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We talk with Lauren about launching a rural painting company, scaling fast through brand and responsiveness, and selling to McFarland Painting in four years. She shares honest lessons on hiring a PM, doing open-book due diligence, and finding a better role post-sale.

• starting Apex Painting in 2021 and reaching $650k in two years
• using yard signs, reviews and a simple site to build trust
• inbound marketing in rural markets over paid ads
• writing SOPs for work and home to reduce chaos
• capacity limits while parenting and growing fast
• hiring wins and misses when replacing yourself
• what makes a strong, steady project manager
• deciding to sell, networking into a buyer
• open-book due diligence and clean financials
• choosing acquisition plus employment over a merger
• life after sale as an estimator and key lessons

This episode was originally recorded as a video for YouTube.

If you hear me say things like “in this video” or reference visuals, don’t worry —
the content still works perfectly in audio form.

And if you ever want to watch the video version, you can find it on the
Profitable Painter YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/@BookkeepingForPainters

For being a loyal listener, I want to send you a copy of my new book Profitable Painter. Inside, I’ll show you the exact frameworks that have helped painting businesses save big on taxes, increase profits, and scale with confidence
Head over to profitablepaintercpa.com/book and grab your copy today. Don’t wait — this is my gift to you for being part of the Profitable Painter community.

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We walk through a simple funnel and a clear profitability test to judge whether Facebook and Instagram lead forms pay for a painting business. We show the benchmarks, the speed-to-lead standards, the diagnostic order, and a BANT filter that protects your calendar and close rate.

• four-step funnel from lead to job closed
• cost per booked job as the north star metric
• seven per cent marketing cap tied to average job size
• benchmarks for cost per lead, set rate, close rate
• speed to lead within three minutes and three days to estimate
• diagnostic order for set, show, and close rates
• follow-up cadence with scripts and reminders
• BANT questions to filter budget, authority, need, timeline

Quick pause. If this way of thinking about marketing is helpful for you, I wrote a book called Profitable Painter that breaks down these exact frameworks in more detail: pricing, owner pay, cash flow, marketing math. It normally costs about 20 bucks on Amazon, but you can get it for free. Just cover the shipping. There's a link in the description if you want to go deeper.
Click the video on the screen now, and I'll see you there.

This episode was originally recorded as a video for YouTube.

If you hear me say things like “in this video” or reference visuals, don’t worry —
the content still works perfectly in audio form.

And if you ever want to watch the video version, you can find it on the
Profitable Painter YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/@BookkeepingForPainters

Send us a text

We lay out a simple system to price painting jobs accurately, mark up materials and labor correctly, and use close rate as a clean market signal. The result is stable gross profit, clearer work orders, and confidence to raise prices without killing demand.

• production rate estimating to predict labor hours
• PCA benchmarks versus timing your own crew
• moving from square footage guessing to surface rates
• marking up materials as well as labor
• gross profit formula using direct costs and targets
• ideal close rate range for residential repaint
• adjusting prices in measured steps based on market feedback
• diagnosing low close rate with sales process and customer fit
• summary framework for consistent, scalable pricing

Click the video on the screen now, and I'll see you there

This episode was originally recorded as a video for YouTube.

If you hear me say things like “in this video” or reference visuals, don’t worry —
the content still works perfectly in audio form.

And if you ever want to watch the video version, you can find it on the
Profitable Painter YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/@BookkeepingForPainters