Running a "REAL DECORATIVE PAINTING BUSINESS"
Most faux finishing companies are one-person shows. Because they consider themselves faux painters instead of small business owners, the sole-proprietors of decorative painting companies often skip the essential steps to running a successful business. They fail to see the importance of business planning and then are frustrated with the struggle of juggling all the tasks of selling and doing faux painting work. After months of trying and failing to get a handle on how to continue selling work while they are painting and painting while they’re trying to line up the next job, they either give up or resign themselves to getting by as best they can.  more

Vision and Mission Statements

When a faux painter calls us with business woes, our first question is always the same, “have you written your vision and mission statements?” Usually, the answer is no. And then they follow-up with a question of their own. “Why do I need that,” they ask. “I work by myself!” And then we explain that shooting an arrow blindly, makes for a hungry family; while a well aimed arrow brings home the bacon. You have to aim your arrow to be successful.   more

Systems Are the Answer

There are two ways of doing a task. One is to decide you are going to do something then jump in and start doing. The other is to decide you are going to do something and lay out a plan for systematically reaching your goal.

Both have the possibility of getting you where you want to go. But only one way of doing things raises the probability of reaching your goal.

How do we right-brained artists go about the task of doing left-brained chores like systematizing our businesses? more

An Inexpensive (Yet Effective) Marketing Idea

Do you have nice signage on your car? For many service industries, it's the best bang for the marketing dollar. You can contract for the signs, pick up the vinyl, faux finish it and return it to the sign company for lettering. Don't forget the sign on the back of your car. You can cause accidents if the only way people can get your number is drive beside you while they write it down (probably while talking on the cell phone)!

These days wraps are all the rage. They're inexpensive and your artistic options are unlimited. Be sure and check out the quality. It matters. With lower quality wraps, you can see the holes in the material. With better quality, you don't. I've seen some wraps that I would swear were hand painted.

Okay, now that you have great signage, drive to an upscale neighborhood in which you would like to work, and just cruise. When I started out I was a single mom with NOOOoooooo money. This is how I drummed up business. I'd find a great neighborhood and cruise it three times a day, morning, lunch time and evening. Different people are home at different times of the day so hitting the neighborhood at different times just makes sense.

The beauty of this kind of marketing is that when people see you driving in their neighborhood, they think you're working in their neighborhood, which leads them to the conclusion that you're working for one of their neighbors which, in their minds, is as good as a referal.

I still use this method when I land a job in a neighborhood in which I'd like to have more jobs. It works!

Good luck. May the faux be with you.

Get an Article Written About you in the Local Paper

I've found that paying for print ad seldom brings in enough money to offset the cost. Not only should an ad make the phone ring, but the phone should ring with paying customers on the other end. And those customers should pay enough to not only cover the cost of the ad, but a portion of my overhead for the month in direct proportion with the percentage of my budget that I spent on the ad.

Since that rarely happens, I find a much better plan is to have an article written about me in a local publication. I start out by creatively coming up with something to do that is newsworthy. A few months ago we did the sanctuary at a monastery. It was an incredible experience. One of the nuns is in her nineties and tearfully told us that she was grateful that she lived to see her dream of having the sanctuary look like a Spanish mission come true. We wrote a press release, sent it in to the local paper and the next thing we knew a reporter called to interview us. After the article appeared, the phone rang off the hook for about three weeks. Granted, the calls had to be carefully screened for tire kickers (click here for more on how to do that), but we certainly got our money's worth in advertising!!

To write a press release, type "FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION" centered at the top of your article. Double space the article and make sure it is well-written. If you're not great with spelling, grammar, sentence structure, etc, have several friends who are edit the article for you. At the end of the article, in the center of the page, type"-30-". That's newspaper speak for "you have my permission to edit this article."

Good luck. May the faux be with you.

Another Marketing Idea

Okay, this one costs a little money, but it definitely brings in enough money to cover the cost, plus the portion of my budget that is in proportion with the amount of money I spend on it.

There are a handful of professional networking organizations. Some are: Professional Networking Association (PNA), Le Tip, American Megamixers, National Association of Business Networking, National Association of Women Business Owners, Take the Lead, Business Networking International (BNI) and others.

These associations aren't cheap. Membership dues range from $300 to $700 per year. And they don't want anyone in their chapters who is not serious. If you miss more than two meetings, you can be booted. You can, however, send a substitute.

Generally the chapter consists of 12 - 15 members. There is only one member per profession. You will ALWAYS find a Realtor in the chapter as well as a mortgage broker (those people know how to network!). Meetings are generally breakfast or lunch meetings. Each week a different person is given a set amount of time to make a presentation about his or her company.

The interesting thing is that you are required to promote each of the other members at some time during each week. If someone mentions selling or buying a house, you are to whip out the realtor's card. By the same token, you have 11-14 other professionals presenting your card to potential clients every week.

Faux finishers tend to start seeing business develop as a direct result of their membership within one to two months. Since most marketing efforts pay off six months down the road, this seems like a pretty good deal.

Good luck. May the faux be with you.

When Do You Make Sample Boards For Your Clients?

Many artisans make sample boards for potential clients during the hiring process. The client looks at the portfolio, chooses a technique and wants to see it in "her" colors. And off the artist goes to spend his time and money and gas gathering supplies, making samples, returning them to the client who, amazingly, isn't satisfied and wants to see more. Sound familiar?

Here's a different way to approach sample boards. During the hiring process explain to the client that she will choose the technique based on your portfolio and photo album. You will give her a price based on that technique. If she agrees to the price, you will create a sample board in her "custom" colors. If she needs you to, you continue to explain, you will make one additional sample board with modifications. After that, you firmly but kindly explain, you will charge $100 (or whatever you're comfortable with) per sample board because, you explain to the client, making sample boards takes time and materials to produce, plus the gas and time to gather materials and take the sample back to the client.

You can soften the presentation by warmly and with confidence saying, "But don't worry. I've been doing this for so long, I hardly ever have to make two samples. I have a clear idea of what you want and I'm confident that I can do that for you the first time." When I started using this line I went from making two sample boards for almost every client to seldom making more than one. I don't know who I psych out more, me or the client!

Once the sample is approved, remove it from the job site, never to be seen again.

I have never had a client complain about my policy. However, I have had clients who wanted the sample board with which to go shopping. How else are they going to choose new furniture, drapes and accessories??

Here's my fix:

I take an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of heavy card stock to the job site. When I paint the walls, I paint the card stock. When I faux finish the walls, I faux finish the card stock. If I put a protective coating on the walls, I also apply it to the card stock. At the end of the job, I cut the card stock in half. I give half to the client and the other half goes in my job file for future reference.

Good luck. May the faux be with you.

Follow-Up

When it comes to increasing your business, there is one place in which almost every business can improve: follow up.

There are a handful of companies in the DFW metroplex that are ALWAYS busy. When I evaluate what it is about those companies that is different from the vast majority, which experience ups and downs in volume, it is definitely in the follow up.

The busy companies don't wait for the client to call them. They follow a four-step plan:
          1. Set a specific date and time with a client on which the faux finisher will call for a follow up.
          2. Put it in their planners as an appointment
          3. Keep the appointment
          4. If they don't get a definitive answer, they start over at 1.

The problem is that we artists are sensitive souls and have a hard time hearing "no." It makes it hard to call the client for the third or forth time.

There is one thing that will help you overcome your nervousness and fear if you remember it when you're making your follow up calls.

Here it is:

One of my favorite motivational speakers is Mr. Jim Rowe. He tells us that when you start to do something repeatedly, a ratio appears.

And once that ratio appears, it tends to continue. If you talk to 10, you'll get one. Talk to 10 more, get one. Talk to 10, get one.

After a while, the ratio will improve. When you talk to 10, you'll get two. What happened? You got better!

Now the new ratio will tend to contine. Talk to 10, get two more. Talk to 10, get two. After a while, you'll talk to 10 and get three. What happened? You got better.

Then one day you'll talk to 10 and get four. Four out of ten, he says, is $5,000,000.00 in baseball! All you ever need to shoot for is four out of ten.

Now go make those follow-up calls.

Good luck. May the faux be with you.

Discount vs. Refund

Here's a great marketing tip, and boy, do my clients love it!

First of all, your estimating should be so tight that you're seldom wrong about the price. (If you are not 100% confident in the prices you give your clients, get thee to our Money and Marketing Class!! It will change your life!) But in the rare case that you miss the mark, instead of giving a discount (which lessens your value to the client), give a REFUND after you've collected the check and closed the job.

When you write your thank you note, enclose the refund check. You will be amazed at how grateful your client is. They will thank you for giving them money (Have you ever been thanked for a discount? I haven't) and they will tell 10 of their best friends what a great company yours is.

You can't beat that for free marketing.

Good luck. May the faux be with you.

The Pen is Mightier than the Sword

There are three parts to promoting your business: Advertising, Marketing and Promotions. Many company owners think that promotional items like pens, note pads and refrigerator magnets are the best.

I disagree. Who doesn't have a junk drawer full of pens with company names on them? Do you even notice the company's name when you dig a pen out to write something down? I don't. Those pens have no impact on me.

I bought an old house almost two years ago. It was a pit and needed lots of work. I had contractors of all makes and models in and out of my house. Very few of them showed up when they said they would. Even fewer called to say they were going to be late. And not one of them wrote a note to thank me for the work.

Here's where you can promote your business best:

Be on time.

And if you can't be on time, call the client as soon as you know you'll be late and let him or her know that you are running behind and by how much. Let clients know that you value their time.

When you're done with the job, while you are filling out the deposit slip to put the money you earned from that client in the bank, hand write a thank you note letting that person know that you appreciate their having enough confidence in you to hire you.

When it's all said and done, your clients will talk, not about their walls, but about how easy or difficult your company was with which to work.

Being on time is a big deal and they will talk about it.

And you can bet that yours will be the only company with which that client worked that hand-wrote a thank you note.

When they talk about you, they will smile and THAT will promote your business best of all.

Good luck. May the faux be with you.

Screening Clients

This is a big one!

How do you make sure that the person on the other end of the phone isn't a) another faux finisher trying to figure out what to charge, b) someone trying to get you to design their home for them when they intend to do it themselves, c) someone checking to see if the price they got from their faux finisher was in the ballpark, d) another of the many obnoxious tire kickers who have no respect for your time? (You've talked to all those people too, right?)

We have an amazing screening sheet that we teach our students to use in our incredible three-day Money & Marketing class. Please come. It will change the way you do business. I promise.

Here's the thing . . . why do you ask the person his or her name, address and phone number first? You know that you are just as likely to end the conversation without agreeing to a meeting as you are to set one, right?

So, instead of asking her name, etc., first ask some very important questions: Are you selling your home? We all know that very few people spend the money for professional level faux finishing in a home they're selling). Have you ever had professional faux finishing done before? (in other words, do you have any idea what this is going to cost?) Are you looking for high quality or low price? (Their answer, of course, is always both and we all know you don't get somethin' for nothin'.)

Your responses to the client's answers are very important. I'd be glad to roll play the process with you. Call me at 817-265-3289. Or better yet, sign up for our life-changing Money & Marketing class. It will be the best investment you've ever made in your business. (We'll even talk about the difference between an investment and an expense).

If the prospective client has passed inspection so far (and YES, you are interviewing the client. It's as important that you choose the right client as it is that the client choose the right faux finisher!), your next step is to get her name, phone number and directions to her house.

Now for the biggie . . . wouldn't it be nice to know how much the client has to spend so that you can take samples to her that are in her price range? You CAN get the client to tell you how much she has to spend. Yes, you can. Really. You can.

Ask "what is your budget for this project?" We all know the answer to that, right? She'll tell you she doesn't have any idea. Well, that's bunk. She DOES have an idea, and she will tell you if you play your cards right.

I start out by playfully, with a big smile on my face (the client can "hear" my smile) asking, "Well, do you have $10,000 to spend?" She'll sputter and snort and say that she wasn't thinking she'd spend anywhere near that (see, I told you she had an idea what she has to spend!) I laugh and say that, while I have had clients for whom I've done $10,000 worth of work, it's not that common. Now I say, "Do you have $5000 to spend?" "No," she'll say, "I wasn't thinking that much." "Well, do you have $2500 to spend?" She'll either continue to be coy with you, in which case, you just keep asking the question over again, lowering the price each time, or she'll say, "I was really thinking I'd spend around $700." BINGO! "Okay," you say, "no problem. There are several finishes I can do in your room for $700. I'll bring some samples to our meeting." Of course, you bring some $1500 samples, too. Just because she was thinking $700, doesn't mean we can't upsell the client.

Good luck. May the faux be with you.

Websites

It seems like the first thing faux finishers want to do is launch web sites. Invariably, they tell me that their friend, Marge, makes great web sites, at which I inwardly cringe.

May I suggest, to those just starting out, that a website is probably not the best place to spend your very hard-to-come-by money?

It is a great tool and I highly recommend that you get one. But not right away when you're struggling just to keep income ahead of expenses.

Many people think that they're going to launch a web site and that, VIOLA!, people are going to come in droves. It doesn't work like that. When you do a search, the companies whose websites come up in the top 10 pay a LOT of money for that to happen. Your website will probably not come up in a search.

We talked once before about how there are three ways to promote your business: advertising, marketing and promotions. A website is not going to find you new clients. Therefore it does not count as advertising. A website is not going to be a means for people who don't know you to become familiar with your company name. Therefore it does not count as marketing. A website IS a place to send people who are already familiar with your company. It is a promotional item.

Promotional items are probably the last place a new company needs to spend its marketing money. A great looking business card, great vehicle signs and yard signs are all fairly inexpensive ways to familiarize your potential clients with your company. Oh, and let's not forget your best marketing tool. You. Talk about your company until you are blue in the face. To anyone who will listen. Anytime. Anywhere.

All that being said, a GOOD website is a great promotional tool. It lends credence to your company and gives your clients another place to see your great work. The problem arises when faux finishers become do-it-yourself web designers or have cousin Bubba, who does web pages for his gamer friends, design their websites. There are professional web designers out there for a reason. And their reasons are no different from ours when we want clients to understand the difference between do-it-yourself faux finishing and hiring a professional.

I would hold off on a website until you can afford a pro. It doesn't have to be outrageously expensive. If you do all the design work first then give it to the pro who will wave his or her magic wand over it, you'll get a first-rate website for a very reasonable price.

Good luck. May the faux be with you.