PDCA

Have you checked out the California Painting and Decorating Contractors Assn?  They are a valuable resource for all painting contractors.  One seminar that I saw online is about finding the cost of each bid.  Not the job cost when done, but the cost of giving the bid.  The following is an excerpt of the leading paragraph:

HOW MUCH DID THAT BID JUST COST YOU??

It’s a fair question. The answer to which is certainly worth knowing. Surprisingly, however, many business owners have no idea what they’re actually spending – from a marketing standpoint, at least – to carry out their trade.

What’s your cost-per-lead?

What’s your cost-per-sale?

And, ultimately, what constitutes a really good lead? Or a really worthwhile sale?

Answering these more granular questions with complete candidness is how businesses of all sizes develop in the direction that best suits them – growing their profit margins as they go.

Now here’s the good news: it’s not that hard.

Calculating your cost-per-lead, cost-per-sale, and the handful of other metrics that’ll help you work less while earning more boils down to simple math. It’s what comes next that requires effort, commitment and stick-to-itiveness – but as a business owner, you already have those qualities in the bag.

 

Go online to PDCA.org and check them out!

Android Winner

I had the 1st winner in my Android Tablet drawing.  My 8 year old granddaughter closed her eyes, swirled all of the cards and drew out the winner.

Our first winner is Nathan Saracino, of Saracino Construction.  On October 10th, 2014, Nathan picked up his Tablet.  Out of all of his choices, he picked a White 9” tablet.

Our next drawing will be within a week or so.  Enter your business card (with address, email and phone number) now!

Android Tablet Drawing

Over the past 5 years, my contact list, with contact addresses has shrunk by 60%.  Some businesses have moved, some have been closed and some have changed names.  In order to get my sale flyers out to all of my customers, I am running a drawing over the next 6-12 months. 

In order to enter you in the drawing, I need a business card with your current snail mail (and email address) on it.  i am putting all of the cards in a bucket and drawing 1 out each month.  All of the cards not chosen will stay in the bucket for the next drawing.  So, If you get your card in soon, you will have 6 to 12 chances to win a brand new android tablet.

Each winner will have their choice of the tablets available.  I have 7”, 8” and 9” tablets.  They all run Android version 4.0 and higher.  I have some black, some white and ever a couple of pink tablets.

You name and address will not be given or sold to anyone.  It is solely for my sale flyer mailing list.  I send out 3 or 4 sale flyer/discount coupons per year.

spring 2014

Summer has just arrived.  The repaint business is now picking up.  Contractors are hearing complaints about the cost of repaints.  Most of this is due the fact that repainting has been put off for too long. Customers were warned about waiting too long for years and now they will pay the price.  A lot of repaint has now turned to repair and paint.  “Pay it now or pay it later” is an expensive way to be educated on property maintenance.  The cost of materials never slowed down either.  Now the minimum wage has increased and so even the bottom rung of painters should be getting more than even last year.  California isn’t survivable at minimum wage.

The work on the levy has now passed final approval.  The funding for it should happen within 6-8 months.  As soon as funding happens, real estate in the north area will start to escalate in price and availability.  New construction in both the residential and commercial will start up to fill the void that the moratorium has caused for the past 3 years.

The new construction will pull the tract stars off of the repaint market.  This will enable the repaint market to rebound on their pricing, which has been in the tank due to the track stars being used to working for 50% less than they should.  The tract painters are getting less now, in 2014, than Dad did on his last tract in 1959.  Seriously.  And Dad was union.  No, not adjusted for inflation.  Dollar for dollar, less than in 1959.  I sat down with Dad in 1990 and we recalculated his last bid (he had all the paperwork) so that we could find out how much he got for each floor foot.  He didn’t paint the floors, so his bids weren’t figured that way……   Dad used to get between $1.40 and $1.60 per floor foot in 1959!  You can guess at his material costs…… figure 10% of current.  His journeymen were getting as much or more than what most are getting today, 45 years later.

Sure, housing costs have climbed radically since then, but the sub contractors are making a lot less.  The rising costs are the cost of the dirt, licenses, permits and developer profits.

Jan 2014

“Lightweight, multi-functional sprayers are designed to make painting faster and easier for industrial and commercial painters. Heavier latexes, enamels, and acrylics, as well as thinner stains, lacquers, and urethanes, all can be sprayed using the same tool, simply by changing the front end assembly. Two-in-one tools like these save time, money, and material. This trend also applies to spray tips that offer both narrow and wide orifices to apply coatings quickly, without losing precision and efficiency.

Spray equipment is also becoming more compact and portable for difficult-to-access areas and tight spaces. Pumps, hoses, compressors, guns, and remote controls can all fit in a single assembly. Versatile units are capable of dispensing various materials such as fireproofers, waterproofers, and other materials, and are available in manual (crank) and electric versions. Quick change options allow easy conversion from cart- to skid-mount.

Portable and lightweight equipment for coating pipeline has also come out to make application faster and easier.*”

What this translates to is that you can now own a piece of equipment that is designed for the application of regular Architectural coatings as well as for specialized coatings, such as elastomerics and epoxies. The best of these now enable you to spray regular and special coatings without changing a thing. Examples of these pumps include the following:

Electric Pumps:

Airlessco TS 1500, Graco IronMan 300E, Titan/Speeflo PT 6900 DI electric & Titan PowerTex 1200SF

Gas Pumps:

Airlessco HSS9000, Airlessco HSS11000,  Graco IronMan 500G, Titan Advantage GPX 165, Titan Advantage GPX 220, Titan/Speeflo 6900 DI & Titan/Speeflo 12000DI

 

 

 

 

*Anita  M.  Socci  Managing Editor, JPCL