Leave Your 9-5 and Start This Simple Business

Imagine going from having only $12 in your bank account to having the biggest painting company in the country. That's what Steven did.

I'll be the biggest painting company in Austin, Texas. I'm gonna be ridiculous, and I'm gonna build a ridiculously sized business.

What kind of revenue do you guys do today?

That one painter alone will do at least 80 million this year.

We're gonna break down exactly how he did it so you can learn from it too. Door knocking seems so much scarier than it is.

Hi.

Just letting you know that we're the painting company across the way.

Can I show you how to hold.

A. I could feel the concern like this. Yes, but then how do you know? I love this business model. It's two things. It's painting and it's sales.

Hey, you're late. Let's start with the tape.

Let's go. What do we got on the plate today?

Well, we're painting a lot of walls. So you're here to help. Yeah. Or did you hear that? Film.

Mostly film. I'm gonna have you do all the work today.

I did all this math and kind of dreamt of starting my own painting company one day.

So when you think the word painting, it seems to me you kind of think the word freedom.

Yeah, absolutely. I didn't know how to do much else because I dropped out of college, decided it wasn't for me. But I knew that I could figure it out. And so I just started painting rooms for people. Stuff like that reached out all the realtors that I knew. I would door knock. And so if I didn't have any jobs for that day or for the rest of the week, I would. I would knock on doors until somebody gave me a job for the same day or the next day. And it would typically only take me an hour to four hours, and I would have a job to start that afternoon.

That's amazing. As a kid, making 220 bucks a day.

Wow. Sometimes more. Yeah, sometimes. I mean, if you're doing the work yourself, you can make 500 bucks a day or more.

Okay, So a blue collar business, not typically something young people who are highly capable doing math in their heads are gonna jump right into.

Right.

What was it about owning this type of business that was so interesting to you?

It was a skill that I could offer with my time. I didn't need a lot of equipment. I didn't need to do marketing. I didn't do any of that. I didn't even need a team. It was just something that I could do. And I knew from a really young age that I didn't want to work for anybody else. Like, I might be that bad of an employer.

Unemployable.

I'm unemployable. Yeah. So I just wanted to do something for myself. And I also figured, like, I'm 21. I just gotten married. I had been doing some sub work for another company. I called her. I was soaking wet from a pressure washing job. I was like, I cannot work for anybody else. I need to quit today.

There's also, like, something really therapeutic about painting in particular as an industry, like pressure washing. I've done it. It is hard. Like when I was, like, trying the.

Trigger on, it was soaking wet all day.

Soaking wet. So by the end of the day, you're like bleach.

You go out to dinner after work, you still smell like bleach.

Right. That's tough. But with painting, like, people do this for a hobby.

Yeah.

And there's something really nice about we're going to get into it today and paint. But when you can finish the whole job and seeing, like, kind of that transition at the end, it's cool.

It's really rewarding. And also, like, paint has the biggest, most dramatic effect for the lowest price.

You started this thing with 12 bucks in your pocket.

$12? I thought I had a job booked when I quit my other gig for like 2,700 bucks. And the day after I quit my job, I thought I was going to go start that job. He called me to the household. I don't need it painted anymore. And so I had nothing. I had 12 bucks. And so I started knocking on doors. I call them real estate agents. Wow. So I always tell everybody, you don't need anything other than a paintbrush and a customer to start a business. You don't need an llc. You don't even need bank account yet. Worry about those things once you actually have some money in your pocket.

Yeah. Totally underrated. You did economics of this job. How much do you make on a house like this?

Typically, our Average job is $5,300.

Wow. Okay. 5K per job. Fascinating. How long does it take per job?

$5300 jobs. Three days, maybe four.

What is an hourly rate you make if you're an individual painter?

We charge around $700 a day, and our painters are going to make about $300 a day.

Amazing. Then if you have to think about insurance, what does that cost you?

Insurance for a small crew, you're going to be looking at like 150, 200 bucks.

Marketing.

Marketing. If you have happy customers, you don't have to do any marketing. But typically about 5% of our budget is marketing.

How many jobs can you do in one day?

So it depends on the number of crews you have. In my Austin location, we can do 10 to 15 jobs a week.

Okay. And then how much do you think you can make as an individual?

Like as somebody just painting by themselves?

They were just painting by themselves.

It depends on what you're charging in your area. But I used to charge around four or five hundred dollars a day just for me painting by myself. It's pretty good money for a 21 year old that dropped out of college 100%.

Okay. So rough numbers.

Let's say year one, I did about 100,000 in sales. Woo.

Which is a lot of money for a 21 year old.

Year 2 to 3, I was doing probably 250. Wow.

250 to 300k. What about years? Let's call it 4 and 5.

I would say from year 4 to probably all the way to year 8, I was doing about 4 or 500 a year.

So one dude and some employees equals somewhere between 100k to 500k in a paint business.

Yep. You can do this with just one crew?

Pretty much you can do this with one crew.

Wow.

Let's break down some hard and fast numbers that nobody else shares on the Internet, but we're about to. Okay, let's start with how much a margin in a job is and also labor costs. Explain this.

All right, so you're going to have about 15% is going to be stuff like the floor paper, paint and any other materials you need. And then 35% is typically gonna be what you're paying your painters your labor for.

So. Nice. What about these numbers?

That would mean that a bad gross profit is gonna be 30, 40%. A good gross profit is gonna be 45 and up. So you're shooting for 50 or more. And lastly, the top closers are Gonna close about 40 to 50% of their estimates. We're seeing Julio even a little above that.

Wow. So you go to one or two houses, you try to close one of them to be safe. You're a newbie. Let's say you're gonna go to five or 10, but God, those odds are pretty. Oh. I'm Cody. If you're new to this channel, I own 25 businesses and now I own part of this one. Also subscribe. This is how you get your ownership in your business. So if I was going to do a job, one job to start this business.

Yeah.

How much would this cost? So you would need, I don't know, a few of these.

That's a pretty nice brush. So that's 20 bucks.

Oh, okay.

It's a fancy brush.

This is a fancy brush. It feels like it. Okay, so let's call it, what, three or four paintbrushes.

You probably need three brushes. There's different types for different stuff, so probably three brushes. You're going to need a roller. The nicer rollers. These are about 10 bucks. You don't want to buy the cheap six pack ones. If you got your rollers in a six pack, throw it away and buy something nice.

Okay.

Okay. Literally the time you will save by getting a nicer roller, you can cut the rolling time in half.

We need painter's plastic. This is what, like 30, 40 bucks?

That's probably 20 bucks.

Yeah. 20 bucks.

Yep.

Okay, Painter's plastic. We got that.

We need. What is this?

This is like a. Oh, oh.

That's a masking machine. So that makes it easier to cover. This is what we'll use on the baseboards and stuff. So I can show you. Yeah, this thing saves you a ton of time too, because. See that? There you go. And you can just cover the baseboards if you want. Like that. So. So typically what would have been like a two step process is one.

Now we're done. Besides a little bit of tape, which is. I don't know what these costs, the.

Other thing that every painter needs is sandpaper. Yeah. So you can just make sure that things are smooth and actually look really nice when the paint's on it.

And then you need paint, which is probably your most important ingredient.

Paint's the most expensive. Typically compared to your prep materials. This is super paint from Sherwin Williams. Yeah. So they're pretty heavy.

They're heavy. Get my workout in today. Okay. So when it comes to paint, I would guess that this is the most expensive part of every job. And if you want to make money painting, you have to be able to properly price this. Plus labor, right? Yes, that's the.

Yeah, you got to make sure your labor is right, but you really have to make sure you get your materials right. And paint's gonna be the most expensive part. That five gallon bucket is gonna be retail for 250, 300, depending on where you're buying it, where your account is. But if you're off by one, two buckets, like, that's gonna be a lot.

It's a lot.

Yeah. So typically 30 to $50 a gallon on paint. And then if you're getting a five gallon bucket, it's gonna be, you know, 250 or so.

And then how do you decide how much of this you need for a place?

Shortcut way to do it is 100 square feet of the floor plan. You're gonna need a gallon. So if it's a 2,000 square foot house, to do the walls, you're gonna need 20 gallons. If you're gonna paint the ceilings, you're gonna need at least 10 gallons. That's kind of like baseline, but we train our guys how to go through the house and assess any other variables that would either increase it or decrease it.

Yeah, that's amazing. So higher roofs, actually higher ceilings.

If we mess up on the paint, it's our fault, not the customers. So I'm gonna eat it and take care of it.

Oh, really?

I'd rather have a happy customer and I lose a little bit of profit. And they're referring me to the neighbor. Then have somebody who's upset. Even the job's gonna look great. But now they have to pay $500 more on paint. Cause I didn't know what I was doing. I'm not going to put that mistake on the customer.

That's cool.

Yeah.

My painter should take note. They never did that for me.

Okay, I will be your painters for now.

Deal.

All right. Customer said you get to pick the color. No pressure.

Maybe. Maybe we want to go pink. No. Okay. He doesn't like that.

Something a little more on brand.

Oh, right, right. Branding. How about a blue?

Sounds good.

All right, we're going to go with Maria Baja.

Perfect. We want to make sure we don't get paint all over these. So let's go ahead and brush around it so there's no risk of hitting it with a roller.

Okay.

Sound good?

Yes.

Okay. Okay, Gary, can I show you how to hold a brush?

I can feel the concern.

You know, kind of. Kind of like that.

Okay.

Yeah. All right.

Like this?

Yes. But then how do you know like this? Like from the other side? Like if you were going to. We can practice that. Just practice that.

Like this? Like this. How is this still not right? Are you guys watching? Doesn't this look the same? Let's talk about how to make some money in this business. How could you get a client without a single dollar of advertising?

So we call it the five Rs of revenue. So the five Rs of revenue. I started with real estate agents. Not only can real estate agents introduce you to homeowners who need their house painted but they also know all the other contractors, roofers, whoever else you might want to get referrals from. Also. So it's real estate agents and it's referrals. So that could be referrals like from a real estate agent, or it could be referrals from your customers, your happy customers. Then you have repeat business. So it's not a reoccurring revenue model, but we're doing the inside of this house now. I'd love to do the exterior of this house in a year. And so you have a lot of repeat business. It could be, it could be 10% of your business in painting. It could be as much as 35% in some locations. Then you have reputation, which is going to be your online reputation or which reviews, like Google reviews or Yelp reviews. Then you're going to have relationships. So everybody that you know could be a client or they can introduce you to somebody. So Those are the five Rs of revenue. Steven.

Subscribe. Subscribe. Let's break down kind of the wild story that you've had at T1P, because you basically started with 12 bucks, then 100, 200, 300, 500 in a couple years. But this year you're gonna do a hell of a lot more than that. How big is this company right now?

I think we'll finish the year around 80 million.

That's wild. And last year, how much did you do?

A little over 30 million.

What do you think is the reason why you guys were able to grow a trade service based business to such a size?

You got to bring other people along for the ride. So in 2019, I hired a manager, started delegating a lot of things to him, started working on sales and developing more systems, and we ultimately led to US Franchising. In 2021, we became the fastest growing painting company of all time. And I think the very best thing that I had wasn't even my painting skills or any of that. It was the freedom that I had in this good business model. So I invited other people to buy in as a franchise partner and we blew up.

One of the coolest things about your business model is it's for other people who want ownership, who care about having sovereignty and being able to be their own boss. They want skin in the game, but they also need a playbook. You know, what I've realized after helping thousands of people buy businesses is not everybody is cut out for buying a business and being all by themselves running it. In fact, there's a lot of health that comes from being With a tribe of humans who are all building right alongside you. It's like the best parts of a team, but you get to own your business.

Exactly.

Which is why I think I used to not like franchises, because I saw a lot of bad ones. But then when I saw what you guys were doing at T1P, that totally changed it for me.

And I think what we have is 10 years of my mistakes that you don't have to make because we've written all the systems, we have all the training, we have all the marketing dialogue, all that stuff that you would need. It's all ready to go. And they get to launch their business. They can hire managers, hire painters, do the whole thing, and they're hitting numbers that took me eight, nine years to hit in their first year.

Freedom happens in constraints. So when somebody gives you, hey, here's the playbook for how to do all the mindless things that you shouldn't have to figure out, but you do when you're brand new as a business owner. Here's all of the playbook. But then go and have fun executing on the reason why we all like to run businesses, which is go and have fun with your sales process. Go and have fun with closing people.

Exactly. But be creative with your local marketing.

Exactly.

You can do all sorts of stuff.

Yeah. But do you want to really get creative with how to, you know, clean and prep and prepare a space?

No.

You kind of want to show me how to do it the fastest way possible so I never have to think about it again.

Exactly. We tell everybody because they're like, I don't know anything about paint. I'm like, I'm teaching more about painting you ever wanted to know. And then we're going to go out and build a really great business together, where it's actually all about team building and customer service, which anybody can do if they focus on it. People ask me all the time, like, what is the your marketing secret? I'm like, happy customers. Like, I've never hired a marketing agency or a marketing staff member that has ever been able to do as much for me or my locations as my happy customers will do. And so if you show up on time, you communicate with them. And then, most importantly, paint's really messy. So if you don't leave a mess, you actually leave the house cleaner than when you started. People will tell the whole street about you.

One of my favorite CEOs once told me, if you pretend like your very first customer is the only customer, you're ever going to get your business Will expand exponentially. And. And most people don't do that because we're always thinking about the next one, the next one, the next one. And we don't realize that humans are built as viral networks. So instead of having a viral piece of content, one human in a world in which competency is super scarce can be your viral Facebook ad. Okay, I think we should go try to make you some money.

Let's do it.

Let's go. Let's go. Try to door knock. Right. So explain this process really quickly. You come to a house and immediately try to do more houses in the neighborhood. Right.

That's our first goal, is like, we're here. Why don't we paint some more homes? And so we call it courtesy knocking. We're letting the 20 homes nearest this house know that we're the ones painting this house. So if they see a truck park where it shouldn't be, they see some paint spilled, whatever. They see somebody maybe spraying, there's overspray. We're telling them that we're the people that are taking can take care of them. Right. And so because of that, it basically drops down that barrier with the customer. Because we're not trying to sell them. When we knock on that door, we're telling them we're here. If you see any issues, I'm your guy. And then now that I'm at the door, I'm also offering them an S. Man.

Amazing. Okay, what should I not do when at the door? So we walk up to the door. It's the two of us.

Yes.

What do we do? We knock on the door. How many times?

I like to do a one knuckle knock because it's soft. Or ring the doorbell. You don't want to come and sound like you're the cops. Right. And I've seen so many door knockers walk up. Boom, boom, boom, boom.

Yeah.

Like you're just frustrated the customer a lot. And then the.

And then you have your hands available so that they can. You're not threatening.

Exactly.

You dress like a pro. You get paid like a pro.

Yes. Hey. Sorry. I just. I hate door knockers too. At least not the cops. Right. If you're going to door knock, the whole idea is to bring the barrier down because immediately they're gonna throw up a kind of a defense. Right?

Yeah.

And so throw up a shield. And so we're trying to bring that down. Humor is my favorite. Say, hey, I know you hate door knockers. I do too. But at least I'm not the cops.

Yeah.

So they Immediately will kind of like, smile, and then you can tell them while you're there.

Okay, let's do it.

Julio's our project manager, so. Yeah. Cool. Thank you so much.

You love your dog. Okay, Come on, buddy. You want to come back inside? I think door knocking seems so much scarier than it is. That's great. I didn't. I could just bend down and pay attention to the dog. People are nice. People want to help people.

Hi.

Just letting you know that we're the painting company across the way. You know, the services with a company like this, you can stain, you can paint indoor, you can paint outdoor. You can pressure wash. Every one of these houses here needs the services. And I know because I've been somebody who needs the services, that there's some money to be had. Should we let him try one?

All right, let's go with Julio. Julio's the man.

Okay. But you two go.

All right. I want you to win us a job. How about that? Does that sound good? Okay. What's up, man? How are you? Good. How you doing? I'm Stephen. We. We're actually doing the work at the house next door here.

I think these eaves are good up in here. Killing it. God, yeah.

If any of them are soft or have wood rot, we'll take care of it. No problem. I think Coolio is the solution. So.

Nice clothes.

We tried to hard sell them.

What happened?

I didn't like that. No. But we got his information.

Amazing.

And he's got to get his boss's approval, his wife, so.

I love that. Nice job, guys. Dude, six houses.

Six houses. That'd be about a, what? $4,900 estimate. How long do we knock?

Six? Like, 10 minutes.

10 minutes. We got an estimate. So 10 minutes of knocking. Or you can spend 100 bucks on ads, or you just knock for 10 minutes.

And, like, oftentimes, I think there's gonna be one human who goes, oh, thank God. I've been looking for somebody like you.

Yeah, we've always put these in people's yards. But Julio had the creative idea if you put little razor blade cuts at the top, he can put all of his cards on the top, which allow the customer to walk by and grab one.

This is so good. Love this. Super cool. Pros and cons of this business. The pros of the business are many. Fold One, recession resistant. Why? Well, I might not want to do an $85,000 kitchen remodel, but I might paint my cabinets. $5,000 if I'm going to stay in my house. Longer because now I can't sell it. Oh, by the way, homes are getting foreclosed on more. Well, the bank needs somebody to take care of houses and upkeep them before they can sell them, which means even in a down market, a company like this does pretty well. Also, painting is one of the cheaper ways to actually totally redo the look of your house, which means instead of doing brand new wood floors, which means instead of doing a, you know, remodel on the inside, you could just paint the bad boy. I really like that. All right, what are the cons to this business? The cons are we have to find ways to make this a recurring revenue business, because people don't paint consistently. So you might want to do a subscription model where people stain their decks once a year, and you get them on a subscription for that. Right now, this is a transactional business, so they got to get that customer every single time. The second reason is because labor can be difficult. So you got to make sure you can find people who can actually do the painting, not just people to sell the services. You also have to make sure that if you're going to have a fulfillment guarantee, like if the estimate is wrong, we'll eat the costs, that you have wide enough margins or good enough people in order to eat those costs. If you're going to do something, go big. Everyone admires the courageous. Nobody admires the timid. And don't listen to what they tell you. Size does matter.