Painting Business – Learn How Much to Charge For a Painting Job

How much do you charge for a painting job? Do you charge the going rate? Who told you the going rate? Was it the clerk in the paint store? Was it your customer? Was it another painter? If the answer was any one of these, that’s too bad.

Why is it too bad you ask? It is too bad because only you or someone who has access to your sales volume and your costs can know what you need to make your selling price. While construction businesses tend to have a higher failure rate than most other types of businesses, owners of construction businesses tend not to educate themselves as to the “why” of the failure rate being so high.

While the owner of a painting company may be a master craftsman, he usually thinks that understanding the business part is a waste of time. Successful painters tend to educate themselves throughout their career and never stop learning. I wonder how many painting business owners ever picked up a book on sales or took a class or seminar on sales principles.

Do you suppose that education in your business has anything to do with success in this same business?

I used to feel sad for those people who fail in this business, but I don’t anymore, because they choose to remain closed minded about learning new things. At one time it may have been sufficient to be a craftsman to succeed in this business, now it is not enough. Today competition is too intense to sit on your haunches and bathe in your pride of craftsmanship.

You might say, “I have lots of business but I still don’t have enough money at the end of the job to pay all my costs and still have a little left over for me.” That is a sure sign that you are charging too little.

A better strategy is to have fewer jobs, but more money at the end of those jobs.

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Need to know how to estimate? Easy to use Painting Estimator Click here: The professional painter [http://www.the-professional-painter.com/Interior-Paint-Estimator.html]

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Want to know how to estimate a paint job? Click here: The professional painter [http://www.the-professional-painter.com/Painter.htm]

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Author: P E Cavanaugh
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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