Commercial Painting: Matt Made A Cool $300k in Net Profit In 2019 With ONLY 7 Commercial Relationships… And He Did It Without Being Overworked Or Stressed Out…

Because he knows something we don’t know…
 
He knows how to tap into the high dollar commercial painting market where the big money is being made.

And there is a LOT of money being made.
Just look around…

There is an enormous amount of businesses, offices, stores, strip malls, apartments, condos, townhomes, and entire associations…

And they ALL need to be painted regularly.
You All See The Dollar Signs… So Why Aren’t You Already Getting These Jobs?
Because there is so much that you don’t know…
  • How do you even find these jobs? 
  • And if you can find them, how do you win them?
  • How do you price and estimate jobs?
  • ​What’s your profit margin?
  • ​How much start up capital do we need?
And, whether you have looked around or not… there is virtually no way to learn commercial painting… Unless someone takes you under their wing.

So you just keep ‘putting it off’...

In the next few minutes, I’m going to share with you what I learned over 6 weeks interviewing and talking to a dozen commercial painting contractors, painting consultants
I know because I’ve done the same thing.

And how you can finally add commercial painting to your business…

Without “figuring it all out on your own”...

Or risking your business…

Hey - I’m Eric Barstow

And I’ve been coaching painting business owners for over 15 years.

But, unlike a lot of coaches, I practice what I preach and I’m actively operating painting companies at National Painting Group.

… Where we own and operate 4 painting companies that did over $5.8 million dollars in revenue in 2019 and over $7.5 million in 2020.

What I’m really good at is teaching and building scalable systems for a business…

If You’re Anything Like Me… You See An Irresistible Opportunity In Commercial Painting

  • There is an enormous amount of businesses, hospitals, and buildings that need repainted regularly.
  • Now more than ever, with the uncertainty of the market, adding commercial services makes a ton of sense.
  • You want to add another, more stable stream of revenue… And make sure you don’t have all your eggs in one basket.
  • You like the idea of building relationships with owners, prop managers, and GCs to be their go-to painters… Having a few customers that hand you work year after year.
  • You see commercial painting as a way to have more repeat customers and a steady flow of business always coming in.
  • You see the job size and potential profit margins… And they are obviously intriguing. 

And the list goes on...


And you feel like you need to get involved someday…

At least that’s how I feel…

I know people who are making a ton of money on it… and you probably do too. 

The contractors who have “figured it out” are killing it with commercial.

We have had a taste of high paying commercial work… and when it goes well it’s amazing.

… Like when we painted a Kohl’s department store for $40,000 and made $20k in profit in 4 days.

… Or when we painted a dryfall ceiling for $28,000 and made $16k in profit in 3 days.

… Or the condo units we painted for $75,000 and made $37k in 3 weeks.

But we’ve also had our ass kicked a few times…

… Lost $5,000 on a $50,000 job that took us 3 brutal, stressful months.

… Didn’t get paid on a job for 9 months (which killed our cash position and put us in a tough spot)

 Commercial Is Not The Same As Residential


Everything about it is different…

  • You don’t get leads the same way.
  • You don’t price things the same way.
  • The sales process is different.
  • ​Contracts are different.
  • ​Customers' needs and wants are different.
  • ​It’s an entirely different business.

You probably know this… just like I know this.

This is why we waited to enter this business…

We didn’t want to “wing it”...


And we didn’t have a business model for commercial… We knew we needed to build that model and learn more about the business to avoid getting our ass kicked again.

We Were Waiting… Then COVID Happened… 

Our residential business is doing really well and we were almost ready to enter commercial… Probably in 2021.
 
Then COVID happened, which gave me a lot of time to focus on building our commercial business.
Everyone in our company took on different projects…

My project was building our commercial painting model...

So My Research Began! 

And My Network Started Paying Off...


I contacted everyone I know in this field and set up conversations with successful commercial painting contractors to pick their brain.
 
I reached out to the other coaches and consultants in our industry…

  • Brandon Lewis with the APPC…
  • Steve Burnett with DYB Coach
  • Emily Howard from American Painting Contractor magazine…
  • Morgan Ray at Bookkeeping for Painters…
  • ​Chris Shank, Director of Education at the Painting Contractors Association…
  • ​My good buddy Danny Kerr from Breakthrough Academy…

And I hit up friends of mine who do commercial painting…

I even had Painting Business Pro members who have been crushing it in commercial schedule calls with me.

Within about 24 hours I had a list of 20+ multi-million dollar commercial painting contractors ready to schedule a call with me.

So I started scheduling phone calls…

Call after call…

After 2-3 weeks of research and phone calls, here’s what I learned...

“Commercial Painting Is A Different Animal”


I can’t tell you how many times I heard that…

It’s people’s favorite thing to say when talking about commercial painting.
But some things get repeated because they’re true…

There are a lot of challenges, a lot of questions, and a lot of unknowns with commercial projects...

  • How do you even find these commercial jobs to bid on?
  • And how do we bid or estimate them so we are competitive but still profitable?
  • What kind of legal contracts need to be in place?
  • What are these commercial customers looking for and how do we compete?
  • ​What are the things I don’t even know that could bite me in the ass?
You recognize the commercial landscape is vastly different than residential, not better or worse, just different.
 
To make matters worse… It’s a huge industry with multiple different sectors/segments of the market…
So it’s even more complicated.

There’s managed residential, managed commercial, small commercial, large commercial, new construction with blueprints, industrial, big box retail…

And each of these segments has little nuances and details about them.

And if you don’t “get it right”... the stakes are really high… Mistakes and failures can be incredibly costly.
  • Like my buddy who took a job with a ‘predator’ GC who refused to pay the last $90,000 on a job… After a year in court they paid half of it.
  • Or one of my Painting Business Pro customers who had to close his business because of payments he never received
  • Or another one of my good friends who has sent out dozens of bids but hasn’t won a single one of them… Huge waste of time and effort.
AND …. There are very few resources to learn commercial painting. 
 
I’m pretty connected in this industry and I couldn’t find any resources that “answered my questions”... 
 
There is no course available. No training programs. 
 
And a lot of contractors closely guard their ‘trade secrets’.
 
So if you want to enter the commercial painting game, you need to learn it on your own… which is not ideal.
 

Here’s Everything I Wanted To Learn To Enter This Market...

  • Understanding the marketplace, different segments, different customers, and the pros and cons of each… And which one is best to attack first
  •  Lead generations and how to find clients
  • Pricing, bidding and estimating systems and process
  • Sales process and ongoing relationship management
  • ​Legal, contracts, cover your ass stuff, liens, and risk avoidance… red flags and what to look out for
  • Production process and systems, when you can use subs, when you need employees, and why… And what other sub trades do you need to know and be able to deliver?
  • ​Org structure and team building - what is the best way to structure a commercial company?
  • ​Admin like insurance, safety, OSHA, accounts receivable and cash flow, equipment, etc…

If you knew and had systems for all of those things, you could crush the commercial game.

That’s the only difference between you and the people who are making it rain in commercial painting.

You know how to execute - that’s how you built a great residential business.

But you are missing WHAT and HOW to execute in the commercial side of the business.

So That’s What I Went Looking For.... All The Juicy Details I Would Need To Launch Our Commercial Business


I wanted to find someone who already had all of these systems ready to go…

But I ran into a problem… Anyone who has these systems didn’t want to share them. They didn’t want to reveal their trade secrets…

Just think about it - if you were making several hundred thousand dollars a year in commercial painting…
Would you want to freely share your information?

I even tried to offer some of these guys money (good money!)

But there wasn’t any amount of money that was worth it to them.

They were making too much money on their own business to bother giving away their trade secrets…

One Friend Of Mine Got Defensive When I Only Asked HOW He LEARNED To Estimate

I was curious how all these commercial contractors learned how to estimate…

So I sent out a bunch of messages asking “how did you learn how to estimate from blueprints and estimate commercial jobs?”

One of my friends responded immediately with “My business partner taught me but sorry those are our trade secrets”...

I didn’t even ask for him to teach me, and he was already defensive and protective of their ‘trade secrets’.

Other responses were:

  • I taught myself over the last 20 years
  • My business partner taught me
  • I learned at my last job as a commercial estimator
  • I learned in college in a blueprint reading class
  • ​I bought blueprint reading books and taught myself


These were not the answers I was looking for…

Everyone was willing to share the “basics” and some general info…

But when it came down to specifics, nobody wanted to share those.

Learning From Commercial Painting Contractors Was Not Going To Work…

So I started looking for some commercial training program of some kind.

Something like what I offer with Painting Business Pro… but that also didn’t exist.

There aren’t any commercial painting training courses available anywhere…

I even talked to a few commercial painting coaches and consultants…

Even THEY didn’t have a course or a program.

They do 1on1 coaching only.

So I Realized I Needed To Build This System Myself From The Ground Up...

And I was prepared to pay tens of thousands of dollars to a commercial consultant to help me build that model.

I started making all of the outlines of everything I needed and wanted to know…

I had several phone calls with different contacts I have in the industry to make my wish list of everything I needed…

And Then I Thought: Who Else Would Want This?


I had already poured a ton of time into this project…

And over the years I’ve had so many questions and requests for commercial painting.

So many people are interested in it… because it’s so appealing.

The job sizes are so big. The profit margins are so big.

This business can be incredibly lucrative...

And the jobs can be so much easier than residential.

Contractors WANT to get into the commercial business…

So I sent out an email and asked if people were interested in a program like this…

And the response was an overwhelming YES…

So that changed things…

Instead Of Hiring A Consultant And Building This Entire Business By Myself...

I Started Approaching Different Commercial Experts About Creating An Entire Course With Me


And after a few weeks, I made a deal with two different commercial coaches to create the first ever commercial painting course.

Scott Lollar has seen it all.

  • He has been in the commercial painting business for 20+ years…
  • And is a commercial painting consultant with 30+ 1-on-1 clients…
  • He’s worked as a general manager for two multi million dollar commercial painting companies in different locations.
  • He’s landed big contracts and produced millions in business.
  • ​And he comes highly recommended. 


And Greg Miller… He has been operating his own commercial painting company for the last 10 years.

  • He started in residential painting
  • Once he got into commercial work, he never went back.
  • He is also a commercial coach with some 1on1 clients…

But more importantly, Greg has been building a commercial blueprint reading and estimating course for the last 2 years.

And he’s been perfecting his own commercial estimating process for the last 10 years.

And the 3 of us have been working behind the scenes for weeks together.. And for years separately… to bring you a course that contractors everywhere have been asking for.

So I’m thrilled to introduce to you…

The Painting Business Pro Commercial Painting Course


This is the ONLY training program on the market that teaches you the commercial painting business from the ground up.

So you can build your commercial business with confidence…

  • You’ll understand and see the entire commercial landscape… what are the different segments, the pros and cons, and which one is best for you..
  • How to expand into the more lucrative segments in a smart and healthy way
  • You’ll know where the “good” work is (high margin, good customers)
  • And what work you should avoid because of a low margins or high risk
  • How to bid and estimate projects to be competitive and make healthy profit margins

And a whole lot more.

This course is not a course with tips, tricks, and little tactics…

This is a full blown commercial training program that covers everything you’ll need to know about commercial painting to win your first jobs and have a foundation to build your commercial business as far as you want to take it.

BUT IT’S NOT A COURSE FOR EVERYONE…


This is a course and program for people who are ready to enter commercial painting, and are ready to take action.

Because when you follow this program we have put together, amazing results will happen.

Here's What You'll Get


The Foundation & Overview of the Marketplace


This is an entirely new market and business, and we need to start by understanding the world of commercial painting…

And we also need to lay down a foundation for the entire course.
We’ll cover a lot on this first session, including…

→ An introduction to the entire course and what to expect

→ Business planning and organization (you gotta know your 
numbers in commercial painting)

→ Understanding the different niches and segments of the market

→ Knowing where the good, high paying customers are and the easiest jobs to produce

→ Knowing what red flags to look for, and what jobs to completely avoid

→ Where is the “low hanging fruit” and the easiest jobs you can start winning and going after

→ Why blindly sending out bids is one of the worst things you can do


Marketing and Lead Generation: How Do You Find These Jobs?


“It’s all about who you know"

The commercial market is all about relationships and networking.

In this session we’re going to cover…

→ Who are your customers in each niche?

→ What are their pain points and what do they care about?

→ How do you find them, where do they hang out, and how do you get past the gate keepers?

→ Expectations… What does the life cycle look like, how long do I need to pursue people, and what if I’m finding a dead end?


Estimating and Pricing: Bidding Jobs For Profit While Staying Competitive


Estimating is stressful!

If you bid too high, you don’t win the job.

But if you go too low, especially on BIG jobs, you might lose a ton of money…

But when you don’t win those bids, and you don’t get any feedback that can be incredibly frustrating…

You’ll learn…

→ What your prices and margins should be in each niche

→ How to create an reliable estimating and pricing system so you have confidence in your prices and your bids …

SO you’re not left wondering “did I price it too high? Too low?”

→ How to get feedback on your bid so you can improve and KNOW why you didn’t win jobs

→ How to bid blueprint estimates without doing the blueprint reading and estimate yourself

→ How prices and rates change depending on your market… and the segment you’re working in

Plus - we’ll be providing you the support you need to have CONFIDENCE in your bids…

And a community to get feedback on those prices so you’re never left wondering.


Sales Process & Ongoing Relationship Management


The real value of commercial painting is the relationships you maintain with clients who just keep handing you work…

One relationship can be worth millions of dollars for your business.

Nurturing and maintaining those relationships is EVERYTHING.

But also, these customers are harder to reach… harder to get to… And harder to sell to…

Because they do have so much work to give out.

It’s not always as easy as making a quick contact.
You’ll learn...

→ How to get “IN” with the customers you want to work with

→ How to use existing customers to get “IN” with more customers

→ What is most important to your customers now that they have given you a job?

→ What will keep them coming back to you the next time they need work done?

→ How to get insider information from your customer (even when they HAVE to get more bids)

→ How to identify the good GCs from the bad ones

… And more.


Legal: Contracts, CYA, & Risk Avoidance


The part we all love the most!

Unless you are a high paid attorney, you probably hate this part…

But when you’re dealing with big jobs and big numbers, knowing how to protect yourself is crucial.

→ How to read contracts and the ‘fine print’ to make sure you aren’t getting yourself in trouble before the job even starts

→ What are the most common red flags and how to identify them

→ What contracts and legal paperwork you should always have in place with a commercial client (this varies by niche)

→ How to file a lien, when to do that, and when it’s ok to sign a lien waiver (this is a BIG one)

→ How to negotiate payment terms to help you with cash flow


Production Process & Systems


Depending on the niche or segment you’re working in, the production systems change, the clients' needs change, and the challenges of project management differ.

We’ll cover…

→ What is the job of a project manager?

→ What kind of timelines are you working on?

→ When do you use subs and when do you use employees?

→ What other services or sub trades do you need to include in your service offering to provide the best service to customers (and keep those customers coming back for more)

→ How do you work around other trades on GC run projects?

→ How to create a good working relationship with your GC and superintendent

→ How to make property managers happy by taking great care of their tenants (and what does that look like?)

… And we’ll include plenty of “done-for-you” systems and procedures in this section.


Org Structure & Building Your Commercial Team


Our goal with this program is to help you with profitable commercial jobs…

AND have a foundation to continue to grow your commercial operation.

Which means you are going to need to build a team around you… estimators, sales reps, project managers, and maybe eventually a general manager.

But it’s always best to start with the end in mind.

In this part of the course, we’ll show you what kind of organizational structure you should set up for your commercial business.

Including…

→ What are the key roles and responsibilities? And who reports to who?

→ Compensation plans, expectations, deliverables… what should each role be expected to produce in results and what will they earn?

→ Team building processes including recruiting, training, and management systems

If you want to build a large scale operation, you’re going to need to know how to build teams.


Plus An 8 Week Blueprint Estimating Program 


This course is taught by Greg Miller... owner/operator of Green Pro Painting, a large scale commercial painting firm.

He is also joined by his lead estimator Richard Rice who comes from a long line of estimators.

Over the last 6 years together they transformed a residential repaint business to a full time commercial outfit...

With projects in contract upwards of $500,000.00.

This In-Depth Estimating Course Includes 8 Lessons

Over those 8 lessons, we’ll cover...

  • What A Bid Invite looks like
  • Understanding RFI's & Addendums
  • How To Download Drawings & Specifications
  • How To Upload, Scale, & Draw On Online Takeoffs (on screen takeoff)
  • How to bid and estimate projects to be competitive and make healthy profit margins
  • ​How To Write Commercial Painting Scope Letters
  • ​How To Write Scopes That Include/Exclude The Items Needed
  • ​How To Setup Pricing For Your Market…(market varies based on demographic location, but you will receive suggested starting points)
  • ​Do’s And Don’ts For Getting Started

Learning what is covered in this course will be invaluable for your business.

We will teach you how to use freelancers to do your bids and takeoffs until you have mastered this for yourself …

Because the entire Commercial Course, including Estimating, will be recorded and you’ll have lifetime access…

So you can use this training to teach yourself...

Or use it to train your team and your own in house estimators…

For the lifetime of your business.

Sounds Great… But You Could Do All Of This On Your Own… 

Right?


Let me shoot straight with you…

If you could do this on your own, you already would have.

And even if you decided you could do it… And wanted to do it…

It would take you YEARS to put together what is in this training program.

And cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in costly mistakes and lessons…

Examples of how you can easily lose hundreds of thousands…

That might sound like an exaggeration but it’s not…

On your own, these are lessons you would be learning the hard way...

Lessons we can help you avoid…

Just think about it…

Wouldn’t you rather spend your time building your business and actually applying these systems rather than creating these systems?

Or spending time with your family? 

Instead of re-doing all of the work we’ve already done on this?

… And it’s not like we’re just some random guys in a Facebook group…

Everything we’re sharing with you is PROVEN TO WORK.

Because what’s in this program is being taught by Scott and used by commercial painting contractors right now in his 1on1 coaching…

And the blueprint estimating course is how Greg and his students are estimating and winning profitable commercial jobs right now…

So yea - you COULD do this on your own… But that would be foolish.

Or You Could Ignore This And Keep Watching Commercial Jobs Pass You By… Watching Your Competitors Win Them Instead...


Which would be just fine…

There is nothing wrong with staying where you are and doing residential painting…

You’ll never even know what you are missing.

But how much work will pass you by because of a lack of knowledge?

How many jobs will you NOT win because you don’t know how to bid them, or how to produce them?

How much money will you continue to leave on the table?

If you knew the commercial business as well as you knew the residential business…

  • You would make more money.
  • You would diversify your business.
  • And, if you’re like Greg, you might prefer going 100% commercial…

But if you’re not interested in any of that, this course probably isn’t for you. And there is nothing wrong with that.

A Step By Step, Hand-Holding Approach To Building Your Business

The truth is… You already have almost everything you need to make your business boom with commercial painting.
 
You’re just missing a few CRITICAL pieces.

So we’re going to make it as simple as possible to add commercial work to your business…

By taking it one simple step at a time.

Following Proven Business Principles…

With No Bullshit, Straight-to-the-Point Training Video Training Modules…

And Done-For-You Systems...

Each training session includes 2 things:

1. Over an hour of video training + a recorded Q&A session with our coaches

2. Documents, Forms, or Done-For-You Systems that go with that video
You’ll walk away from each lesson knowing exactly what to do next with clear action steps.
 
And remember, in commercial painting you don’t need many relationships to add a huge stream of revenue to your business.

Matt generated $900,000 in business in 2019 with only 7 relationships.
So we’re going to take it one step at a time.

All you need to do is... Show Up. Take Action. Ask For Help.

We’ve got your back.

Now Is The Time To Act... 
Because Commercial Opportunities WILL Come Your Way... and By Then... It's Too Late

Look… Investing in your business is not always cheap, but…

  • How much money have you left on the table over the years because of uncertainty with tackling commercial jobs?
  • And what if you had a handful of good customers who handed you big, profitable commercial jobs year after year?
  • ​How much bigger will your business be if you knew how to capitalize on large commercial contracts?

If You Hired Us All Individually To Train You 1on1 On Everything In The PBP Commercial Course …

It would cost you over $50,000 based on our hourly rates and how much time and effort is being put into this program...
 
… Which would still be completely worth it!

Hell - that’s what I was going to do!

I even did spend $50,000 with door to door consultants! And it was absolutely worth it…

But it’s not going to cost you $50,000.

Based on feedback from people who have applied the lessons they've learned in the course, the Painting Business Pro Commercial Course could easily be priced at $10,000+

And as we add more to the program - it will probably reach those prices.

But for now, you can register for PBP Commercial for only $7,000

Yes! I Want To Start Winning Profitable Commercial Jobs With The PBP Commercial Course

Once You Click The Button And Sign Up For The Course....

Two things are going to happen…
 
First, you’re going to get a welcome email for the course.

… With a link to join the private Facebook group where you’ll get support throughout the program.

Second, you’re going to create your login for your members area.

Your members area is where every video recording, every document, and all course content will be posted.

And it will stay there forever where you’ll have lifetime access…

Which is going to be very helpful for training your team or going back to review

Plus… you’ll be  put on our mailing list to receive invitations to attend our Live Q&A Webinars each month.

Is There Really Any Option Right Now? The Choice Is Clear!


If you want to be able to enter the commercial painting market…

And be able to capitalize on these highly profitable jobs…

You really only have 2 choices...

You can do it on your own. Or you can join this program.

If you do it on your own you just might succeed… Because that’s how almost everyone in the past had to do it…

They learned all their lessons the hard way.

They’ll tell you that those lessons cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years.
But there are a lot of dead bodies on that path too.

A lot of companies went completely out of business trying to enter the commercial market on their own.
And you’ve probably even seen it or heard the horror stories. I’ve heard lots of them.

Which is why I’ve been hesitant (and maybe you have too) with entering this business.

But… you can still try to do this on your own.

Or, you can join this course.

And save yourself from some of those painful and expensive lessons.

And instead of slowly learning this business, you can speed the learning curve up.

To me, there isn’t much of a choice…

Smart people don’t reinvent the wheel...

But Now Is The Time To ACT


We're always adding more to PBP Commercial

We hold 3 live training sessions a month - each of those turns into new material that we add to your membership area.

PLUS - as time goes on, we find new ways to improve the program. 

And as we make those improvements, the price goes up.

But if you sign up now, you lock in your lifetime access to a program that we're always improving.

Look… We COULD sell just the estimating part of this course for $5k - and you'd get more than your money's worth.

This is a no brainer.

It’s time to level-up your business and start winning commercial jobs.

This is an investment that will keep paying you back for as long as you are in business...

Yes! I Want To Start Winning Profitable Commercial Jobs With The PBP Commercial Course

That’s all I have for you. The choice is yours!

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you on the other side.

We got your back!

1730 S College Ave
Suite 305
Fort Collins, CO 80525
www.paintingbusinesspro.com
eric@paintingbusinesspro.com
970.283.7283