What Do You Look For?

To me, the "family owned and operated" and "32 years of experience" would be the eye catchers.
And try to use some photos of his finished work and/or customer testimonials are ALWAYS good!

Definetly include the 32 years in business, family owned and guarantedd - those are all things that I look for and am willing to pay slighty more for.

We've used painters lots of time, and I honestly don't think I've ever called based on a flyer/brochure. My hubby and I are all about websites/referrals. If they have a crappy website, it's automatically a negative for me.

Family owned is not a big deal to me, but experience is. Photos of before/after are very helpful. Free estimates are always good (is that not the norm?), and definitely look for insured/bonded and for "satisfaction guaranteed."

Good luck!

Keep your ads simple, easy to read, and free of grammatical errors.

The experience and length of time in business is huge. Can you get customer testimonials and pictures of some of the faux stuff he's done? Do a facebook page and get all your customers to recommend you and give them like a 10% discount on their next service for recommending you to say 10 friends Post pics of your new equipment and current jobs. Ask customers to give you testimonials if they are happy and look into becoming a member of the BBB. Are you a member of your local Chamber of commerce? They have so many resources and you can make a TON of contacts. From one business mom to another if you have any other questions just PM me, my husband is a marketing genius.

I like to know how long they have been around, family owned and local are very important to hubby and I. Free estiamtes are always a plus as well as the guarenteed (have a good simple phrase to explain what that means to the company). CLEAN UP is huge to us, leave it as clean or better when you started guarenteed would seal the deal if I was looking for painters.

Do you have a book of references and pictures of previous jobs. That is one of the first things we ask a company we are looking to do work for us. I want to see what they have done in the past and having references that we can call (even if we do not) lets us know there are people who would recommend them. With the pictures if you do not have any start; have pictures of inside work, outside work, textures, finishings, the people working on the job maybe even the equipment so the potential client can see it all.

Also having a BBB rating and on Angies List is something we always check into. If you are not mentioned or bad reviews/ratings on either we shy away from hiring someone then.

Facebook Page and or website can also get you some potential clients.

I do my own painting, but if I had to hire, my emphasis would be on detail and perfection.

We rely heavily on "word of mouth", so I would suggest sending a flyer to current customers offering some kind of discount or incentive for referring someone new.

You should also consider having a website that showcases some of the work completed- especially complicated projects! We have a 3-story entry and had a tough time finding someone to do it b/c it's narrow with lots of angles. Finally found someone (good friend referred) and it's beautiful!

I wish you lived near me. Your family paint company sounds wonderful.

As a potential client, I would also be impressed with the fact that the company has been in business for 32 years, is family-owned and operated, and uses skilled workers.

I hire a lot of people through A.'s List. You might want to encourage (but don't badger) any of your past customers to give the company a review on A.'s List.

I always like to look at a company's website, so make sure his is easy to navigate and accurately reflects the quality of the company's work.

If the workers clean everything up completely at the end of each work day (so helpful when there are children in the house), I would definitely mention that. I hate it when there are paint cans, equipment, and drop cloths everywhere even after everyone goes home. Add free or low cost color consultations with the estimates, and that would definitely get you in the door at my house. Good luck!

I can't even tell you the difficulties that I had getting painters to do my house. I had probably 4 come out and quote. The first one I wanted to use I called to tell him he got the job and never heard from him again...called again but no luck. I know he is still in business b/c he advertises every week in the local paper!! The same thing happened with another guy...came out and quoted, left a fancy brochure and then never returned my calls. Another guy said he would email the quote and never did. This is not only painters-seems like all contractors do this kind of thing-esp landscapers. I finally got my house painted by putting in for a quote online at ServiceMagicSnap. Within a couple minutes I had a painter call me, quote and then do my house that weekend.
So what I would suggest first and foremost is to ALWAYS return calls and always do what you say that you will do. I have told everyone I know when the subject of painting comes up not to use the guys who blew me off. That kind of bad pr can be death to a business because it can spread so easily.
You should also look into signing on with ServiceMagic and also social media and buying ads on google and such...this can be much cheaper than you would expect. I would also think about contacting local designers to pitch your services as well as real estate agents. Also-you can try pitching a local paper on your specialty work-the textures and faux finishes. A story in the paper can be great for business.

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Make a user friendly website with pictures of jobs you have done. Without a lot of fluff,
Get a large ad in the phone book yellow pages
Discounts for more than one room
Be competitive
Allow customers to get a discount if they provide the paint or want to help in any way
Customer service!! Always call back, always be courteous, which of course you are
Bring pens, magnets, rulers, any cheap doodads that you can leave with the customer when you give them a quote.
Offer discounts if they refer you to others.
Offer "How to" classes, or seminars--this a lot of people will do but not necessarily hire you to do the work.

I like local M. and pop businesses. I like to keep my money local if possible. I want people who are willing to do small jobs. I want people who call back after leaving a message at their business. I use friends who own businesses and make sure all my neighbors and friends know who they are . I had a great friend whos husband was a professional house painter. We had him paint our house one time. My neighbor came and talked to him and liked the work, so he was hired to paint that house. While he was painting that house, the neighbors son came to visit his parents and ended up hiring the guy to paint his house across town. Then that son had the same guy paint his rental house. A neighbor of the rental house liked his work and had him paint his house... so, that was cool to see and it gave my friends husband a lot of referal work that went on for months. The same thing happend when we bought a new garage door. Neighbor after neighbor bought the same door from the same company and we received a thankyou note and a gift certificate for a restaurant for sending so much work their way! I like when the crew is in a uniform, clean cut and decent looking. I dont like to hear them swearing while on the job, and dont like when they cant work for more than 15 minutes without a ciggarette or cell phone call. I dont mind when they ask to use my bathroom. Id rather they use mine and get back to work than drive off for 45 minutes to find a restroom. I did do a lot of research for landscaping once and had 4 estimates. I chose the company who called me back and had a mid range price. The manager of the business came in a nice truck with a sign on the door, clip board, measure tape and did a nice job asking questions and explaining how it would work and look if they got the job. We agreed, and the day the work was done, I was shocked at how it happened. An old beat up truck drove up, and ratty looking men with hair to their waist, and filthy mouths, scary looking climbed out of the back. Im not kidding, they looked like prisoners fresh out of the drunk tank, or worse. They did the job, and when the is was done, the nicely dress man in the new truck drove up and handed them each some cash and they walked down the street as he drove the other way! You can bet I wont be using that company or promoting their work to anyone! AND Not one of my neighbors came out to ask who they were. So, make sure you have a decent crew, and people who actually work for you. Not homeless creepy men you find who knows where.
Last year a man came door to door with flyers for his tree trimming service. he had all the permits, license numbers, and phone number. I thought he cant be that good if he has to go door to door, but I liked his quote for trimming a tree I wanted taken care of. I called the number on the flyer and asked questions. Sure enough, he was a decent up and up guy with a business and we had him come back and do 2 trees for us. He did an excellent job and ended up taking care of a neighbors tree too. Word of mouth and how your crew acts and looks is important.

The first thing I do when I need to hire someone for any service is go to my friends, my network and get word of mouth referrals.

Also, when we were building our 2nd home and had the 1st home we built on the market, my realtor was a great source for someone to come out and point up the house to make sure it was market ready.

Offer discounts as in CASH. When we upgraded and replaced our AC and furnace we saved a bundle on a $20,000 job by offering CASH in the form of a cashiers check. The company did not have to pay to run any credit card through the system nor did they have overhead dealing with a payment plan.

Show pictures of your work.

Our HOA has a website and people can advertise on it for a small fee. Also, we are on Facebook and referrals are given there all the time.

Your local PTA's print a directory for the school. Again the advertising is not a huge fee and ALL the parents in the PTA get a copy of the directory.

I'll admit that when I hear a business is family owned and operated and has been in business many years, I will look twice at that company because it is a lot of work to maintain a family business (any business now a days).

I like to work with smaller companies who do not treat me like a number and treat me like a person. Someone who cares about their work and would work in my home and put forth the same effort and quality as they would in their own home.

Be concise and neat with all flyers... easy to read, no errors.

I don't know about you but I will not do business with anyone who leaves flyers at my door.

Get a website. We built our business website on yahoo and it is just $14 a month.

We are in a completely different line of business dealing with raw materials but when I invoice customers, I state on the terms 1% 10, net 30. You would be surprised how many people will take that 1% which can be anywhere from $100-$600. By doing that, our cash flow in increased and we turn the money quicker.

I also take advantage of any discount when I am paying invoices such as taking the 1-2% discount and paying in 10 days. I've saved as much as $600 on 1 invoice doing that.

Those are just a few thoughts. Oh and join BBB

I think word of mouth is important. Can you create something where clients can put their experience out there like on Angieslist or something? I think people seeing or hearing testimonials from previous clients is the best way to go. When we chose our last painter it was based off past clients happiness of her work.

Good luck!

Or add on the flier BBB graded A for our services or something?

hello, we just remodeled our entire main floor, including floors and painting. We were pretty overwhelmed when it came to the time to choose a painter. We first went and looked at model homes. We looked at all the different paint colors, and finishes, and how well they taped off and did the trimwork paint too. When we found the model house with the best paint job, we asked the builder who painted for him. Then we asked the painter to come over and give us an estimate. We also got estimates from other painters that had been recommended to us. The painter with the model home was the best deal, and the best looking. He also gave us a better price for cash, which I know for some would not work out. Top of the line products are a must. Clean up is a must. They never left our home dirty, and if we stopped in to look at the progress, they were nice about it. Time is also a factor, how long to do the job. It took our painter 5 days to do our job, and others quoted as taking as much as 2 weeks. Can't do that!! We sometimes had 5 people in our house working. That was awesome!! As a side note, we also called and got an estimate from someone out of the phone book. They were over $2000 higher than the person we chose. Not sure if the advertising had anything to do with charging that much more, but we would have never went that route.