inPAINT Magazine - Jul/Aug 2023

inPAINT

FILLING THE GAP

An outside-the-box solution to the labor shortage

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Pressure washer workhorses

Two pros talk marketing strategies

“Desperation sometimes drives innovation.”

—Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber

It’s often said that necessity is the mother of invention. But in the case of at least one pro, John Morris of PHP Commercial Painting, desperation proved to be the driving force behind an innovative new approach to solving the labor shortage.

When faced with a desperate hiring crisis in early 2022, Morris looked beyond the usual labor channels. Thanks to his open mind and heart, he was able to conceive a solution that not only served his needs, but benefited other painters in the area, all while providing the opportunity his new hires so desperately needed. It’s an inspiring tale that underscores the value of stepping out of one’s comfort zone and putting a little faith in new ideas—and in others. Fortunately, not every decision to step out of one’s comfort zone is driven by desperation. As you’ll read in Two Pros, desire —in this case, the desire to grow one’s business—can be an equally strong motivator. Desire also plays an important part in many of the product choices detailed in this issue’s Pro Picks, focused on pressure washers. From wanting to do a stellar job to wanting to do it as efficiently as possible, desire factors into every decision a pro makes and, ultimately, determines the type of business they grow and the type of professional they become.

As for inPAINT, the desire to provide meaningful, eye-opening content is what drives us to connect with you, our readers, and discuss the challenges you’re facing. While not every point of connection or conversation leads to a full-blown article, they all serve as grist for the mill and most definitely shape our thinking as we strive to provide meaningful, problem-solving content.

If you have specific subjects you’d like to see addressed, please reach out. We’re eager to hear your thoughts and, just maybe, develop an out-of-the-box solution that works for you and others.

Cheers, Amanda Haar, Managing Editor, inPAINT amanda@inPAINTmag.com

Ryan Adamski

2023 EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Production Manager, CertaPro Painters

Bryce Benfield Owner, South-East Paint & Protective Coatings Co.

Peter Berke

Owner, North Atlantic Painting Company

Lauren Fink Owner, Apex Painting

Jeremy Fyfe Owner, GLS Painters

Larry Marler Owner, The Works Remodeling and Finishing

PUBLISHER

Edward McAdams

MANAGING EDITOR

Amanda Haar

DESIGNER

Carl Bezuidenhout

CREATIVE SERVICES DIRECTOR

Cindy Puskar

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Brian Sodoma

CONTRIBUTING EXPERTS

Melissa Arnold First Choice Pressure Washing and Home Services

Rick Augustine R and R Painting

Peter Barber Two Dudes Painting Company

Mike Cassel PHP Commercial Painting

Scott Deardon

Militello Painting & Powerwashing

Don Easton Easton Painting

Rodrigo Evangelista Masterpiece Painter

Randy Fornoff MTS Painting

Peter King King’s Pressure Washing

Eric Lopez Vork Brothers Painting

Jason Lunn 3M

Madeleine MacRae MM MacRae Coaching & Consulting

John Morris PHP Commercial Painting

Orlando Obeso Allied Painters

Sammy Paget BrightLocal

Ed Peach Gold Standard Painting

Justin Proulx New Freedom

Nick Slavik Nick Slavik Painting & Restoration Co.

Daren Strunk St. Joseph the Worker

Rich Purnell Owner, BASE Painters

Steve Spinelli Owner, Uni Pro Painting

©2023 REM Publishing Group LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of content in any manner without written permission by the publisher is strictly prohibited. Opinions expressed in signed columns and articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. Publisher assumes no liability for any damages or loss of any kind that might arise from the use, misuse or inability to use the materials or information contained in this publication. All material and information appearing in this publication is distributed and transmitted ‘as is,’ without warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied, and is subject to the terms and conditions stated in this disclaimer.

EDITORIAL amanda@inPAINTmag.com

ADVERTISE 602-296-5391 ed@inPAINTmag.com

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Overcoming the Labor

The best paint jobs all start the same way, with Scotch® Painter’s Tapes. Scotch® Brand has a full line of painter’s tapes to help you conquer whatever surface you’re painting.

CPIA expands Peer Groups and adds The Vault Call

Get paid faster using your phone with Houzz

> A new mobile payment option from Houzz makes it easier than ever to collect payments from customers. Tap to Pay is part of the Houzz Pro suite of tools, which lets you schedule and accept payments using your iPhone. Given that 90% of homeowners say online payments is their preferred payment method for remodeling projects, Tap to Pay works to keep customers happy and eliminates the need to wait for checks to clear. Plus, it’s fully integrated with QuickBooks Online, meaning you never have to reenter an estimate, proposal, invoice or purchase order. Tap to Pay is designed for iPhone XS or later running iOS 16. Houzz.com/for-pros/feature-online-payment

> Thanks to a rapidly expanding membership base, the CPIA (Commercial Painting Industry Association) has expanded its Peer Group program and added The Vault Call to its member benefits roster. A total of 6 Peer Groups, which includes the newest group for next generation/future leaders as well as others for owners and executives, convene online every 6 weeks and meet in person once or twice a year. Each Peer Group session brings together 8–10 owners of regional noncompeting commercial painting companies to provide a space for mentorship, shared resources, and the connections needed to support individual development and company growth. The recently launched Vault Call, facilitated by the CPIA cofounder Aaron Moore, is a live, 1-hour, monthly roundtable phone call in which all members are invited to share their experience related to different topics. Calls often include short presentations by guest speakers on emerging issues and challenges facing commercial painters. TheCPIA.com

Elevating and celebrating women painters

> While women comprise only 10% of the building trades workforce nationally, their presence and impact are growing. In an effort to elevate professional women painters’ voices, celebrate their achievements, and inspire the next generation in the skilled trade, BEHR recently developed the Women in Paint (WIP) program.

Open to any woman in the trade, WIP aims to elevate the presence of women in a male-dominated industry and support their growth through customized training and networking. An initial training event will be held at the BEHR corporate office and will cover safety, surface prep, hands-on application methods, a deep dive into primers, and a state-of-the-industry overview. Additional trainings will be held regularly across the country.

WIP also offers in-person and virtual networking opportunities including a private Women in Paint Facebook Group developed in partnership with the Painting Contractors Association. Facebook Group > search ‘women in paint’ Behr.com/womeninpaint

Paint without pigment

Master jobsite Spanish in 6 weeks—no problema

> If communicating with Spanish-speaking team members is a challenge, Paint Spanish can help. Focused specifically on the most common and useful Spanish terms used on a painting jobsite, Paint Spanish delivers relevant and impactful lessons in just 15 minutes per day over 6 weeks. Using a combination of a workbook, videos, drive-time audio content, and a flashcard app makes it easy to master the terms, phrases and even conversations essential to you and your team’s success on the job.

BradleyHartmannAndCo.com/paint-spanish

> Two of the biggest drawbacks of traditional paint are that they get their color from synthetic pigments, which not only fade over time and but also are not very ecofriendly. Thanks to researchers at the University of Central Florida, a better coating alternative is on the horizon. Developed at the university’s NanoScience Technology Center, the new plasmonic paint relies on nanoscale structural arrangements of aluminum and aluminum oxide to produce an array of hues. These structural arrangements are readily apparent in nature—think flowers, butterflies and bird feathers. These examples, and many more, use light diffraction in colorless materials, rather than pigments, to create colors that range from subdued to vibrant.

Courtesy of the University of Central Florida

The coating developed by the team is more natural, environmentally friendly and lighter in weight that traditional paints. In fact, it would take just 3 pounds of plasmonic paint to cover a Boeing 747, which normally requires more than 1,000 pounds of conventional paint.

A bonus of plasmonic paint is that it reflects the entire infrared spectrum, meaning it absorbs less heat. Early testing reveals that surfaces coated with the paint stays 25–30° F cooler than those covered with standard commercial paint.

PaintCare offers free pickups for recycling!

In addition, painting contractors and businesses can recycle smaller quantities of leftover house paint, stain, and varnish for free at more than 2,400 PaintCare drop-off locations in ten states and the District of Columbia.

To find a drop-off location near you or request a large volume pickup, visit paintcare.org or call (855) PAINT09.

Ask and ye shall receive (sometimes)

A recent survey by BrightLocal invited consumers to share if they’d been prompted to leave a review for a business and if they bothered to respond. Here’s what they said:

This again

For the 12th year in a row, Fall Protection — General Requirements remained at the top of OSHA’s list of the most frequently cited workplace safety standards for fiscal year 2022. Here’s a look at the top five violations:

Women in the trades

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, here’s how the number of women employed in the painting and wall covering trades trended between 2019 and 2023.

Just beachy

With the summer season in full swing, we thought we’d take a longing look at how six paint manufacturers conjure the allure and ease of a favorite summer destination: the beach.

The increasingly costly cost of doing business

According to the 2023 Houzz State of the Industry report, of pros in the specialty building and renovation trades (including paint contractors) reported an increase the cost of doing business in 2022. Interestingly, the same percentage (91%) of pros reported an increase in 2021 as well.

Cultivating customer reviews

Now, more than ever, consumers are relying on online reviews to validate their buying decisions for products and services. In fact, a recent survey by ReviewTrackers.com revealed that 4 in 5 Americans read reviews before making a purchase decision. In addition to building your brand credibility and providing social proof to potential customers, reviews are essential to driving your company’s local SEO performance.

Which is why finding effective ways to make the ask is so important.

Weighing your options

According to Sammy Paget, content marketing manager with dedicated SEO local platform BrightLocal, “Consumers now are very used to getting requests for reviews. The challenge is finding the best way—and time—to reach them.”

Citing a recent survey by BrightLocal where consumers were asked which review request methods would make them more likely to leave an online review, Paget notes there’s a clear preference for requests made via email (34%), in person (33%), and on a receipt or invoice (32%).

“While there’s just a 1% difference between each of these options,” she notes, “each approach offers unique advantages.”

She explains, “In the case of email, your request finds them wherever they are on their phone, tablet or computer and, with automation, can come right on the heels of closing out a job. With in-person requests, there is a sense of obligation that helps convert the ask to an actual review, provided the customer has had a positive experience. And, finally,” she adds, “the receipt or invoice approach is a nice way to bring closure to a project, while providing a physical reference to where your customer will need to go to complete a review. If the consumer is pleased with the outcome, they’re likely to feel favorable about writing a review.”

As for other review request methods, here’s how they stacked up in the BrightLocal survey:

■ Through social media 31%

■ In an SMS text message 23%

■ Over the phone 12%

■ By a chatbot 9%

■ On a business card 8%

■ None of the above 10%

Why one pro made an about-face on review requests

Nick Slavik’s (of Nick Slavik Painting & Restoration Co.) Google page is filled with 5-star reviews (170 to be exact). And while Slavik has been in business for 15 years, he admits that 80% of those reviews were earned in the last 18 months.

According to Slavik, the key to that impressive review haul was a return to old ways.

“When I first started out, I did the estimate, I delivered the bid, I did the work, and I closed out the job,” he recalls. “There was a very strong connection with the customer and that was rewarded with a review every time I asked.

“As we grew to a team of six, we turned to apps and software to help solicit reviews. We automated and tracked everything and found that the digital approach wasn’t working. Nobody was providing reviews.”

A year and a half ago, Slavik made the decision to have his office coordinator, who also serves as the first point of contact for any potential customer, start calling on completed jobs and asking for a review.

“It’s manual and it’s time-consuming but it’s effective,” he says. “We strive to get two new reviews a week and we’re hitting that goal.”

As for the actual ask, Slavik says the office coordinator targets the happiest customers. “She reaches out and lets them know that we’d appreciate a review. She then pushes them an email with both a Google and Facebook link and confirms they’ve received it while they’re on the phone. We don’t tell them which to use and we don’t ask for five stars. We just ask for the review.”

Slavik notes he hasn’t dropped automated appeals entirely. “They’re still in place and up to 20% of our reviews come from those channels. To be clear, I have no doubt that if we had the time and bandwidth, we could move the needle on the automated review numbers. I’m sure of it. But for now, this is how we’re choosing to use our resources.”

The whys and hows of making the ask

“With in-person requests, there is a sense of obligation that helps convert the ask to an actual review, provided the customer has had a positive experience.”

—SAMMY PAGET, BRIGHTLOCAL

Q:How have you leveraged an existing offering to service new markets?

A:Let’s face it, it’s an era where businesses have had to make a choice; they can adapt to everchanging consumer demands and market fluctuations or become stagnant and face the associated risks. Last year, while reflecting on our FY22 strategic plan, we considered our options and thought about how to extend our offerings to include final cleaning/pressure washing. The idea made sense because it allowed us to broaden our scope on an existing commercial project or potentially win a new project that did not originally have division 9 (finish work) in the scope. Specifically, as we assessed our business model, we knew that we often partnered with commercial GCs and directly with businesses to complete the painting scope. Adding cleaning capabilities to our repertoire would allow us to become more marketable while continuing to build on existing relationships.

Another consideration was how it fit with our company values. Our mantra at Vork Brothers Painting is ‘We do what others don’t.’ It means more than what it sounds like. Yes, of course we want to service our customers at an elite level, but who doesn’t? What we mean by that statement is that we want to be different, and to be different we must act different, and to act different we must think different. This circulates around our people, training and values as a company. We are a family owned company and relationships are at the center of what we do. As we evaluate opportunities, we carefully recognize our own capabilities of servicing that opportunity to ensure that it will meet or exceed customer expectations. We recognized that final cleaning/ pressure washing is a ‘bolt-on’ to our primary painting business, and servicing the commercial markets would allow us to leverage the offering outside of the residential market. We knew that our cleaning equipment was underutilized and the commercial market was untapped.

Recognizing the opportunity, developing the relationships, and marketing the offering were three important steps in servicing new markets.

After determining that it was a fit with both our portfolio and our values, we went for it! Fortunately, the equipment investment was minimal as we had already been utilizing industrial-grade pressure washers and water buffalo tanks to service our residential market. The natural transition to tapping into the commercial space made sense. At the onset of 2022, we began having some conversations with specific construction firms on projects that we saw as a fit for kicking off the added offering. Sure enough, by late January we had locked in a commercial/ industrial contract for final cleaning. Services included:

■ pressure washing (racks, IMP walls, steel columns, girts, exterior portions)

■ floor scrubbing

■ mopping

■ vacuuming

We’ve since completed three cleaning jobs centered around similar work scope(s). We are excited about the traction and momentum.

Our next steps in leveraging this offering are to focus on who we are partnering with for final cleaning projects heading into next year, as well as refining existing relationships with particular commercial construction firms. Our commercial/residential painting projects are primarily completed in west Michigan. That said, regarding the cleaning division of our company, we’re open to traveling throughout the Midwest region. Being open to these new markets is allowing us to scale our business while still maintaining our service focus and core business model. We are excited for how this offering will continue to expand over time as an added scope for what we do and, more importantly, how we do it.

ERIC LOPEZ is the director of business development at Vork Brothers Painting, a commercial and residential painting company based in Zeeland, MI. We are a family owned company focused on relationships and service. VorkBrothers.com

Courtesy of Vork Brothers Painting

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Our monthly e-newsletter delivers industry-relevant articles to your inbox— many expanding on our magazine articles —offering additional valuable content professionals find essential to continue to learn and grow.

Watch for it monthly and stay relevant.

Teach to Fish eBlast

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

This wise adage served as inspiration for a type of communication that offers industry professionals education and instruction to learn from—and build on.

Here, we present an industryspecific question and invite an expert to share their insight. Prepare to sharpen your skills.

To receive these valuable tools, subscribe to inPAINT magazine. They’re all FREE! inPAINTmag.com/subscribe To receive

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A picture is worth a thousand words.

This communication delivers video instruction and product and service awareness via your inbox on a monthly basis.

A new approach to hiring

Short on help, an Arizona pro used out-of-the-box thinking to build his crews by tapping into an overlooked population

BY BRIAN SODOMA

In early 2022, John Morris was staring down the same labor shortage plaguing other painting contractors around the country. However, the issue had now become a crisis for the owner of PHP Commercial Painting in Phoenix, AZ. He just landed work for Taiwan Semiconductor’s chip manufacturing plant, a project that would require crews of 30 painters, sometimes running double shifts; he only had about 15 pros at the time.

Desperate for options, he called competitors, employment agencies and others. His outreach led him to New Freedom, a new behavioral health facility on the site of a former 400-room central Phoenix hotel. There, those exiting the prison system have 90 days to prepare for life on the outside. After a tour of the site, a light bulb went on for Morris.

Hands-on experience in everything from application techniques to lift safety and operation provides New Freedom students the knowledge and understanding essential to their success.

Lending (and finding) a helping hand

Residential reentry centers (RRCs) have been on the rise for the past decade. They aim to help former prisoners find work, write resumes, search for jobs, and learn how to navigate life outside of prison. The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) lists more than 140 RRCs around the country. Despite their popularity, success remains somewhat elusive. Recidivism reports from the Prison Policy Initiative show that 82% of the roughly 650,000 ex-offenders released each year are arrested again within 10 years, most within three.

New Freedom is not found on the BOP list, but it is an RRC, nonetheless. Paid for by Medicaid funds and donations, it helps ease the transition out of prison and into society by providing food, shelter, job-search tools and mental health services for 90 days. When Morris discovered New Freedom, it was relatively new and in the process of developing trade education training run by Vocational Director Justin Proulx, a former tile contractor himself.

“It was January 2022 and I was touring the facility and talking to them; my eyes were lighting up and the wheels started to turn,” Morris recalled. “I saw an answer and kept thinking ‘yeah, but how do I make this work?’ … So, I started by asking [them] ‘What if I come down on weekends to teach them to brush and roll, and see if I get any takers?’”

Going all in

The request was music to Proulx’s ears. Morris’ first 4-week class, in late February 2022, had 25 participants; 18 finished. With trainees ready and eager to work, success posed another problem.

“I can’t onboard 18 guys at once,” he said, “so, I started reaching out to my competition” to see if they were hiring.

As Morris worked to get other local pros involved, he refined his 4-week class to include Saturday and Sunday skills training, along with Tuesday and Wednesday night employment and soft-skills training. The latter component has proven critical. Morris’ chief tenet there is: If you’re not 10 minutes early, you’re late.

“I wrote the entire curriculum on everything from how to be a good employee to drugs in the workplace … you name it. I was donating 20 hours per week. I’m on my 12th class and this has changed everything about my business,” Morris said. “At one point, I was thinking I was going to lose that contract; then I had more than enough labor.”

Transitional support to ensure success on the outside

Daniel ‘DJ’ Szentendrei was in Morris’ first class. In his past life, he’d earned respect on the streets by robbing drug dealers, until the law caught up with him. At 31, he left prison after serving 9.5 years. Now, he works for Morris and has channeled his enthusiastic personality

more constructively. Morris is now training him to be an estimator and in other facets of the business. While at New Freedom, the Tuesday and Wednesday job skill classes were particularly illuminating for Szentendrei.

“What I learned was that I’m not defined by what I did or where I came from,” he said. “I’d say the person I am today is from the painting classes and from John with his Tuesday and Wednesday classes. He gives it to you raw. You learn how to be a responsible adult and keep a job.”

Mike Cassel is an assistant project manager for PHP Commercial Painting. He had experience as a general contractor superintendent before he was sent to prison for 2.5 years on a drug-related offense. Cassel was released in June 2022, but painting was the last thing on his mind at that time.

“Honestly, I can remember sitting in my cell and seeing these newsletters that they would send out with these big articles and laughing and thinking ‘Who on Earth wants to be a painter?’” he recalled.

With more trades signing on at New Freedom at the time, Cassel completed the tile class, but there wasn’t a job immediately available. Then Morris asked him if he knew how to read blueprints. Cassel did and Morris took him on.

“If I hadn’t gotten into New Freedom I don’t know where I’d be at all, honestly. With New Freedom, you can get going, and John goes way above and beyond what employers do for you,” Cassel added.

Setting realistic expectations

Morris and other contractors admit that not every new hire is a good fit. There are some inherent, as well as unseen, challenges that come with hiring from this population.

“We have hired 78 over the last year and we still have 35 with us currently,” Morris noted. “Some have moved on to other things, realizing that painting wasn’t for them. Others have gone to other painting companies that were a better fit for them.”

“This is a movement that will sweep the nation. People are getting out of prison and many people are exiting the workforce.”

—JUSTIN PROULX, NEW FREEDOM

New Freedom students now have the opportunity to train—and work— with several companies in the Phoenix area.

Randy Fornoff, owner of MTS Painting, in Phoenix, helps teach weekday classes with Morris and has hired a few painters from the training class. Fornoff admits he has not had the greatest luck with them but will still hire more in the future. His late son had his own brushes with the law and eventually lost his life to drug addiction, so Fornoff feels ‘called’ to stay involved with the training class and give more hires a chance.

“In my opinion, this is the future of the construction industry,” he said. “There are just not enough people going into the trades. This is called a second chance movement, but for some of these guys who have never had a job their whole life; for them, it’s the first chance they’ve ever had.”

Rick Augustine, of R and R Painting, in Phoenix, has hired six employees who went through New Freedom vocational training and still has two. That doesn’t mean the decisions have been a failure, he clarified. Some find the work too physically demanding, some will relapse into drugs or crime, he added, and, reiterating Morris’ comment, others will simply find different work. Augustine, who has also been a guest speaker and weekend trainer, says Morris’ training class is still his go-to for finding help. The reason, he explains, comes from too many job-hopping painters in his area. Yes, they have experience, but little in the way of loyalty.

“With those hires, I’m batting zero. We all know who those guys are; as owners, we all talk,” he emphasized. “In our business, ‘green’ guys have no bad habits and you can train them to be what you need them to be. I don’t have a problem with their backgrounds. If you put them in a good setting with seasoned pros who can monitor and facilitate things, it can work. We prefer to pull out of New Freedom … when we get busy, that’s exactly where we go.”

The vocational training class hits a personal note for Augustine as well. While he never did prison time, he had a felony on his record. He completed a college degree but couldn’t climb the corporate ladder because of it. He turned to painting and found a career. “I know that feeling of having a door shut on you,” he added, “and I talk about it in my speeches. You can’t BS these guys; they’ve been yanked around enough.”

A different kind of commitment

Fornoff, Morris and Augustine all acknowledge that a New Freedom hire requires some extra work for the business owner, too. For one, contractors should count on being involved in helping the new employee find a ride to the job for the first few months, maybe even up to a year. Transportation and housing are big barriers for this population. For any ex-offender, it’s almost impossible to rent an apartment and it can even be difficult to reapply for a driver’s license with a felony, Proulx explained.

“It’s a situation where you take away their rights and lock them up, but how do you set them free?” he said. “Their mindset becomes imprisoned, and there’s more to it than job searches in order to get them out there and

working. There are barriers, and this effort really takes everybody[’s patience and buy-in].”

Sober-living housing, or transitional houses for those exiting drug or alcohol rehabilitation programs, has been one option for Proulx, but he acknowledges these homes can quickly turn into a bad situation if tenants relapse without a support system in place. So, he uses a placement strategy to create a good culture at each home. New Freedom pairs members who are Peer Support specialists (individuals who overcame traumarelated challenges and are trained to support others facing similar challenges) with other New Freedom participants in a home. This way they can support one another to stay on track to self-sufficiency. If one of them has a driver’s license and has saved for a car, then that person can also drive others to work. In some cases, employers have even donated vehicles for use.

Daren Strunk is the COO of St. Joseph the Worker, another Phoenix-based nonprofit that offers transitional support for those with a criminal history. His organization worked with New Freedom early on to help 537 participants with tools and work clothes. He said employers’ extra commitment to ensure transportation needs are met pays off in the long run.

“It’s our mission to help any client with barriers by providing opportunity and a pathway to success,” he said. “You can find really great employees that stick and are incredibly loyal and willing to help the next person who comes in behind them.”

Hope for the future

News of New Freedom’s success is spreading, Proulx said, and he believes models like this will expand around the nation, especially with the growing demand for skilled labor. Associated Builders and Contractors reports the construction workforce shortage reached 546,000 this year.

“This is a movement that will sweep the nation,” Proulx noted. “People are getting out of prison and many people are exiting the workforce. … What we do here saves taxpayers millions. They get out and now they’re paying taxes instead of being a tax burden. They go from being a liability to an asset … and who’s going to build the nation if you don’t have labor?”

As for Morris, he is not slowing down one bit. New Freedom has now grown to its maximum capacity of 400 people (from 100 when he first arrived), and he sees tremendous promise going forward.

“This has completely changed the way I look at people,” he added. “It drives me nuts to hear so many guys complaining they can’t find help—and they don’t do anything about it. … Sure, not everyone works out, but some of these guys have fast-tracked themselves into higher positions in my company.” ■

If you have questions about New Freedom or about starting a similar training effort in your area, contact John Morris of PHP Commercial Painting at john@phppainting.com

“In my opinion, this is the future of the construction industry. There are just not enough people going into the trades. This is called a second chance movement, but for some of these guys … it’s the first chance they’ve ever had.”

—RANDY FORNOFF, MTS PAINTING

Two pros talk MARKETING

A little more than 3,000 miles separate paint pros Don Easton of Easton Painting in Woodland, CA and Rodrigo Evangelista of Masterpiece Painter in Holliston, MA. For all intents and purposes, the distance between their approaches to marketing are equally far apart. For one, sticking to word of mouth—and only word of mouth—for more than 30 years has yielded the desired results. But for the other, a hunger to grow and a willingness to learn from others resulted in a lot of ups and downs, and, more recently, the creation of a future more firmly in his control.

We’re grateful to the two pros for sharing their approaches to marketing as well as offering some thoughts and takeaways on the other’s efforts.

The owner of Easton Painting in Woodland, CA, Don Easton has honed his craftsmanship skills over the course of 35 years Specializing in historic home restoration and preservation, he loves the challenge and learning opportunity that period homes present. Currently working with a crew of two—although he's employed as many as 21—the Easton Painting team has a reputation for meticulous prep, process and inspired color selection.

Easton Painting’s approach to marketing

When it comes to describing his marketing strategy, Don Easton answers honestly, “If there’s one at all, it’s about communication and connection.”

With a website absent of updates for six years running and zero social media presence beyond that, Easton is happy to let his work speak for itself. Well, he does a bit of talking, too.

“I am 100% a people person,” he explains. “Like the houses I work on, every owner also has their own unique and interesting story. “I connect with customers through an open and honest dialogue about colors, color placement, repairs and remedies. By being direct and demonstrating knowledge, they open up about their lives and trust us to preserve their homes. In most cases, I end up becoming friends with my customers— not just for the span of the job but for years. Seriously, years.”

When he’s not working, Easton is very involved in his community. He attends weekly Rotary meetings and participates in the club’s charitable acts. He’s also extremely involved in the local youth foster program. While Easton attends meetings for both organizations, he emphasizes that he never goes as a representative of his company. “These are organizations I support because I believe in their mission. It’s not a business strategy. That’s not to say my participation doesn’t result in a bit of name recognition for me, but it’s not because I’m tossing out business cards or key chains.”

Easton adds, “I’m sure my lack of systemized marketing is like nails on a chalkboard to some, but for what I want to do—work on gorgeous old houses in a particular area—what I’m doing is delivering results that far exceed the customer’s expectations.”

Rodrigo Evangelista basically stumbled into the world of painting in 2005 when a friend, who was a painting subcontractor, handed him his business including his one and only customer, a two-person crew, some equipment and a van. The van died a week later but thanks to Evangelista’s vision and business sense, the painting operation has continued to grow and evolve and now bills more than $3 million with a team that consists of a project manager, 14 painters and up to 5 exterior subcontractors. Operating in the suburbs of Boston, the company handles residential interiors and exteriors, cabinet refinishing, HOAs and some work for general contractors.

Masterpiece Painter’s approach to marketing

Easton frequently ends up befriending people from communities where he’s working as well.

“So often, the houses we’re working on are landmarks in their communities,” he explains. “Next-door neighbors, people walking their dogs, all kinds of folks will stop and watch us at work. I’m not shy about telling them what we’re doing. It’s probably more detail than they expected but I just love what we do, and I want them to know that we have a lot of respect for the integrity and history of every home. For people who share our appreciation and love for historic homes, that conversation is far more meaningful than a Facebook post or print ad. I honestly can’t put a number on how many of those conversations have turned into jobs.”

While Easton doesn’t do any online or print advertising, his crew members do sport company shirts on the job and he puts up a lawn sign at every project. “It has our company name as well as my name and number. It’s not much but it does seem to work. I recently got a text from a lady to paint her home without ever meeting me. She chose us based on our work on a neighbor’s house and speaking to that customer. When I told her it would be two years, she said she’d wait.”

While Evangelista was new to the painting industry when he was gifted the company, he was no stranger to business. “I had been running a cleaning business for three years before I got into painting,” he says. “I operated that business following the marketing principles of business coach Brian Buffini, which is all about generating referrals by building relationships through a combination of personal notes, phone calls and pop-by visits to existing customers. That worked well for the cleaning enterprise, so I just went with the same approach for the painting business and leaned on my existing customer database. Plus, always, always, ALWAYS asking for referrals. What I told people then and still do today is this: I’m never too busy for your referral.”

For 10 years Evangelista stuck to that marketing approach and managed to steadily grow his business through referrals and a few marketing efforts. “We sent holiday cards to our database, had yard signs and lettered trucks. But I stuck close to the relationship approach.” In 2016 and 2017, he worked with two different business coaches who helped him hone his customer relationship management (CRM) business systems and introduced him to a few different marketing ideas.

For people who share our appreciation and love for historic homes, that conversation is far more meaningful than a Facebook post or print ad.”

—DON EASTON, EASTON PAINTING

“We left paint cans full of cookies at the close of every job. I created a gift bag that included a Magic Eraser cleaning tool with a note that read, ‘If this won’t clean up your wall, call us and we’ll come do it.’ We had mugs filled with goodies that I’d drop off at the houses neighboring the property we were working at with a note that read, ‘Sorry for any inconvenience created by our working to improve your neighbor’s house.’ I didn’t ask for business. I just let them know that, even as I was working on the house next door, I was aware of and respectful of them.”

Then, in 2019, Evangelista built a website, established a presence on Facebook and Instagram, and dabbled in some search engine optimization (SEO). “I did it because we had to, not because I had a master plan for it.” In 2021, he brought someone on board to grow their exterior painting business and near the close of the year, added a roofing company to his holdings.

In 2022, Evangelista tested the waters with Angie’s (which he describes as a ‘complete disaster’) and three different paint-industryspecific marketing agencies. “I tried reactivation campaigns, newsletters and campaigns on Facebook, Instagram and Google. In some cases, we weren’t ready for what they had to offer and in others, our styles simply didn’t mesh. But the real takeaway was that again and again, the results fell short of the expectations set.”

Frustrated by his experiences, Evangelista sought to take things into his own hands. When someone mentioned a powerful all-in-one sales and marketing CRM platform, he did some digging and landed upon the same software used by all the marketing agencies he had previously used. Shortly after that discovery, he hired a full-time marketing person with some SEO experience, writing talent and passion for tech.

With his ‘tech nerd’ in place, a powerful platform at his disposal, and the help of a great friend and mentor in the form of Jason Phillips of Phillips’ Home Improvement, Evangelista is now successfully implementing the best of the efforts he previously tried plus some new approaches.

“The CRM automates all our processes and communications and allows us to see who visits our Facebook page, website and Instagram page, and we can see who opened our email campaigns. This lets us focus our messaging and marketing very narrowly on them,”

Points & counterpoints on marketing approaches

In compiling this article, we shared each pro’s approach to marketing with the other and invited them to comment on what they appreciated about the other’s effort. Here’s what they had to say:

Rodrigo on Don’s approach:

Both Don’s business and marketing approach are pretty unique. He’s clearly carved out his niche and earned a reputation so strong that people are willing to wait two years for him to do a job. He is—and should be—proud of that.

It’s clear that his skills as a craftsman make it possible to basically not do much in the way of active marketing. That’s really phenomenal and I think a lot of people would like to do that, but to have the combination of craftsman skills and relationship skills that he has is rare. I also appreciate that he’s clearly passionate about his work and just truly enjoys it. People want to work with people who love their jobs. I also appreciate the service aspect of his life and what he does for foster children. Service is also important in my life. The fact that Don understands that you get from giving makes me respect him all the more.

Don on Rodrigo’s approach:

Wow. I have huge respect for what Rod is doing and how he’s gone about acquiring his knowledge through trial and error.

I really appreciate how he’s found a way to be in constant contact with his customers. I’d like to do that, but I’m not interested in taking on a lot of what he’s doing. His business goals appear to be more about expansion and acquisition, so this approach really works for that. But I’m in a different camp when it comes to how I run my business and what I do and don’t want to do. I just love what I do: being a craftsman. I’m not looking for big gains in terms of hitting big billings goals or taking on a bigger crew. But, again, I get what he’s doing and I really admire the steps he’s taken to get himself exactly where he wants to be at this moment.

he explains. “Every week we analyze what we’re doing and how it’s working and just keep tuning things for better results.”

As for new efforts, the company is now sending monthly emails to their database and pushing out regular ‘we’re in your neighborhood’ postcards that reach homes within a 1-mile radius of every job. It mentions a 10% discount and includes a URL for a specific landing page, allowing them to track what’s working and where. In addition, the company mailed its first-ever flyers for exterior paint work in February, and later this year will be participating in the Valpak coupon program and appearing in Best Pick Reports magazine.

Evangelista is also considering a billboard and plans to launch a ‘Club 50’ initiative that will reward anyone who makes a referral that converts into a job with a crisp $50 bill.

“It certainly hasn’t been the most direct path to our current marketing approach,” he says, “but I did a lot of learning along the way. I’m grateful that I was able to accumulate all that knowledge and I’m excited to see what God has in store for us.” ■

Masterpiece Painter’s IT Director Daniel Oliveira (left) and company owner Rodrigo Evangelista (right) work together to create an exterior maintenance marketing calendar that automatically contacts customers one, two and four years after job completion to schedule a warranty inspection.

Q: How do I know when to change my cartridge and/or filter on a reusable respirator?

A:This is probably one of the most common questions we receive. While there are many factors unique to each situation, I can, however, offer you a general framework for how an answer can be found.

The first step is to make sure you have an OSHAcompliant respiratory protection program put together for your jobsite. This is where you need to record how and when to replace respirator cartridges and filters. Not only is this required by OSHA, it also takes the guesswork out of figuring out when to change a cartridge or filter.

Let’s start by defining filters and cartridges since they have vastly different methods of determining when to replace them. Filters are designed to help remove certain particles from the air such as dust, debris, and spray paint mist. To determine when you need to replace a filter, apply the ‘three Ds’ rule: If the filter is dirty, damaged, or difficult to breathe through, it’s time for a change.

Cartridges, on the other hand, are designed to help remove chemical vapors or gases (or a combination of those) from the air you breathe. This could be organic vapors from paints or perhaps acid gases from cleaning agents. To determine when to replace a cartridge, you need to find out how long it will last—also known as its ‘service life.’ This can vary based on factors such as the contaminants you are being exposed to, what the concentration levels are, the temperature and humidity, and even how heavy you are breathing.

To determine the cartridge ‘service life,’ you first need to know what you’re being exposed to, so start by consulting the Material Safety Data Sheet for potential airborne hazards. You’ll then need to conduct a hazard assessment to determine concentration levels. A hazard assessment should be done either by an industrial hygienist, your insurer, or through OSHA’s free On-Site

Consultation Program, where an OSHA representative will visit your jobsite to assess it at no cost. I frequently recommend this service to contractors since it’s free, plus OSHA is not there to issue citations.

Once your hazard assessment is complete, enter that information into the 3M Select and Service Life calculator. The tool is free and can help calculate the number of hours of use your specific 3M cartridge will offer before requiring replacement (note that the software can only be used for 3M cartridges). You can use this service life to create a ‘change schedule,’ which is then recorded in a respiratory protection program. Keep in mind that airborne hazards may contain particulates and chemicals. This would require a combination cartridge, which means a carbon cartridge with a particulate filter attached to it. Some cartridges have a filter attached to it that cannot be removed. If that filter needs to be replaced, you’ll need to throw out the entire combination cartridge, even if the cartridge portion has not met its service life. Other combination cartridges have detachable filters. On these, when the filter needs to be replaced, you can simply change the filter and continue to use the cartridge while it’s still within its service life.

And on one final note, situational or environmental changes may require changing a cartridge sooner than expected. If you are following all of the guidelines in your respiratory protection program but still smell, taste, or experience irritation from a gas or vapor on the job, leave the jobsite immediately, replace the cartridge or cartridge/filter combination, and re-check the seal of the respirator to your face.

To learn more, visit: 3M.com/RespiratorsReusable For the 3M Select and Service Life Calculator, visit: 3M.com/ServiceLife

JASON LUNN is a 3M application engineering specialist for safety products. He oversees the training and education for a wide variety of safety products, including respirators. Here, he tackles a question that painting professionals often ask about reusable respirators.

inPAINT ® presents an industry-specific question and invites an expert to share their insight.

PRO PICKS

4 pros’ choices for pressure washers

Regardless of whether pressure washing is the main focus of your business or simply part of your paint prep, the type of machine you use factors into the success of the work you do. Pressure washers come in a wide range of price points, but as is the case with many tools, you do certainly get what you pay for, and there is a massive difference between the homeowner and commercial models. Here, four pros share which models are their pressure-washing workhorses and why they recommend them to others.

BY BRIAN SODOMA

1 SCOTT DEARDEN

Pennsylvania-based Militello Painting & Powerwashing is a fullservice pressure washing company. Crews are trained to soft-wash roofs, stucco, vinyl and wood siding, bricks, as well as fences, decks and gutters. Soft-washes are also part of the Militello paint crew’s prep process on every exterior job.

Pressure washing currently makes up about 25% of the company’s business, but it’s growing, Dearden, the company’s operations manager, said. There’s enough business to run two trucks with pressure washers on them. One runs full time, and the second one is in action for about half of the busy spring and summer season. Crews often clean 4–6 properties a day during peak season.

The company relies on two machines: the Pressure Pro Professional 3500 PSI 8.0 GPM Skid Mounted Pressure Washer and the 5-gallon-per-minute Alkota Pressure Washer Hot Water Narrow Frame 5355HNL. The Pressure Pro is strictly a coldwash machine, but the Alkota includes a heater, which benefits the company in two ways. For one, it can extend the season and allow for work on days when the temperature dips below 50° F. The heat also provides an extra stain-fighting boost for concrete stains. Dearden, however, really appreciates the sheer power the Pressure Pro machine brings to the table.

“When you work with higher gallons-per-minute when softwashing, we don’t even have to get out the ladders on a 2-story home, and it’s easier to do multiple houses in a day,” he explained.

Currently, his machines have more than 2,000 hours on them. During the busy season, they will run 30 hours per week. He did replace a pump on the Pressure Pro at about 2,000 hours, but the motor still works well.

“We are vigorous with maintenance. We change the oil every 100 hours, check and inspect daily and weekly, and if anything is broken, we fix it right away,” he added.

Photo Courtesy of Militello Painting & Powerwashing

OUR PROS

“I’ve been using this type of machine probably for the last 15 years … We like that it’s durable, strong, very easy to use, and gets the job done quickly. It’s a big machine, so we can use a bigger spray tip and move fast.”

—ORLANDO OBESO, ALLIED PAINTERS

▲

“We do patio stains and clear coatings on concrete floors, and we need to pressure wash before we apply them. … I tell everyone, you can’t go wrong with this machine,” he added.

“We are vigorous with maintenance. We change the oil every 100 hours, check and inspect daily and weekly, and if anything is broken, we fix it right away,”

—SCOTT DEARDEN, MILITELLO PAINTING & POWERWASHING

ORLANDO OBESO Allied Painters AlliedPainters.com At Mi-T-M, we pride ourselves on building mighty, damn good equipment. It’s what sets us apart from our competition. When you purchase equipment with the Mi-T-M name on it, you are buying dependable equipment that is designed, built, and tested by good people. Mighty. Damn. Good. www.mitm.com | 800-553-9053

ARNOLD First Choice Pressure Washing and Home Services FirstChoicePressureWashing.net Made in with Globally Sourced Components

KING King’s Pressure Washing KingsPressureWashingService.com USA

2

ORLANDO OBESO

This Utah-based paint pro tackles new commercial and residential interiors and exteriors as well as residential repaints; he also sees his share of requests for waterproof decks and concrete floor coatings. For Obeso, a pressure washer is a prep tool for exterior residential. The Mi-T-M 4000 PSI @ 4.0 GPM Belt Drive Pump Cold Water Pressure Washer has been his go-to for more than a decade.

“I’ve been using this type of machine probably for the last 15 years,” he said. “We use it on concrete, stucco and both [wood and cement] siding. We like that it’s durable, strong, very easy to use, and gets the job done quickly. It’s a big machine, so we can use a bigger spray tip and move fast.”

King’s Pressure Washing relies on a JROD 4 Way Nozzle Holder with a smaller tip to tackle second-story soft-washes without a ladder.

3 MELISSA ARNOLD

This Jonesborough, TN-based owner/operator paints, remodels and repairs homes, but her primary line of business is pressure washing. The bulk of her pressure washing requests are softwashing of vinyl, wood and Hardie board siding substrates on homes; she also sees her share of gutter and deck cleaning as well as paint prep soft-washing.

The STIHL RB 800 pressure washer is the machine that makes it all happen for Arnold. The 4200-PSI washer gives her plenty of power and longevity and allows her to reach up to 3 stories without needing a ladder. It also gives her the option to adjust the PSI down for soft-washing delicate surfaces, where she lets the cleaning formula she developed herself do most of the work.

However, when she’s working on concrete, particularly if it’s discolored, she uses the machine’s highest PSI setting. The STIHL 14" Rotary Surface Cleaner attachment is also a big help for stubborn concrete stains. With it, she usually doesn’t need to use a cleaning agent. The machine and attachment have also served her on commercial work, like a recent auto dealership, where she cleaned both shop floors with stubborn stains and a large concrete parking lot.

“For commercial work, you have to have something that’s going to do the job and last, and that you can store during the winter,” said Arnold. “This is the third one of these I’ve had and they last without any issues for about a good three years or more, with 8–10 hours of running, on average, a day. There’s very minimal maintenance, too. Just change the oil once a year and keep it weatherized during the winter. I love what I do and my STIHL pressure washer never lets me down.”

4 PETER KING

In business since 2015, 85% of King’s Pressure Washing’s work is residential, most of it soft-washing off stubborn mold and organic substances from buildings with wood, Hardie board or vinyl siding. The Oregon-based pro gets plenty of calls for cleaning fences, decks and concrete. He soft-washes everything except concrete.

The Pressure Pro Belt Driven 8 GPM 3500 PSI pressure washer is his machine of choice. Its reliable Honda GX690 engine is its greatest attribute. He also likes the key start feature, so he doesn’t have to pull a cord.

First

Pressure Washing and Home Services counts on the STIHL RB 800 and the STIHL 14" Rotary Surface Cleaner to tackle stubborn stains and large jobs.

“That engine is pretty low maintenance, reliable and straightforward. That’s important because I need it working every day. I even had one I hadn’t used in a number of years; I started it and it fired up right away,” he noted.

The Pressure Pro also makes his job easier. Thanks to how he is able to adjust the pressure on it, he doesn’t need a ladder for most 2-story homes. He uses a JROD 4 Way Nozzle Holder’s smaller tips to help him get more distance on the spray.

“The biggest benefit with soft-washing with a bigger machine is you can use the tip to put some pressure on it, just to get the stream up there. You’re not applying direct pressure to the point on the wall; you’re using the pressure just to get water to the point and then positioning yourself so you’re not hitting it with high pressure,” he said.

King also works with local paint pros to soft-wash homes before prepping them for paint.

“Sometimes, customers realize they don’t really need a paint job on the home, they just need the right person to properly soft-wash it without a lot of pressure,” he added. ■

Choice

“This is the third one of these I’ve had ... I love what I do and my STIHL pressure washer never lets me down.”

—MELISSA ARNOLD, FIRST CHOICE PRESSURE WASHING AND HOME SERVICES

“The biggest benefit with soft-washing with a bigger machine is you can use the [smaller] tip to put some pressure on it ...” —PETER KING, KING’S PRESSURE WASHING

PROJECT SNAPSHOTS

HISTORICAL INTERIOR REPAINT

Location: Hampton, CT

Paint contractor: Ed Peach, owner Gold Standard Painting GoldStandardPaintingCT.com

Time frame: 4 days

Crew size: 4 people

Equipment used:

■ Mirka dustless sander

■ SurfPrep sander

■ Festool vacuum

■ Brushes

■ Rollers

Challenges:

■ Trying not to overdo prep work to preserve the historical importance of the space (minimal caulking, not filling voids in the trim, etc.).

COATINGS AND COLORS:

STUDY

Walls: Sherwin-Williams Extreme Block Interior/Exterior Stain Blocking Alkyd Primer

Benjamin Moore Regal Select Interior Paint (matte) in:

Trim, doors, casings and mantle: Benjamin Moore Prime Lock Oil Based Primer

Benjamin Moore

INSL-X Cabinet Coat (semigloss) in:

ENTRYWAY

Walls: Sherwin-Williams Extreme Block Interior/Exterior Stain Blocking Alkyd Primer

Benjamin Moore Regal Select Interior Paint (matte) in:

Trim, doors and casings: Benjamin Moore Prime Lock Oil Based Primer

Benjamin Moore

INSL-X Cabinet Coat (semigloss) in:

Ceilings: Benjamin Moore Regal Select Interior Paint (flat) in: White

Pro project comment:

“This historic property, known as Trail Wood, and owned by Pulitzer Prizewinning author Edwin Way Teale, was both a pleasure and a challenge. While many of the walls needed to be replaced due to their poor condition, we sought to preserve others that featured original wallpaper. We worked closely with the Connecticut Audubon Society to color-match the new walls to the wallpaper for a seamless look.”

Pro product comment:

“The products used for the project are the same ones we use daily due to their high quality and durability.”

Courtesy of ThreadCT.com

Benjamin Moore Sea Haze 2137-50

BEHR Sweet Jasmine M330-3

Benjamin Moore White Dove OC-17

Benjamin Moore White Dove OC-17

INTERIOR MURAL AT ASSETS’ HEADQUARTERS

Location: Lancaster, PA

Paint contractor:

Peter Barber, president and CEO

Two Dudes Painting Company

TwoDudes.com

Time frame: 4 days

Crew size: 2 Dudes

Equipment used:

■ FrogTape Delicate Surface Painter’s Tape

■ Brushes

■ Whizz rollers

■ Stencils

■ Level

Challenges:

■ Integrating the geometry of the design into the dimension of the room

■ Bright, vibrant colors that took multiple coats

■ Accurate color match to PANTONE colors to reflect the ASSETS brand guidelines

■ Tight time line, as the tenant needed to occupy the space

Pro project comment:

“ASSETS is a nonprofit organization focused on transforming the community through ethical and inclusive business. As they were moving into a new office space, they wanted a dynamic, memorable presence to greet their clients as well as funders and supporters. Using the ASSETS brand graphics and about 900� of FrogTape Delicate Surface Painter’s Tape to help achieve crisp lines, we created wall murals throughout their space to bring color and life to their new home.”

SHERWIN-WILLIAMS COATING AND COLORS:

Emerald Designer Edition Interior Latex Paint (flat) in:

Courtesy of ALL IN Painting

What’s in today’s professional toolbox?

The Best Paint Jobs Start With Scotch® Painter’s Tape!

The best paint jobs all start the same way, with Scotch® Painter’s Tapes. Scotch® Brand has a full line of painter’s tapes to help you conquer whatever surface you’re painting. It’s the #1 most trusted brand by professional painters*

The best paint jobs start with Scotch® Painter’s Tape. *Based on 2020 TNS Kantar U.S. Brand Health Survey.

Learn more at Scotchbrand.com/painterstape

Purdy® Storage Box

Organize, stow and go with Purdy®. Built specifically for Professional painters, the Purdy Painter’s Storage Box makes transporting painting tools to jobsites easier than ever. It’s a rugged, stackable, stow-and-go system packed with smart features that will keep you more organized on the go and on the job.

Purdy.com/storage-box

If you have a product, service or tool that you think professionals should know about, contact: advertise@inPAINTmag.com

3M 3M.com

Pages 6, 7 & 29

FrogTape FrogTape.com

Page 17

Graco Graco.com

Back Cover

Habitat for Humanity Habitat.org

Page 3

Mi-T-M MiTM.com

Page 23

PaintCare PaintCare.org

Page 9

Purdy Purdy.com

Pages 2 & 29

What, Where & When

AUGUST

15: The Retreat with Nick Slavik, Nisswa, MN pcapainted.org/event/the-retreat-with-nick-slavik-2023-summer

SEPTEMBER

5–7: Building Innovation Conference, Washington, D.C. buildinginnovation.org

11–14: CPIA Leadership Conference, Chicago, IL events.thecpia.com/cpia2023

27–29: Mile High Profit Summit, Denver, CO thecontractorfight.com/upcoming-events

OCTOBER

11–14: 2023 PowerClean Convention, Glendale, AZ pwna.org/powerclean-convention

18–20: PCA Craftsmanship Forum, Savannah, GA pcacraftsmanshipforum.com

NOVEMBER

13–15: The International Pool | Spa | Patio Expo | PSP/DeckExpo, Las Vegas, NV poolspapatio.com

Devoted to the advancement of the painting trade through ‘Excellence in Craftsmanship,’ the PCA Craftsmanship Forum brings together artisans from across the country and around the world to share their knowledge and experience.

This year’s event will feature three days of engaging discussions, hands-on demos, educational presentations, workshops and more. Presentation topics range from charging more for craftsmanship work and preventing repetitive motion injuries on the job to arriving at successful outcomes under challenging situations and tips for staining and wallpaper hanging. In addition to plentiful learning opportunities, attendees can partake in a historical tour, several mixers, and the much-anticipated PCA Craftsmanship Forum 2nd Annual Axe Throwing Tournament.

Register by August 15 for a special early bird discount. pcacraftsmanshipforum.com

Manage change by managing your approach

Simple tactics for implementing change successfully

There is a common belief that change is hard and that people resist and refuse to participate in it. Yet there is a lived experience among business owners, managers and leaders that people want to get better at things, to advance, to improve.

How can people hate change but like growth and advancement? How can they want to make more money, do a better job, get promoted and expect to accomplish all of that if they hate change and refuse to do it?

Both things can’t be true.

The real truth about change

The truth is that people don’t hate change nearly as much as we seem to think. What they do hate, though, is unsupported change.

When people are expected to do things that they have no competency in or are going to be held accountable for results without a predictable structure in which to accomplish those results, they resist. They dodge. They just quietly continue doing what they have always done and their managers’ urgings fall on deaf ears.

Change itself is not the problem. How you implement change is the problem.

Change your approach to change your results

If you want people to embrace the changes that you want and need them to make, you have to be structured and disciplined in your approach to facilitating that change. Whether you are asking someone to adapt to a CRM, to learn a new process, or to take on an entirely new job, these few little steps of pre-thought will help you prepare and execute changes better.

First, give your people time to get used to the idea that a change is coming. The bigger the change and the harder for them to accept, the more time and the more support you need to plan to offer.

And before you start launching into a change, it’s important to understand your audience. Put yourself in their shoes before you throw something new at them. Ask yourself two questions: 1) Is this going to be hard for them? 2) Is this something that they are going to be onboard with?

The first question is about their skill level. Be realistic with yourself about how they will perceive the difficulty of this new task and then think about the actual difficulty of the learning curve. If this is going to be hard for them, it is likely that you’re going to need to give it the time it deserves for instructing, demonstrating, observing and providing feedback.

Skill takes time to acquire. Be prepared to invest your time in them. Build it into your plan and into your schedule. Don’t rush the learning phase. Let them make mistakes as they learn rather than out on the jobsite.

The second question is about their desire, motivation and willingness. If they are going to be totally onboard with it, you only have to provide a little encouragement. If they are going to resist this, hate the idea, or feel frustrated by the change, then you may need to position this in a way that makes them understand what’s in it for them.

What will they have gained when this change is complete? Will they be faster, better, make more money, make fewer mistakes? Will they feel more confident, show up more professionally?

Do not underestimate the value of spelling it out or, better yet, of having them tell you what they see as beneficial to them.

If the change is only good for the company but makes their work harder, longer or more complicated, consider giving them something meaningful as a reward to learn and to adapt: time off, a bonus, a certification. Get creative.

Managing change for the better—of all

Preparing for change this way may seem like it will take more of your time—and it will. But imagine if you could implement changes that stuck with less stress and less pressure. Wouldn’t that be worth your time investment?

The next generation small application airless sprayer— designed to deliver higher quality results faster and easier with water-based, solvent and flammable architectural coatings.