Small Business 101-Acton

In my last couple of blog posts, I’ve written with a specific goal filling you guys in on aspects of my business.  As a general theme of this post, I would like to talk about networking.  However, it may be a little less cut-and-dried in terms of having a specific area I want to end on and involve more anecdotes about my experiences networking.

Networking has been probably the most fun aspect of this job thus far.  The first thing I did after signing on with Collegiate was to come up with a list of every single family friend I could think of.  My thought process was, I’m brand new at this and my company doesn’t have any bad habits formed yet, let’s keep it that way! Another important aspect of running any company is figuring out what exactly it is that makes your business special.  Essentially, why should people choose my company over any other painting company?  In the end, painting is only as hard as you make it. With a strong base of the fundamentals of prep work and paint technique, painting is all about ATTENTION TO DETAIL(in capitals because I plan on saying this at least 10-15 times per day on job site.  My goal is for my painters to eat, sleep, and breathe ATTENTION TO DETAIL!).  The reality is, there are many qualified painters in the area who will do a really good job.  So if that’s true, am I screwed?  This is where my family friends came in. I asked them about the things that other contractors (painting and otherwise) had done well on the job site and what they had done not so well.  I learned quickly that smoking and leaving a mess are two major pet peeves people have about contractors. I am not a smoker myself so that isn’t an issue with me, but I warned all my painters in the interviews that we would be keeping the job sites smoke free to remediate this issue.  As far as leaving a mess, I think this gets back to ATTENTION TO DETAIL (I’m keeping that in capitals for the rest of my life).  I have come up with a checklist for all of my painters to go over before leaving at the end of the day and a separate one for my site foreman, who will always be the last to leave and will only do so after a walkaround of the site to check for debris.  On the other side, I consistently found that everyone loved a contractor who strove to communicate as much as possible.  To this end, with every lead I’ve gotten, I have tried to give them as many ways (cell phone, email, facebook, etc) and opportunities to contact me as possible.  Every time I talk to a lead or client, I make sure to end the conversation by asking if they have any questions or concerns about whatever stage in the process we are in.  I hope that this is paying off and that my leads and clients feel comfortable talking to me about anything!  I always like to include places in the blog where I encourage readers to comment with their own thoughts and I think this is a perfect opportunity!  What are some things contractors have done well/not so well for you in the past? Is there anything that no contractor has ever done that they should? As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve never been a homeowner, so I can’t think like one! I do my best to handle as many homeowner concerns as possible on the phone with them and during the estimate, but I can always use more insight into the mind of a homeowner.

Changing direction a little, I would like to talk about the wonder of craigslist! I say wonder somewhat sarcastically because of the mixed bag of success I have had using it as a business tool.  I thought using craigslist would be a great way to access a vast pool of painters from whom I could choose and, to some degree, it was.  However, I quickly learned that I needed to be much more specific in the wording of my ads.  The type of painter I was looking for was someone who had some experience, but was still young and could fit into a strong team dynamic.  What I really want to do once we go into production is challenge each painter to do a top quality job in an efficient amount of time.  As a soccer player myself, I live for any challenge where I can say I’m the best and I wanted to find painters with a similar mindset, perhaps even other sports players themselves.  In the end, I found a lot of great applicants for painters, but I have had more success working through word of mouth to find painters who fit better in the team dynamic I am seeking.  On the plus side, I have gotten some invaluable interview experience and gotten the chance to meet a lot of great people.  I could talk about hiring all day, but I think I’ll save all the things I have learned during the hiring process for a separate post.

Another, more humorous, example of the suspect magic of craigslist has been in my search for a summer painting truck.  Originally, I had planned on doing a short term lease on a truck for the summer, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to look around for a truck in my price range (which is exceedingly minimal).  What I didn’t realize was that trucks in this price range are marketed very creatively! An example:

Dodge Ram 1500 ($1500)

Pros:

111k miles

New front bumper

New ball joints

Trannys gone

New tires

New stereo player

Cons:

Back right taillight is gone

Truck runs great! Only needs taillight, $20 at autozone. Cheap, cheap truck, bring cash and drive away TODAY!

End ad. Wow, this truck sounds great! Only one con and all it will cost me is twenty bucks at autozone, what a deal! Oh wait, it doesn’t have brakes….funny how that was almost hidden within the  pros… I also stopped calling used car dealers who had cars in my price range(remember, exceedingly minimal) after I talked to a salesman who refused to be called Mr. ____, and instead wanted to be called “Boom Boom.”  Boom Boom had a great truck for me, not too many miles, great on gas, no rust anywhere.  In fact, the truck was so great he almost forgot to tell me it didn’t have brakes.

Unfortunately, neither of these were isolated occurrences.  On the plus side, if any of you are considering buying a car on craigslist, I would be happy to provide some consulting, I have become very good at reading an ad and asking the right questions in follow up phone calls and emails to save time from even bothering to look at cars/trucks.  Not to be all negative about craigslist, I was able to find one solid painter and I have test driven two trucks from two perfectly normal, honest guys who have talked to me about repairs needed and the state of their trucks, there are good people out there! You just have to be careful.