After 10 years of operating a painting business in the Okanagan Valley I had a nice client base of about 300 customers, which I had worked very hard to acquire and service.
It felt good to have so many happy customers...it gave me a sense of security. The problem is that I couldn't service so many customers well. Sometimes my best, most loyal customers had to wait 6 or more months for me to fit their project in. I wasn't delivering top level service to my best customers and I was often over-booked and stressed. So when I opened another painting business here on Vancouver Island in 2015, I decided that I would try to get to 100 customers as soon as possible. This, I thought, would give my business a solid base, while giving me a more manageable number of customers, hopefully leading to less stress and better service. We may think we need a lot of customers to have a successful business. So it was interesting when last week I looked at a report of my sales by customer for 2016 thus far. You know what?...
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Greetings from Reykjavik! What a cool place!
We often hear about or strive for 'balance' in our lives. The idea of balance has always kind of stressed me out because I picture myself as a juggler trying to focus equally on multiple machetes in the air coming down on me and me panicking to keep it together and keep it all going while not dying a bloody death. Balance has always felt unattainable, and thus the pursuit a little discouraging. Lately I've been more interested in the concept of focus... Hello from Praha!
My brother-in-law has been a painter for close to 30 years and early on when I started he gave me a simple peice of advice that has proved effective... Chase Jarvis, founder of Creative Live, has recently posted a series of 30 long format interviews with some of the world's leading creatives, entrepreneurs and influencers. 30 interesting interviews to get you thinking about creative new ways to clarify your vision, reach your goals and make a difference. It makes for engaging listening at work, or while stuck in a long commute. You might hear something that gives you a 'light bulb' moment, inspires you, or leads to a break through in your business...
One of the key benefits of self-employment is the ability to have more control over our work life.
What control do you have? You can respond to an opportunity you see in the market by creating something of value. You can set objectives for your business. You can set boundaries for your customers and yourself. You can make many of the day to day decisions. So many factors conspire to restrict our freedom and impose stress on our projects and lives. This is where we must push back... An observation from the last 12 years of self-employment: The more you charge, the better you are treated. How does that work? I'm not sure, but I would guess a couple things are at play...
A good friend of mine likes to reply to the question:
'How are you bud?' with 'I'm on the right side of the dirt!' I love that response because it puts everything in perspective. If you are alive, it can be a great day. But these days Busy has become the new Good. Everyday you can hear a conversation go something like this... 'How are you Jim?' 'BUSY!' 'Really eh?' 'Oh yah, crazy busy. Can't keep up!' or... If making a good first impression is the most important 5% of a job, finishing is the hardest 5% of a job. The way the job ends will be what is most vividly remembered by your client.
At this point you may be tired, behind schedule, over budget, getting impatient, feeling discouraged, etc. You just want it to end, so you can get on with your life... 05/2017 Update: After using Easy Invoice App for over a year and appreciating it's value, I have stopped using it due to a change in their pricing. It may still be a viable option for your business, but for now I have chosen to go back to using a template on my MacBook. A little more work, less utility, but cheaper and not held ransom by a 3rd party app.
The calendar can be an effective agent of change. For the past 11 years I had been generating almost all my sales documents by hand. That means hundreds and hundreds of pages worth of estimates and invoices, all painstakingly hand-written. The thing is, I had experimented with Word and Pages and dabbled with various apps, but nothing seemed to meet my needs. I felt like it was simpler and that it gave my business a craftsman feel. But maybe it was fear of change, laziness to learn a new method, or pure procrastination. Either way, the time had come to try something new. This past January I decided that it was time to commit to switching to digital estimates and invoices. After 2 months of using this particular app to create all my estimates and invoices, I think I found an effective new tool that is an asset to my business. I'd like to share it with you in case you are looking for a simple way to manage this aspect of your business... In our society we are conditioned from early days to ask for permission for everything and wait expectantly for others to provide our opportunities. This mindset is something that has to be deprogrammed when we take the step of self employment.
You can't just do whatever you want whenever you want - that is a distorted illusion of what being an entrepreneur is all about. However, waiting passively for customers to seek you out, to present you with opportunities, to hire you, is going to be a frustrating and discouraging approach...continued... Part of the process of quickly moving from surviving to thriving in your painting business requires that you be selective in who you work for.
Not all customers are created equal. Learning this principle was a 'light bulb' moment for me, after years of trying to give every customer my best, every time. With a bias towards wanting to be a perfectionist, combined with a desire to treat everyone equally, it was a tough process for me to let go and recognize the need to optimize the service I provided according to the quality of the customer. It is easier to change yourself than to try and change your prospects and clients to fit what you want to provide. Focus on what you can control. Focus on your strengths. Focus on results. A little backstory... Just wanted to share a few positive and inspiring talks I've enjoyed recently that might open some new lines of thinking about business and life...
So 2 months ago I spent a good amount of time scraping 20 layers of peeling paint off the wood siding of a house originally built in 1908. It wasn't much fun. The homeowner suggested I try her fancy scrapers. I politely took them, eventually tried them for a few minutes and quickly dismissed them as not much better than my trusty old standard scrapers. Promptly went back to what was familiar. Familiarity feels good.
Fast forward two weeks... In photography there is a particularly desirable time to shoot. Most photographers try to make use of the time just before and just after sunrise or sunset. The angle of the light at that time makes for beautiful colours and rich images. Photographers call this time Magic Hour because the light can be stunningly beautiful, giving the photos a 'magical' look (search 'magic hour photos' under google images for examples).
Over the years I've come to appreciate that there is a 'magic hour' in painting as well. It is a window of time where everything you do seems to take half the time it would take at any other point in the day. Where everything you do seems to be worth double. I'm not sure how it works, so it sorta feels like magic... Earlier this year I met a young man who was dealing with all the challenges of a start-up. But he was determined to succeed and kept going in the face of adversity. Several months passed and he really started to hit his stride. He finished the season on target and thriving. I needed to know what factors helped him to enjoy a quick progression to success. Jesse was kind enough to sit down with me for a long-format interview and share a few nuggets...
What got you interested in painting? I was actually never really interested in painting. I came across a College Pro booth at Uvic, and it said "Entrepreneurs Start Here." I am in school for entrepreneurship, so naturally I ran over to the booth and began asking questions. However, this experience certainly has me more interested in the painting industry than I ever thought I would be. How would you say your first season went? Biggest challenge? Biggest success? In the end, my first season could not have gone much better. I ended up running the largest first year Franchise in BC's history. My biggest challenge was dealing with setbacks. I had all of these plans going into the year, and it seemed like everything was going wrong. I had painters quit on me, upset clients, and I was also working more than 100+ hours a week in the beginning. I had to learn how to adapt to the situation quickly, and learn how to keep moving the business forward no matter what the situation was. One of the biggest reasons I chose to take on this venture in the first place was for the learning. Therefore, my biggest success would be learning everything that I wanted along the way. I feel like I have grown more as an individual in such a short amount of time than I ever thought possible. I feel like I am capable of achieving anything I set my mind to (which is something I've always believed), but now I have proof. Also, before CPP I thought I knew a lot. I have now learned more than I ever thought possible, and feel like I know less than any other time before. This is incredibly exciting for me because I now know I still have so much more to learn. I know you faced some significant challenges getting up and running. How did you manage to overcome them, stay positive and reach your goals?... Capacity: 'the maximum amount that something can contain'
'the ability or power to do, experience or understand something' I love my morning green tea or dark coffee from a press. I love to drink it on the go out of my favourite house mug, not a travel mug. So there I am in the truck with a full mug of hot tea with no lid. It's dumb - especially because I like a clean truck. But I keep doing it, foolishly believing that all roads will be smooth today. Maybe I'm an optimist. Everyone has their own capacity mentally, physically, financially, creatively. We have limits. There are only so many things we can pay attention to, only so many things we can accomplish. And it's different for everyone... A dollar saved is worth 2 earned.
1. Make the call. Paint companies have reps. Some are hungry for your business. Compare prices annually and negotiate more favourable terms. Make it an annual thing - blame the calendar ("I'm making my annual call to all my suppliers to review my pricing for 2016"). Some companies will go as far as they need to in order to win your business. If you buy a decent amount of paint, you will have some leverage. Of course, price should not be your only concern when choosing a supplier. And everyone needs to make a living. A good supplier is like an ally to your business. A good price is important to your bottom line, but so is service, knowledge, stock levels, amount of locations, product range, quality, and so on. Weigh out all the factors, but don't assume you are currently getting the best price you may qualify for. Don't overpay for loyalty and convenience. If you buy $10,000/year in paint and can negotiate 5% savings, that is $500! 2. Consider switching to a lower quality line. With all the advancements in paint technology, you may not need to pay $40+/gallon for zero VOC, good quality paint. Shop around and learn about the latest offerings available. A newer, cheaper paint might preform better than your older, more expensive 'premium' paint. If you buy 2 gallons per day, saving $5/gallon might add up to $2400!... Sometimes it felt like my days were spent slaying dragons, putting out fires and squeezing in enough value-generation (painting) to be able to keep the wheels turning for another day. Rinse and repeat.
Most of the clients I worked for were more financially successful than me. Once in a while there was a customer that seemed to have things figured out pretty good - they seemed successful at life. If I had a good rapport with them, I would ask them for one piece of advice that they thought was a key factor to their success over the years. I thought of it as mining for nuggets. Why insist on doing things the hard way if there was an easier option? Some of the answers I received didn't resonate - they didn't jive with my personal values. Some advice was straight forward, practical (i.e. work hard). In ten years of asking, the most interesting, beneficial and actionable answer came from my best customer. I don't think it was a coincidence. Jim, I thought, would be a good person to ask. He owned and operated a high-end custom home design/build company. At the time he simultaneously owned and operated a high end restaurant in the heart of wine country. Those two business sectors alone were notoriously challenging for entrepreneurs to survive in, let alone thrive. Besides that, Jim is an accomplished musician. He and his wife help their 4 children reach their potential through schooling and entrepreneurship. Jim is very busy. But he finds time for family, exercise, hobbies, holidays, and for everybody that he comes in contact with. And he never seems stressed. What was one key to his success?... WHY: PROFITING FROM THE RIGHT APPROACH
This week I met a new colleague, a fellow painter and business owner. He mentioned that he has been busy working 7 days/week in order to catch up on work prior to an upcoming family vacation. He is midstream on a small housing development of 10 homes that is progressing quickly. His phone is ringing with more work from the install department of a big box retailer. He was in the paint store at dinner time waiting for colour matches for the next day so he could keep his crew of seven guys running steady and keep the client's project moving forward. Then he said it... 'I've got 3 estimates waiting for me when I get home.' Boy do I know that feeling. There goes the rest of his evening. A whole day dedicated to his painting business. A whole week. A whole month... I've had a love, hate, love relationship with estimates... What is the point of paying a graphic designer to create attractive branding and marketing materials...
What is the point of buying and distributing business cards... What is the point of paying for a web designer, hosting fees, SEO optimization, website registration, and a high speed internet connection... What is the point of purchasing store front signage or decals for your vehicle... What is the point of paying for advertising and a phonebook listing... What is the point of paying for a costly cell phone plan... |
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