If you want your painting business to be a success, it is essential to consider what types of services you can offer. Of course, offering high-quality painting services is an excellent place to start. However, you should also consider add-on services. Extra services allow you to utilize your current workforce and business model while appealing to a whole new client base. Depending on your business goals, you should think about adding these valuable services to your company.
Exterior Painting
Exterior painting is one of the easiest services to branch out into. This branch of painting focuses on every part of a home’s exterior. It’s slightly more complex since you are painting more than just flat walls. Exteriors have a lot of small details, such as trim, window frames, and doors, that need to be painted. However, the main difference between general and exterior painting is simply the fact that you need to use weatherproof paints outside.
The great thing about exterior painting is that it primarily uses the tools and skills you already have. Basics like paint sprayers, brushes, and drop cloths will work equally well for indoor and outdoor painting. The only investment you’ll usually need to make is a pressure washer and scaffolding. If you don’t already have these tools, they’re essential for handling outdoor paint preparation and high locations.
Typically, companies that offer exterior painting will price it at a higher rate than their general painting services. On average, paint companies can charge $3.03/sqft to paint a home’s exterior while interior paint services are just an average of $2.75/sqft. This means that you make a bigger profit while only having to expend a little bit of extra effort. Many property owners are willing to pay a premium to ensure the end product looks fantastic.
Wood Staining
Wood staining is a service that consists of cleaning wooden items and coating them with a new layer of stain and sealant. Typically, wood staining is done on outdoor items like decks, porches, fences, and gates. However, there is a small market for interior wood staining services on things like stair rails and hardwood floors.
For most painting businesses, wood staining is a very valuable add-on. It has a 70% profit margin, so painters report an average profit of around $650 per hour of labor. Wood staining has such a high profit margin because it requires almost no specialized tools. Stain is applied in a similar method to paint, so your employees will already be familiar with the process. The typical painting business will just need to stock up on a few tools to prepare wooden surfaces such as 3M Bondo wood filler and a Dewalt orbital sander.
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In addition to having a high profit margin, wood staining is an ideal add-on because it’s very easy to upsell to clients. When a client is already committed to refinishing part of their home, it’s easy for your sales team to suggest a fresh coat of stain. Not only will a new stain keep wood from looking dingy in comparison to the new paint, but it also allows the property owner to pick a stain color that complements the paint.
Power Washing
When a home needs a serious cleaning, power washing is the ideal option. This service involves using pressurized water and special cleaners on home exteriors, driveways, sidewalks, and pool decks. Power washing quickly removes mold, dust, and other grimy stains that would otherwise take hours of scrubbing to manually remove.
The average power washer costs around $500, but it can result in far more profit. Most customers don’t want to bother with handling this sort of specialized equipment, so they’re willing to pay for an expert. A paint company can typically charge around $250 to $324 for a single power washing visit, so you quickly recoup equipment costs.
There are many different ways for you to include this service in your visit. Some paint companies offer complementary power washing alongside exterior paint services. When you’re already power washing an exterior before you paint, cleaning the sidewalks and driveway just takes a few moments and makes your clients very happy. You can also charge for separate power washing visits. Consider mentioning to clients that they can schedule an annual power wash to keep their new paint job looking excellent for years to come. Homes are always getting dirty, so power washing services can be a great way to get additional income during a lull in painting demand. Some painting companies report that power washing ends up making up to 10% of their total revenue.
Epoxy Floor Coatings
Epoxy floor coatings are one of the most popular home upgrades right now. This type of flooring consists of high-performance resin polymers mixed with sand and quartz grains. It creates a very durable and attractive finish, so many people are interested in adding it to their basement or garage floor. Epoxy coatings are also very popular in commercial environments like warehouses.
Epoxy floor coatings are a somewhat more complex service to offer. Unlike staining or exterior painting, it does require some specialized knowledge. Your employees have to work with a wide range of chemicals and use a whole different set of tools. Equipment and materials cost between $2 to $5 per square foot. In addition to the epoxy material, you’ll need shop vacs, power washers, squeegees, spiked shoes, respirator masks, and a variety of hand tools.
Despite being more effort to set up, this service is still an excellent addition to your painting company. Epoxy coatings are very quick to apply and have higher profit margins than painting jobs. The average house painting project lasts around a week, while the average epoxy project takes a few days. In the time it takes a company to do a house painting job with $1,000 of net profit, they can do three epoxy jobs that each offer $1,200 of net profit. Furthermore, epoxy coating jobs are indoors, so you can do this service year-round regardless of what the weather is like. Ultimately, paint companies that join the epoxy floor coating niche can make a very impressive amount of profit.
Paint and Color Selection
When looking for ways to upgrade your business, don’t forget the value of customer service. Many modern clients prefer a full-service paint business that helps them choose the perfect paint for their property. Paint and color selection services often involve an employee who talks with the client about their design plans and recommends colors the client might want. They can help with things like color matching and even offer interior design advice.
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This service is a fairly flexible add-on that can be as basic or as high-end as you like. Some paint companies simply provide clients with a link to software such as Benjamin Moore’s Personal Color Viewer or Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap Visualizer. This can be provided at no extra charge to your business and lets clients view how different colors will look on their walls. Other companies may want to consider hiring a professional salesperson or interior design expert to have one-on-one consultations with clients. Paying for an extra salesperson can cost an average of around $55,000 per year, but for certain paint businesses, this extra expense can be quite useful.
The main benefit of paint and color selection is that it appeals to clients. Offering this complimentary service can help you close sales you might have otherwise lost. It helps you build a brand reputation for excellent customer service and dedication to going the extra mile for your clients. Don’t forget that paint selection services are a valuable upselling opportunity. You can explain to clients the benefit of selecting a higher-quality paint that provides more even pigmentation or more weather resistance. This can result in around $150 to $200 extra in profit with each paint job. Though it might not seem like a lot, it adds up over time and greatly boosts your overall profit.
Industrial Painting
Industrial painting is one of the most lucrative fields that painting companies can get into. This type of painting involves working with manufacturers, food service providers, and other industrial companies. It differs from standard painting because it requires specialized types of paint. Some companies may need extra-durable floor coatings that can stand up to heavy equipment being driven over floors. Others might need anti-microbial paint for a lab room or food-safe paint for a kitchen.
To work in this field, you need to be willing to do a lot of research and stay fully up-to-date on building codes and industry regulations. You’ll need to know the difference between binders like alkyd resin and polyurethane resin, and you’ll need to understand how paint reacts to additives like fungicides. While it will involve a little more research, the great thing is that the actual tasks of painting might not feel much different from painting a wall in a home. After a few quick training discussions on how to handle specialized paints and coatings, your team will be ready to tackle these high-paying jobs.
Moving into the field of industrial painting is a smart move because projects tend to be larger and more profitable. You don’t have to spend time moving between several jobs and selling yourself to several clients. Instead, you win a single contract and get to dedicate a lot of time to focusing on a project that can pay upwards of $75,000. Clients are willing to pay a lot of painting businesses that have specialized knowledge and the ability to coordinate larger paint jobs.
Cabinet Refinishing
Did you know that cabinet refinishing is one of the fastest-growing home improvement industries? Cabinet refacing is popular because it allows homeowners to get a brand-new look for their cabinets without having to pay to purchase and install cabinets. With this service, you can help clients turn outdated cabinets into fresh, modern cabinets. It’s an especially popular service if you live in an area with a lot of house flipping going on.
Cabinet refinishing is fairly straightforward, but you’ll need to invest in the right tools. Many cabinet refinishing painters prefer to have a dedicated workshop where they can work on cabinets. Their team removes cabinet doors and drawer faces, takes them to the workshop, strips the old coat, and applies a new one. Typically, you’ll need high-quality sanders and solvents to remove old finishes, and you’ll also need some basic tools to remove and reinstall the doors. However, other than that, this industry mostly uses tools you already have, so it’s a very affordable market to enter. With a bit of extra space and some workers who can focus on small, detailed projects, you’ll be ready to start.
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Of course, cabinet refinishing’s main way of providing value is simply by letting you enter such a huge market. There’s a major demand for cabinet refinishing services, so you can access a wide range of dedicated, motivated clients. This service has a profit margin of around 40% a job which can quickly add up when you have so many clients hiring you. Another perk is that it makes it easy to bundle services. Clients are often hesitant to start one project because it takes up space in their home, so they’re more likely to be interested in repainting the kitchen if you’re already in there to refinish the cabinets.
Decorative Painting
Keep in mind that not every client will want a plain, flat finish. A lot of people are interested in the ways paint can add visual interest to their walls, and they’re willing to pay a painting company that knows how to provide these boutique designs. Decorative painting comes in a variety of forms. In some cases, it might consist of decorative finishes like faux marble or plaster textures. There is also a market for decorative designs like stripes and geometric patterns. Some clients might even want elaborate things like letters or even murals.
The main cost for this service is simply learning how to do it and paying an employee to take the time to do it. Decorative painting can take a few hundred dollars worth of courses to learn how to do. Once you have employees who can paint decoratively, you’ll need to expect to pay them extra for the additional hours of time it takes to complete a project. Most costs associated with decorative painting are related to labor. Extra costs related to tools are minimal since you’ll just need some sponges, stippled rollers, stencils, and other similar equipment.
Decorative painting is a good service to offer because it distinguishes you from your competitors. A client might have 10 different paint companies in the city to choose from, but their choice gets a lot easier if they want a faux stone finish and you’re the only painter who can provide that service. In addition to giving you access to clients you wouldn’t otherwise have, this type of painting also allows you to charge a lot more. Since it’s a specialized painting style used for customizing houses, you can often charge as much as $18 per square foot.
Commercial Painting
Commercial painting is any type of painting that takes place on a commercial property instead of a residential one. Many commercial painters work to paint things like restaurants, retail shops, schools, or apartments. Since it’s for a business, you may need to adhere to certain brand standards and match colors closely. You’ll also need to help clients pick out paints that can withstand extra wear and tear.
These projects are a little more complicated to manage simply because they are so large. However, on a basic level, they are much like any other paint job. You don’t need to invest in any extra tools for many commercial painting jobs, so all you need to do is hire a few extra workers. The only time you need extra tools is if you’re working on particularly tall buildings. For example, if you need to rent a scissor lift, it can be around $900 per month.
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Many painting businesses will be fine with the extra effort and cost of commercial painting though because it pays so much more than residential painting. Not only are commercial building owners willing to pay extra for quality, but they’re also less concerned about costs since it’s a deductible business expense. Most commercial painters charge between $20,000 to $100,000 per project.
Ultimately, these types of value-add services can help your business grow a lot faster. With a little creative thinking and an investment in some specialized equipment, you can attract new clients and win bids for high-paying jobs.