really great.
Out of the four teams that wehad, uh, right now we currently
are still using two of the twoof the four.
The other two, um, it just wehad a split ways for certain
reasons, but we're still incommunication.
(26:10):
So if they ever, if we ever getbusy, we can always reach out to
them as well.
SPEAKER_01 (26:14):
Okay.
That's fair.
Awesome.
Wow.
So you've uh you've definitelyaccomplished a lot very quickly.
Um, what are what have been somethe biggest maybe the biggest
challenge during this very fastgrowth over the last couple of
years?
SPEAKER_02 (26:32):
I think is um the biggest challenges has been, you
know, being able to hire uhcertain people.
Uh because, you know, Daniel, Iwas doing everything.
And it's I'm someone who needsto have control of everything.
Uh and it was letting go of thatinitially what was really hard
for me.
Um and what I would just say,just find finding someone that
(26:55):
you can fold trust in to letthem go and uh and do what you
were doing before.
Uh, and I think it's that's oneof the most important things.
And then realizing that there'speople who are better than you
at doing certain things.
Um, and you don't have to be thesmartest to say you don't have
to be the best at doing this.
I think that was one of thebiggest things that was hard for
me to understand.
Um, and I think that primarilythat's the biggest one.
(27:18):
Um, I think that stays with methroughout my whole trajectory.
SPEAKER_01 (27:22):
Yeah.
So it sounds like realizing thatuh you're you letting go of
control, like being willing tolet go, put somebody that's good
to uh to take your place, andthen realizing that you're not
the best at everything.
Like pe other people canactually do better than what
than what you can do, especiallyif they're focused exclusively
(27:45):
on it and you are doing 15 otherthings and you know you're just
like partially focused on that.
So uh that makes that makes alot of sense.
Cool.
Um now I think this is superhelpful for for folks,
especially who maybe arethinking about getting started,
um, or either started justgenerally or started on
(28:06):
door-to-door.
Uh and I think I think you'veprovided a lot of cool insights
into your process.
I appreciate you sharing.
Do you have any other finalthoughts of um running a
painting business or scaling itso quickly like you did?
Uh any any thoughts or asks ofthe of the audience?
SPEAKER_02 (28:26):
Yeah, no, I think the biggest thing that um people
a lot of people tend to forgetand they get stuck on is you
don't have to reinvent thewheel.
Um, thankfully, I was able tocome across Justin very early
on, and I believe in um you knowinvesting into mentorship.
There's a reason why they arewhere they are, and if you're
able to not make mistakes theydid and pay a certain amount of
(28:48):
a certain fee for that, you'resaving time and you're saving
mistakes, which ultimately meansmore money.
Um, and then just going outthere and taking action.
Uh Daniel, I I'm I'm not anyone,I'm not big or anything at all.
Uh, but I do the people who whoreach out to me uh on a weekly
basis, and I like to helpeveryone as much as possible.
I think I'm here on this role tohelp others.
(29:10):
The biggest thing that I seewith everyone is out of maybe
seven people who've hit me up inthe last week and a half, maybe
two of them take action.
And those are the the onlythings that makes a difference
between the set the other fiveversus the two, just taking
action.
So my biggest thing to everyoneis take that risk, take the
action.
Uh now's the time, there's nobetter time.
(29:30):
Um and that's just the onlything that I tell people, just
take action and literally reachout to people.
You'd be surprised how manypeople actually want to help
you.
Um, and just get over that uhfear of you know, that
nervousness of just reaching outto somebody.
SPEAKER_01 (29:46):
Love it.
Take action.
Don't don't uh don't get stuckwith uh analysis paralysis.
So makes sense.
Um I think you're killing it,Jose.
Uh so I appreciate your sharingyour journey and uh I look
forward to to seeing what you doin the future.
Uh and I appreciate you maybenext time you can come come back
(30:07):
on the podcast and talk abouthow you crossed over 10 million
um next time.
SPEAKER_02 (30:12):
Yeah, that's great.
SPEAKER_01 (30:14):
So cool.
Well, I really appreciate yourtime, Jose.
And for the listeners, withthat, we will see you next week.
Welcome to the Profitable Painter Podcast.
Making this podcast is simple tohelp you navigate the financial
and tax aspects of starting,running, and stealing a
professional painter business.
From the breadths and letters tothe spreadsheets and balance
sheets, we've got to cover.
But before we dive in, a quickword of caution.
Always strive to provideaccurate, up-to-date financial
(00:20):
and tax information.
Nothing easier on this podcastshould be considered as
financial advice specificallyfor you or your business.
With you to share generalknowledge and experiences, not
to replace particular advicefrom a professional financial
advisor or tax consultant.
We strongly recommend speakingindividualized advice or making
any significant financialdecisions.
SPEAKER_01 (00:42):
Welcome to the Profitable Painter Podcast, the
show where painting contractorslearn how to boost profits, cut
taxes, and build a business thatworks for them.
I'm your host, Daniel Honan,CPA, former painting business
owner, and your guide tomastering the numbers that drive
success.
So let's dive in and make yourbusiness more profitable, one
episode at a time.
Super excited today.
(01:06):
Super excited to talk to youtoday.
Jose, how's it going?
SPEAKER_02 (01:09):
It's going great, Daniel.
How about yourself?
SPEAKER_01 (01:12):
Doing well.
Excited to jump into theconversation.
So just to give folks a littlebit of background on yourself,
could you uh let us know how didyou get started in the painting
industry and what have been somemajor milestones along the way?
SPEAKER_02 (01:26):
Yeah, so I got started in the painting industry
as an estimator at anotherpainting company here in
Seattle.
And I was there for threemonths, four months, and I
decided that I was ready tostart my own painting business.
Uh no painting experience uhever.
Um I barely knew how to estimatewhat I was estimating already.
Um, and I decided to go uh takethe leap of faith and start my
(01:48):
own painting business.
Um now we're one year in.
Uh we hit were able to hit uh$1million our first eight months
in business.
Now we are a year and a half in,um, and we're on track to hit uh
over two million dollars oursecond year in business.
SPEAKER_01 (02:05):
So you're you're gonna hit two million dollars by
the end of this year?
Correct, yes.
Wow.
So year two, two million dollarsin the first eight months.
You said that you did uh amillion dollars in the first
eight months.
SPEAKER_02 (02:19):
Yeah, so we started in February last year.
Um, and come December we wereable to hit um surpass our one
million mark.
Um, and then obviously uh 2025,we started to fresh late, and
then now we're um gonna behitting over$200 in revenue.
SPEAKER_01 (02:34):
Awesome.
And so you're you're doingresidential repaint exclusively?
SPEAKER_02 (02:38):
Yes.
Uh we did do a little bit ofcommercial to keep our guys busy
last winter.
Uh, but primarily I would say95% of our work is residential
repaints.
SPEAKER_01 (02:47):
Okay, cool.
So what how were you able togrow so quickly?
Like what do you attribute thatthat growth to?
SPEAKER_02 (02:56):
I attribute a lot to uh I was able to come across
Justin.
Um he owns Tradem, uh, where heteaches you how to do door to
door.
Uh I was able to come across himvery early on.
Um, and thankfully the majorityof our business was uh driven
through door to door.
Um so yeah, that was majority ofthat's the main reason for our
success.
And obviously, just takingaction is also another part of
(03:18):
it.
SPEAKER_01 (03:18):
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that's huge.
Um that's great stuff.
So uh so you worked with Justinat Trade Launch, and for those
that don't know, Trade Launch,they focus pretty much
exclusively on door-to-door,building a door-to-door team
that can go out now and getleads uh so that you can grow
your painting business that way.
(03:39):
And uh he's gotten some greatresults over there.
So um what did that look like?
Did you like from day one justwent with Trade Launch in their
system?
Or like was there a time whereyou didn't have that working
with them?
SPEAKER_02 (03:52):
Or no, I I wish I wish he was like this.
Um, obviously, like any paintingbusiness, you know, there's like
a risk that goes into it.
And I found out about Justin, Ibelieve, in December.
Um, and I've been following himfor a little bit and I happen to
call, I believe, late, lateJanuary.
And he was like, the time is nowif you want to do it.
And it was a big risk for mebecause I've never, you know,
(04:17):
paid for any programs or anymentorship.
Um, and once I got that going, Iwas able to hit boots uh on on
ground uh come February.
Um, I was able to build mydoor-to-door team relatively
quick.
Uh, I have a sales background,so it was something easier for
me to tackle.
Um, and then we just startedhitting the doors, building our
(04:38):
team up, and then we startedgetting more work.
And obviously now there'sreferrals and repeat clients.
Um, and in Seattle here, Daniel,uh, you can only paint three
months in the whole year.
So it was we were ready, we'reoff for the races come June.
Um, and thankfully that helpedus get to our one million mark.
SPEAKER_01 (04:56):
Okay.
So June uh is kind of when youbecause you're focusing
exclusively on the exteriors oryeah, so that's most of our our
our business is exteriors, um,and it's because we only have a
limited time to paint.
SPEAKER_02 (05:10):
So everybody's like, you have to fit like 200 plus
exteriors in three months.
Uh it's very tactic, but it'spossible.
Um, so that's how we were ableto, you know, get the business
that we got and maximize on itfor our first year business.
SPEAKER_01 (05:25):
So, how did you source um how many door-to-door
canvassers did you source in thebeginning to to help you hit
that one million dollars inrevenue?
Like how many um, how large of ateam were you running?
SPEAKER_02 (05:39):
Yeah, so in the beginning with just me and my
brother.
Um, my brother also has a salesbackground in uh with car sales.
Um from then we started buildingup the team.
We got up to a point where wehad uh six door-to-door reps at
a point.
Um, and Daniel, door-to-door isa difficult job.
Um, I mean, you're gettingrejection across rejection.
So sometimes we would have fourguys and then we would hire
(06:02):
again and then it would be six.
But the most amount of people Ithink was able to have that were
part of my team collectively wassix people.
So uh six people was our team.
SPEAKER_01 (06:12):
So how did you how do you deal with the because you
mentioned the churn is prettyhigh for door-to-door?
What what are the things thatyou're doing to to keep those
folks around as long aspossible?
Like what have you found thatworks to keep them motivated,
well trained, and to stickaround, you know, to get some
good results?
SPEAKER_02 (06:32):
Yeah, I mean, I think the the beginning is um we
were doing hourly rate.
So that allowed us to bringpeople into the business uh
because you're you know lettingthese people get the taste of
sales without going the way ofbecause most painting companies
or most sales companies standyou are like commission only,
and that's it.
So we were able to bring inpeople through an hourly pay,
(06:54):
uh, which allowed us to open upthe demographic to uh applicants
that were applying for us.
Um and then from there we werejust higher, we're offering
higher um commissions.
Um, and then Justin has a thingwhere it's like an A lead, a B C
a B lead, and a C lead, um,which is the type of lead that
your door-to-door apps aregetting.
Uh, and we would paysignificantly more for eight
(07:15):
leads.
We were we're we were paying themost in in all of Seattle.
Um so I think that was also whatallowed us to get the talent
that we were able to get.
SPEAKER_01 (07:25):
Yeah, I think is it like six percent of what they of
the lead that you have?
SPEAKER_02 (07:29):
Yeah, yeah, looking back at it now, it's like six
percent.
I mean, I know there was timeswe were running like fifths and
it ended up being like eight toten percent at some times, but
yeah, it was the um averagingsix percent.
SPEAKER_01 (07:40):
Okay.
So for for those A-leads thatthat close, they're getting six
percent of that.
SPEAKER_02 (07:48):
And so that was your average job size like a five
thousand dollars or something,or no, uh in Seattle our X RCs
and our average job size wastwelve thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_01 (07:57):
12,000?
Yeah, so 12 six percent oftwelve thousand is seven hundred
and twenty dollars.
Yeah, so that's that's a lot ofmoney for uh a door to door
person, and that's good.
I mean, that's like I mean,because um and Justin, we you
know, just at the the paint conum listened to Justin talk on
(08:19):
this.
So and and I I definitely seethe same thing looking at
people's financials for uh forFacebook or Facebook's a good
example because Facebook isoutbound where you're you're
getting in front of people whoweren't thinking about painting,
you know.
Same thing with door to door,you're getting in front of
people who may might not havenecessarily been thinking about
painting.
So it's an outbound topmarketing strategy.
(08:41):
And so for Facebook, it's notuncommon for folks to pay you
know 10, 10, 12 um on ad spend,you know, to to get customers.
So six percent might sound a lotif sound like a lot of uh if
you're used to just sitting backand and waiting for someone to
(09:04):
Google your company or um youknow find your website somehow.
Six percent might sound like alot, but that's more like an
in-bound strategy, which is alot a lot lower cost.
But if you're actually trying togrow aggressively, which you
obviously were and did, umoutbound type marketing costs
(09:26):
typically range uh on the lowend, five super low end would be
five percent, but typically it'ssomewhere around 10 and maybe
even 15% of marketing spendingto get uh so you know for the
for the listeners, like sixpercent might sound like a lot,
but typically is actually foroutbound type marketing, it's
more like 10% typically.
So um now the six percentcommission, are you were you
(09:51):
paying your door-to-door folkslike employees or like
subcontractors?
SPEAKER_02 (09:56):
So I was paying them as employees.
I believe that one of the firstquestions that we would get when
we were hiring is am I gonna bea 1099?
And the reason why is becausethey were doing so many
interviews for door-to-door thatthe 1099 was something that got
brought up right away.
Uh and I wanted I want my guysto feel like they're part of my
team.
Because realistic, I mean theyare part of my team.
So I don't want them to feellike, oh, you guys are your own
(10:17):
tenant.
So I I brought them on as W2employees, and well, another
thing that we were able to do tokind of get more talent, Daniel,
was we were paying on a weeklybasis.
A lot of companies often pay,hey, we'll pay you the
percentage once the job closes.
We are paying you guys like oncesorry, when the job is produced,
we were paying them as soon asthe job closed because we had
(10:38):
healthy margins and a profit forus to be able to do that.
Um so that's why we did, andpeople like that.
Because a lot of people wereoffering, like, yeah, we'll pay
you this much, but it's untilthat job produces.
And it's like, I don't want youguys to sit around waiting two
to three months for your guys'payment.
So those two things are whathelped us out a lot.
SPEAKER_01 (10:54):
Yeah.
So for the employee piece, um,you know, I I think you were
right in because you you usuallyhave to train door-to-door folks
on how to do it right.
Train them on the script, showthem the neighborhoods.
I mean, you can maybe get awaywith doing paying them as a
subcontractor, like if ifthey've done it before and just
(11:16):
give them the script and likehave them run through it.
But I think it it could makesense either way.
But uh with with the employees,I definitely see you know um
that argument, and especially ifyou want them to wear your your
your gear and stuff, and uh andif especially if you're growing
them to be maybe a futuresalesperson, uh like a closer.
(11:37):
Um but uh so the six percent iswhat they're getting in
commission, it's probably a noteto say like you probably had to
pay payroll taxes on that, soit's really gonna end up on your
profit and losses like seven, alittle over seven percent.
Um, but still, even with that,it's still pretty pretty good,
pretty low for outboundmarketing, which is awesome.
(11:59):
Now, the other thing wementioned was like you're paying
them right after the job isclosed.
I'm assuming you were doing somesort of deposit, like you're
taking a deposit for the jobsthat you booked, is that right?
SPEAKER_02 (12:11):
Or yeah, and so we were doing 50% deposits on all
of our projects.
Um, so that allowed us to have50% up front.
Um, and then Danny, we run asubmodel, so um there's no
upfront costs or things that wehave with our painters.
SPEAKER_01 (12:25):
Cool.
Yeah, so you're so you're ableto uh get that cash from the
customer, use that cash to payyour your customer acquisition
costs, you're basically yourdoor-to-door people.
Um so and then I'm uh I'massuming your your closers as
well.
unknown (12:41):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (12:41):
Uh so that makes a lot of sense.
So you're able to maintain goodcash flow by basically using
your customers' money to thenpay down your customer
acquisition costs, which is yourdoor-to-door people and your
closers, immediately.
So you're reinforcing that when,you know, where they they got
that lead, you know, it wasbooked a few days later, I'm
assuming, on the on the calendarfor that for an estimate.
(13:04):
And then, you know, potentiallythey got that bonus, that six
percent commission, you know,within a week or two uh on on a
lot of them.
Is that right?
SPEAKER_02 (13:16):
Yeah, and it was great.
There was time in Daniel wherewe're doing closing jobs in
March and April, and we weren'tdoing their jobs until August.
So we had 50% a couple months inadvance, um, which was great.
Um, Daniel, one thing I do wantto talk about is um people
sometimes they have to in theirmind, they're like, I can't get
50%, or I can't charge thisamount of money.
(13:37):
Um, and the the good thing thatI've had Daniel is I worked for
a painting company that was oneof the most expensive ones where
they were I was used to as anestimator or closer to get 50%.
And we were the one of the mostexpensive.
So when people hear our averageticket, they're like, that's a
high average ticket.
And it's because I was alreadymy mind, was already used to
selling higher ticket items.
(13:57):
So that's also helped us get toa million dollars in revenue, is
because we were selling projectsat higher price.
SPEAKER_01 (14:03):
Um, so yeah, this good point.
So like uh twelve thousanddollar average ticket, and and
this is mostly because it wasfull exterior.
Did you do like a good betterbest type option or something
like that?
How did you how did you get theuh the average?
Was it just larger homes thatyou were targeting, or were you
doing some sort of um upsellprocess there?
SPEAKER_02 (14:25):
It was mainly upsell.
I wish I would have had the goodbetter best.
Uh that's something that we'reactually doing now, uh, but it's
not something that I did backthen.
So um back then, what we weredoing is we were just this is
where we're at, and we wereusing products that other
painting companies weren'toffering um or doing, and we
would just offer them as anupgrade, and that's why we were
(14:47):
able to charge more.
So a lot of painters here thatused to be paid for body and
trim.
We're in the rainy state wherewe get really harsh weather,
like right now, it's like 40something degrees.
Um, and we want we upgraded themover to Emerald for trim.
Those slight upgrades was ableto bring in a couple thousand
dollars of a difference.
So that's what helped us out alot.
SPEAKER_01 (15:53):
Nice.
So with those upgrades on paint,um, you're able to basically not
really those upgrades mostlywent to the bottom line.
So it probably really helpedwith not only your your average
job size, but also your justbottom line in general.
Because I'm I'm assuming thoseupsells were uh pretty minimal
(16:16):
in terms of the cost to you.
SPEAKER_02 (16:19):
Yeah, our guys like using emerald anyway, so it
worked out with a win-to-win.
Um so it was a nice nice.
SPEAKER_01 (16:27):
Um cool.
So going, I'm just curious aboutthe you know, we talked about
attracting the the door-to-doorfolks.
You had you paid them weekly,you pay paid them quickly, you
know, after the job was booked,you pay them a very uh a high uh
(16:48):
commission relative to otherfolks.
Um did you did that really kindof solve the churn, or did you
still have a higher churn?
Like I'm I'm assuming you know,a lot of the challenges that I
hear with door to door is thatyou know you bring someone on
(17:09):
and you might think that they'regonna work out, but then they
kind of just they getdiscouraged because you know,
getting the door slammed in yourface hundreds of times uh can be
can be challenging to deal with.
So like uh do you did you learnanything on I on identifying the
right people, or or did you kindof already have a good talent
(17:32):
base to work from that thesewere door-to-door people who
were familiar with it and it waspretty much just giving them a
new script?
SPEAKER_02 (17:41):
Um, I will so I I I want to share something as well.
So we did really good, Daniel,with door-to-door.
Um in the round, no, the August.
Um, so we had our highest monthin July.
I'm giving you this for context.
Um, our highest month was inJuly, we did 316 uh in the month
of July.
And then after July, Daniel, ourbusiness went like this.
(18:02):
Um, so what happened?
Was that he got reallycomfortable, very complacent,
and he was like, Oh we just did316 and the next month we did
horrible.
And what happened was I did 316,my head just felt like this big,
and I was a became a bad leader.
I wasn't showing up like Ishould anymore, um, and I wasn't
(18:24):
giving my guys the training thatthey deserved, and I ultimately
lost my door-to-door team.
Um, and it's the reason why I'mgetting at this is because when
it comes to door-to-door, Iprimarily was looking after
people who had no experience.
Um, people usually um peopleusually like to hire people with
experience, and I think that'sgreat uh for certain roles, but
I think for door-to-door, um,you want to be able to have
(18:46):
someone who has a clean slate soyou can show them, hey, this is
what we do, this is why we doit.
Oftentimes when you hire peoplewith experience, they already
have certain things in theirmind, and that's how they do
them, and there's no way you getout of that state of mind.
So that's my reason why I hiredprimarily people who've never
done door-to-door.
Um, and I think the reason why Iwas able to hold my door-to-door
(19:06):
reps and have not an insaneamount of turnover for the first
few months of my business wasbecause I was training every
single day with them and I wasgiving them the training and
attention that they deserved.
Um, after July, um, I ended upletting go of the training and
attention that they deserved,and that's why I lost my team.
I'm very happy to share withyou, Daniel, now that in the
last month and a half, we wereable to regain our door-to-door
(19:29):
team.
So for about eight months, uh,nine months in business, I had
no door-to-door team.
Um, and what ended up happeningas well when I lost my
door-to-door team is I now hadcash flow and I was able to
bring on uh Tritis as mymarketing uh company.
And we did really good withTritis, and I like doing my
door-to-door team, but I uh Inow have a door-to-door team.
SPEAKER_01 (19:51):
Yeah, nice.
Well, that's that's a killerstack there with uh doing uh
social media outbound and alsodoor-to-door outbound.
I mean, so that's uh especiallyif you have both dialed in, so
it sounds like you definitelyhave the experience with running
door-to-door team and thenadding that on top of your
(20:12):
social media, um, which I knowtried us gets gets good results.
Um and uh so that's that'sawesome.
So it sounds like you know, youhave the marketing really
figured out, but you know, withwith the marketing, you know,
comes that you you actually haveto produce the work too.
So how are you able to ensurethat you had enough of a team to
(20:37):
actually produce all the workthat you were booking?
SPEAKER_02 (20:41):
So I was interviewing people February,
um, and I actually landed a job.
It was it was too complicatedfor me to understand.
And I ended up hiring a subteam.
For me, this was like a smalljob, small two to three-day job.
And what actually needed tohappen was we had to remove all
the taping on the ceiling andretape it, mud, texture, and
(21:02):
everything.
And I came across asubcontractor, his name's
Editor, and Editor told me, Hey,Jose, I want to work with you.
I know you have a lot ofpotential.
This job was severely underbid.
And he said, Don't worry though,like I want to build a
partnership up with you.
And um, we got along very well.
Daniel was a very honestcontractor, and unfortunately,
(21:25):
you don't find many of those.
Everybody's just like up, and Iunderstand you know they want as
much money as possible.
And we were able to build up aconnection, a partnership, and
he did primarily all of ourproduction when it came to 2024.
And we we just counted on him,and he brought in two, he
created two teams.
So we were able to get all thework done with two teams, and
(21:47):
then we'd hire we would hiresub-teams to help out on our on
our more busier weeks, uh, butprimarily just interviewing
them.
Justin has a really good systemin his group where he shares
with you how to interview whatquestions to ask for for your
subs to make sure that you'regetting the best subs possible
as well.
SPEAKER_01 (22:04):
Okay, so you you brought in this basically like a
production manager to kind ofmanage the uh the crews, is that
right?
SPEAKER_02 (22:12):
No, uh, he was uh a sub, but his name is Editor, and
he was the guy who taught meeverything I needed to know
about him.
I was production, I was sales, Iwas all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01 (22:22):
Gotcha.
Okay, so he kind of justmentored you, and and then you
took the that uh learning andthen kind of implemented it from
there.
Correct, cool.
Um so with the uh so youbasically were able to um get
some mentorship, and then alsoyou were screening, you had a
(22:44):
screening methodology to screensubs and to get them.
So what how are you gettingthose candidates, those sub
candidates in?
Like, how are you actually likewhat was your channel?
Were you posting on Craigslist?
Were you using uh going to thepaint store?
Like, how were you actuallygetting those leads in?
SPEAKER_02 (23:02):
Um Daniel or not, sorry, Justin has uh a thing
where he just says, Hey, justlook up painters in your local
uh contractor pages on Facebook.
Uh and I went ahead and did thatand thankfully I was able to
find um a few crews to to workwith within that group.
SPEAKER_01 (23:17):
Cool.
SPEAKER_02 (23:18):
So basically just searching on Facebook and and
DMing those painting businessesjust being like, hey, uh looking
for painters, and everybody justI didn't have to DM anyone, it
would just would attach theirnumbers and I would just go
through a whole list of peopleand call them and meet meet up
with them at a at a Starbucks.
It was really funny.
I had like 30-minute slots foreveryone.
(23:39):
Like you're I met like sevensubs in one day, like it was
crazy.
Uh but yeah, it was great.
SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
Okay, so you're doing a Facebook post on it in a
Facebook group.
SPEAKER_02 (23:48):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:49):
Okay, gotcha.
All right, so you're findinglike a local uh Facebook group
in your area and saying, Hey,I'm looking for painters, there
and then you're giving themlike, hey, show up here, this
time and location, and thenyou're just doing like kind of a
group interview or like runningthrough uh a group interview and
going through candidates there.
Is that right?
SPEAKER_02 (24:09):
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (24:10):
Yeah, okay, awesome.
Good stuff.
And and uh you would just dothat kind of periodically, or
was it just when you needed it?
SPEAKER_02 (24:18):
Or well, we only did it once.
Uh we did it a few times, but Ithe primary one was one time,
and that's I was able to findfour of the sub teams that I
used throughout the year.
So it was great.
unknown (24:28):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:28):
Okay.
So it sounds like you're uhyou're able that first uh effort
you know really paid off becauseI know some people go through
subs, you know, um prettyfrequently.
So it sounds like you found somegood some good folks, and or you
had a really good system to makesure clear expectations were you
(24:51):
know on on each side, that youguys worked well together, that
there's a good communication.
I guess tell me about that.
Like um, how are you because youyou found your four main subs on
the first try, and then you'veyou've kept them the entire
time, it's been like a year ormore.
SPEAKER_02 (25:06):
Yeah.
Um, so I think the primaryreason, Daniel, is most people
see contractors and subs aslike, let's pay them the least
amount of money as possible.
And you know, obviously what'simportant is understanding what
your margins are and what youwant your your split to be.
So for me, I believe in uhpaying uh our subs well and
paying them uh you know a goodwage.
At the end of the day, you wantto make sure you're tracking
(25:27):
certain talent.
I mean, you have this type oftier of subs and you have this
type of tier of subs.
The only difference is obviouslythe experience, and obviously
they're gonna want more money onthis side.
So if I can get this kind ofsub, um, an A-player sub, then
that would be really great.
So we pay people, we havesystems in place, we pay them
right as soon as we got a finalpaycheck, we would pay them
right away.
Um, as opposed to othercontractors, we'd be like, oh,
(25:50):
hey, we'll pay you 30 dayslater, a couple weeks later.
We didn't believe in that.
Like as soon as you're done,here's your month, um, which is
really great.
Out of the four teams that wehad, uh, right now we currently
are still using two of the twoof the four.
The other two, um, it just wehad a split ways for certain
reasons, but we're still incommunication.
(26:10):
So if they ever, if we ever getbusy, we can always reach out to
them as well.
SPEAKER_01 (26:14):
Okay.
That's fair.
Awesome.
Wow.
So you've uh you've definitelyaccomplished a lot very quickly.
Um, what are what have been somethe biggest maybe the biggest
challenge during this very fastgrowth over the last couple of
years?
SPEAKER_02 (26:32):
I think is um the biggest challenges has been, you
know, being able to hire uhcertain people.
Uh because, you know, Daniel, Iwas doing everything.
And it's I'm someone who needsto have control of everything.
Uh and it was letting go of thatinitially what was really hard
for me.
Um and what I would just say,just find finding someone that
(26:55):
you can fold trust in to letthem go and uh and do what you
were doing before.
Uh, and I think it's that's oneof the most important things.
And then realizing that there'speople who are better than you
at doing certain things.
Um, and you don't have to be thesmartest to say you don't have
to be the best at doing this.
I think that was one of thebiggest things that was hard for
me to understand.
Um, and I think that primarilythat's the biggest one.
(27:18):
Um, I think that stays with methroughout my whole trajectory.
SPEAKER_01 (27:22):
Yeah.
So it sounds like realizing thatuh you're you letting go of
control, like being willing tolet go, put somebody that's good
to uh to take your place, andthen realizing that you're not
the best at everything.
Like pe other people canactually do better than what
than what you can do, especiallyif they're focused exclusively
(27:45):
on it and you are doing 15 otherthings and you know you're just
like partially focused on that.
So uh that makes that makes alot of sense.
Cool.
Um now I think this is superhelpful for for folks,
especially who maybe arethinking about getting started,
um, or either started justgenerally or started on
(28:06):
door-to-door.
Uh and I think I think you'veprovided a lot of cool insights
into your process.
I appreciate you sharing.
Do you have any other finalthoughts of um running a
painting business or scaling itso quickly like you did?
Uh any any thoughts or asks ofthe of the audience?
SPEAKER_02 (28:26):
Yeah, no, I think the biggest thing that um people
a lot of people tend to forgetand they get stuck on is you
don't have to reinvent thewheel.
Um, thankfully, I was able tocome across Justin very early
on, and I believe in um you knowinvesting into mentorship.
There's a reason why they arewhere they are, and if you're
able to not make mistakes theydid and pay a certain amount of
(28:48):
a certain fee for that, you'resaving time and you're saving
mistakes, which ultimately meansmore money.
Um, and then just going outthere and taking action.
Uh Daniel, I I'm I'm not anyone,I'm not big or anything at all.
Uh, but I do the people who whoreach out to me uh on a weekly
basis, and I like to helpeveryone as much as possible.
I think I'm here on this role tohelp others.
(29:10):
The biggest thing that I seewith everyone is out of maybe
seven people who've hit me up inthe last week and a half, maybe
two of them take action.
And those are the the onlythings that makes a difference
between the set the other fiveversus the two, just taking
action.
So my biggest thing to everyoneis take that risk, take the
action.
Uh now's the time, there's nobetter time.
(29:30):
Um and that's just the onlything that I tell people, just
take action and literally reachout to people.
You'd be surprised how manypeople actually want to help
you.
Um, and just get over that uhfear of you know, that
nervousness of just reaching outto somebody.
SPEAKER_01 (29:46):
Love it.
Take action.
Don't don't uh don't get stuckwith uh analysis paralysis.
So makes sense.
Um I think you're killing it,Jose.
Uh so I appreciate your sharingyour journey and uh I look
forward to to seeing what you doin the future.
Uh and I appreciate you maybenext time you can come come back
(30:07):
on the podcast and talk abouthow you crossed over 10 million
um next time.
SPEAKER_02 (30:12):
Yeah, that's great.
SPEAKER_01 (30:14):
So cool.
Well, I really appreciate yourtime, Jose.
And for the listeners, withthat, we will see you next week.
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