With all the heartbreaking natural disasters striking Mexico and the Caribbean this month, it got me thinking about the importance of taking small steps to prepare for the worst. 

Living in Western Canada, I appreciate how quickly natural disasters can strike. Whether it was the wild fires that almost trapped the residents of Fort McMurray, the floods that instantly struck High River, Okotoks and Calgary, or the 'Big One' that the Pacific Northwest is anticipating. Living near a fault line in a subduction zone makes emergency preparedness is constant a concern. Everyone should have a Go Bag ready of course.

But I wanted to share another simple hack that can save your life in an emergency...

In an earlier post, I discussed the importance of Respecting Capacity. 

But I've come to appreciate another facet of capacity that relates to our business - viewing capacity as an asset in your business and leveraging it for maximum profit. 

Used to be that I got nervous if I was booked up for less than 3 weeks in advance. I was used to being booked 6 - 12 weeks out and that demand felt good, felt secure. 

But these days... 

If thinking of buying a home and of starting a business in the near future, it might be prudent to get the mortgage sorted while still steadily employed. Starting a business or financing a vehicle can be done anytime, but it is not always easy to obtain a mortgage. Doing things in the right order can help one reach goals years earlier.

If already self-employed, all hope of owning a home is not lost. Self-employment does make a lot of things in life more challenging, but by now you and I have honed our skills to become tenacious and creative problem-solvers!

Here are a few layman tips to increase the chances of approval. Use at your own risk.

1. Maintain a very good credit rating. Fix what you can, pay off outstanding and overdue accounts. If you need to improve your credit score, consider an RRSP loan. Most institutions will automatically approve RRSP loans where the funds are invested in a bank product. Make the loan payments regularly. Use the contribution to reduce your taxable income, this will generate a lower tax bill or a refund come tax time. Take the tax savings and pay down your loan, or keep building up that down payment. Once you are ready to buy, you can borrow your RRSP money to use as a down payment if you are a first time purchaser. In Canada you have 15 years to repay the money to your RRSP account. If you fail to do so you will need to repay the income tax to the government.

2. Save up a down payment. For most people a 5% down payment may be sufficient to qualify, but if you are self-employed and show lower income, or have less than ideal credit, you may need to have 10% or 20% to put down in order to get approved with a competitive interest rate. It is also wise to account for closing costs on your purchase, which can add up to a few thousand dollars. And don't forget moving and improvement expenses, hook-up fees, etc. A sound financial move would be to save 20 - 50% of the cost of your property as a down payment, and choose a shorter term mortgage of 10 to 15 years. Who wants to be in debt for 30 years? That is a huge burden to carry and it can restrict your choices in life.

3. Stay up to date with your financial statements - bookkeeping, income taxes, GST, NOAs, etc. Being able to show the stability of your business over several years and being up to date with your taxes will go a long way. 

4. Find the right professionals to help you:

The idea for this list came from a list Chase Jarvis made for Creatives, which was a variation of a list Guy Kawasaki made titled What I Learned From Steve Jobs.

Here is what I believe when it comes to running a small painting business:

1. There is no substitute for craftsmanship. Be wary of jobs where craftsmanship is not valued. Quality work should be non-negotiable.

2. Work begets work. Not busy enough? Get out there and add value somehow. The easiest way to find work is to be busy working. Too busy doing jobs you hate for people you don't like? Stop doing that, otherwise you will get more of it.

3. Profit is a proportional bi-product of the value you create.

It is an honour to have my painting business featured in Pro-Painter's latest edition. Pro Painter Magazine was a really important way to learn about techniques, business principles specific to the industry, and latest trends when I started my business 13 years ago. Very happy to see it back in publication! You can find it on-line here, and subscribe for a hard copy here.

Check back this weekend for an article on Leveraging Capacity.

Summer is finally here!  As usual, we are taking a break from posting new articles on the blog, but will be busy working in the background to improve it. It is also a time to refresh and focus on other creative pursuits.

Wishing you a happy, relaxing and beautiful summer season if you are reading this from somewhere on the northern hemisphere!

Here is a link to my story as featured on Chris Guillebeau's awesome Side Hustle School - Episode 173.

If you or someone you know is thinking about starting a painting business, or have started one and feel stuck, I am offering a free coaching session. Just reach out via the contact form.

See you in September!

- Simon

Having a painting business for 13 years now, it has been my privilege to work with some pretty solid guys. 

Steve, the man, the legend...did we paint up a few houses over the years. Steve and I are quite different but we get on just great. We had a lot of fun working together over the years and became good friends. What did I learn from workin' with Bullerwell? Where do I begin...

Having a painting business for 13 years now, it has been my privilege to work with some pretty solid guys. 

Tristan worked with me in 2016. We clicked right away and laughed a lot. Turns out we have a lot of things in common. His first name and my middle name are the same. We both have the same favourite movie. We've both struggled with depression. And many other things. One thing I learned from T-Bone is that the nicest people can have the worst taste in music 🙉. But seriously, for such a young guy he sure has made a lot of wise decisions so far in his life. He has taught me the value of a positive attitude in the face of adversity, and the power of good habits...

Having a painting business for 13 years now, it has been my privilege to work with some pretty solid guys.

Stef and I are opposites in many ways, but like oil and vinegar sometimes it works out just fine. He is a clear thinking person, unlike me who has a tendency to get lost in the greys. I was fortunate to have his help over a couple of years. I learned so much from Stefano, it would be hard to list it all, but I will share a few gems.

1. Italians love to argue. Its a sport for them. Being half French and half German, naturally we disagreed on 99% of everything. Which makes all mundane details in eveyday work life far more exciting, cause everything you say has to be defended and debated. If we ever got bored at work we would just pick a random topic to debate in order to pass the time. Never could convince him that hockey is superior to soccer....

Realized today as I was working on a ladder most of the day, and working under an old deck too, that painting has helped me overcome two of my biggest phobias. 

I used to be really scared of spiders, but working on exteriors in the Okanagan Valley where the Black Widow, Brown Recluse and Wolf spiders thrive, eventually provided enough exposure therapy to dull the panic attacks. Look close enough in any yard and you are likely to find one. Best just not look, and keep on painting ‘cause you ain’t getting paid till that section behind the bushes is done. Oh, and don’t forget that area under the deck...dang... 

What if, on the next 5 estimate site visits, instead of going in with a mindset of 'How can I get this job?',
we asked ourselves...'Is this my ideal customer?'.

It may be a more difficult question to answer, but it is the more important question for the success of our business and our personal well-being.

As the busy season ramps up, we may find ourselves front and centre in some stressful situations. 

Here are 3 more tips on preventing conflict:

1. Put everything in writing, and both sign an agreement prior to ordering paint and starting a project.

2. Use you i-phone to take a lot of 'before' pictures of the project, details, paint codes, etc. Email them to yourself...

When we started our small contracting business, time is something that we invested heavily. Funds and experience and equipment may have been minimal, but time is something we all get an equal allotment of. If working for ourself is a priority, we will spend as much time as needed to get it off the ground.

The danger is that we stay stuck in departure mode. Imagine being on a long journey aboard a jetliner that was in lift-off mode for the entire 12 hour trans-atlantic flight. How stressful! Take off is exciting, but everyone's happy to sit back, take a deep breath and order a drink once everything is under control...

As entrepreneurs we must be effective problem solvers. Problems come in all variations: financial, health, technical, scheduling, staffing, etc. One type of problem that we will eventually encounter is people problems.

People problems can be particularly difficult to handle if you have an aversion to confict. Many people would rather experience just about anything but having to confront someone about a problem. I know, I used to be one of those people, and I still have to fight that tendancy. And that is a benefit of the road we travel as business people...it exposes our weaknesses and provides opportunity to confront them one way or another before you can achieve success. Learning to deal with people problems is one of the biggest hurdles facing a start-up. We all want to be liked and we all hope to get along with others, but things can go pear-shaped pretty quickly when mixing money, deadlines, personalities and expectations. 

So here are 4 things I have found that help to difuse potential hot spots...

If each party in a transaction over-delivered by 5%, what room would be left for disagreement?...

"Oh, I don't really have a business, I just work for myself."

Is something often heard out in the field. It sounds like a simpler, more manageable way to work independently without all the hassle of running a business. Who wants the headache? Get work. Get paid. Repeat.

But getting stuck in that cycle is a problem... 

The entrepreneurial struggle can arouse some powerful negative emotions - frustration, self-doubt, jealousy, anger, disappointment, exhaustion, conflict, confusion, and depression, to name a few. As a business owner you put yourself out there on a daily basis and face the world, hoping other people will accept you and your offerings. You face judgement and rejection. You battle threatening market forces that are out of your control - competitors, the economy, technology, weather, etc. Your entrepreneurial mind faces negative forces from within yourself, the people you deal with, and the circumstances you work in.

It can be difficult to navigate through challenges while keeping your head right... 

Storage of equipment in work vehicles has been an almost constant irritation of mine since I started working for myself 13 years ago. 

Over the years I've worked out of old beater trucks (large and small), an SUV, a cargo trailer, new trucks (large and small), an old van, and even commuted out to one job in the country on my scooter one summer.

I've noticed that with my (and many colleagues) extended cab work trucks, the back seat area is usually full of equipment. Some tools and materials need to be protected from the rain, snow or thieves. It almost always ends up a mess, unstable and impractical, because the floor is uneven. Well one day a couple of months back I had enough and pulled into the hardware store and built myself a simple set up that has worked much better...

You might be thinking about taxes at this time of year. And that maybe causing you some stress. 
Or you may be feeling taxed by the stress of a busy painting season just ahead.

I've been thinking about work stress recently, particularly about the toxicity of stress and the toll it takes on our health, relationships and general job satisfaction. Stress is real. The effects of stress can be as simple as being more irritable to more complicated - like the inability to sleep properly, addictions, memory loss, a compromised immune system. Stress can even lead to heart attacks and death. My observation is that some of us don't consider stress enough when looking at jobs. For me, I need to be more intentional about limiting it's influence in my work life where possible.

We are just painters after all, not surgeons, so why all the stress? Is it necessary? What factors lead to some projects being more stressful than others? 

Governments tax behaviours that they deem unhealthy for individuals or society, to reduce consumption/exposure and raise money to finance the side effects. So...why not tax stress in your life, particularly in your business? Add a surcharge to jobs that involve more stress, put a premium on that stress to discourage and reduce the amount of stress and raise money to deal with the consequences of stress (vacation, massage, therapy, date nights, exercise, healthy food, etc...).

With that in mind I created a Project Stress Analyzer and Tax Calculator. I fill it out as part of the process for every project I quote in 2017. In fact, I print a bunch of these sheets and use the back side to make my notes during the site visit. If a project has an average (or lower) anticipated amount of stress there is no premium tacked on. But for every degree of stress above average I add 2% to the quote, to a maximum of a 100% stress premium... 

So one day about 8 years ago I went to a client's summer home to continue an exterior painting project. It was mid morning and the homeowner meets me at the front door with a serious look on her face and a glass of wine in her hand. 

"Simon," she says, as she pulls me inside her house by the arm, "today you won't be doing any painting."

Uh, OK...?...

Welcome back!

Our service trucks and vans work hard. They could be considered our most important tool. 
We depend on them as transportation to work, as our sales vehicle, our mobile office, storage unit, lunch room, equipment hauler, and maybe for the odd weekend getaway to the woods.

Maintenance is important to keep the wheels turning safely and efficiently. With that in mind, I wanted to pass along a simple but effective tip that I learned last year from an experience shop mechanic... 

Have you thought about starting a small business but are afraid of either the challenges, or the thought of quitting your job? Or maybe you are already in business but are looking to transition into a different type of business - one that is more creatively fulfilling, is easier on your body, or that can provide a side income for travelling or savings. If you are ready for a new challenge, Chris Guillebeau just launched a project today that might just be for you... 

This article is a guest post by Steve Maxwell, one of Canada's most read home improvement journalists and editor of Pro Painter magazine. Pro Painter has been an excellent source of support to my business over the years with technical tips, business advice and industry trends. Look for a re-vamped Pro Painter debuting in 2017. 


Every painter wants a schedule full of great jobs, serving clients who appreciate good work and pay good money. But whether or not you actually get this kind of work depends on more than just your skill with a brush, a roller and your estimating book. All these things are critical, but success in painting, as in life, ultimately depends on deeper qualities like energy, honesty, selflessness and humility. Please forgive me if this sounds like a Sunday school lesson, but reality backs me up. A painter I know named Gary Walchuk reminds me how true it all is...