the Heat is on

Oh Oh.  dating myself with an old Glen Frye tune from the Miami Vice days.

It seems that we went straight from Winter to Summer.  Spring was maybe 2 or 3 days.  The good news is that the repaint market is now waking up.  There is 4 or 5 years of deferred maintenance waiting to be started.  The prices will still be low for the start of the summer, but as demand grows, so will the bid prices.  Don’t be discouraged by these starting low prices.  Bid everything you can and build up your calendar.  Then start raising your prices, slowly, to where they should be.  There will be quite a bit of repair work that will need to be done.  Don’t underestimate the time that it will take.  Wood trim that is cracked and bare will need to be completely caulked or replaced and primed before finish painting.  Talk to your customers and explain the long term difference between cosmetic paint jobs and professional repairs.  One will look OK for a short time and the other will look good for a long time.

Don’t skimp on material.  The easiest thing to use to cut your costs is thinning out your paint or using really cheap material.  Either of these will come back and bite you in the future.  Paint is the cheapest thing in your bid.  Pile it on to manufacturer’s spec’s.  Your jobs will look better and last longer and send you more referrals.  Referrals are the best jobs to get.  Unless you cut your own throat bidding the previous job, you will be expected to charge accordingly on the referred jobs. This is another reason to avoid bidding cheap.  It is better to bid more and then DELIVER more.  Do all of the extra touches, like painting their address on the curb, painting the address numbers that are on the house so that they really show up.  Paint a corresponding planter box.  Or whatever they have.  Make your service what they remember.  Remember to work for referrals.