I’m often asked, “Why do you spend time teaching other painting contractors best business practices when you are so busy running your own painting company?” I’m not sure how to answer that other than I’m grateful to be able to. For those of you who don’t know, I’m often invited to be the key speaker at regional and national conferences by Sherwin-Williams, Dunn Edwards and Glidden Professional paint companies, including our trade association (who would have guessed that?) When I first started my painting company in 1987, I was very young and didn’t know much. I joined our trade association, the PDCA, and tried to learn what I could about how others ran their businesses. I was always so grateful when someone would spend a few minutes with me. They would share their knowledge and what they’ve learned over the years. I’m reminded of guys like John Peek, Michael Chism, Kevin, and Brian Nolan and how they would come alongside me and share their best business practices. I would ask myself, “why do these guys take the time to share all this?” I guess now that I’m on the other side after being in business for 25 years and several learning lessons later, I’ve realized I need to give back as passionately as they did and continue to.
Below is an unexpected benefit that comes along with giving back. I received an email this week from a fellow painting contractor after he attended the Residential Repaint Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah that was put on by Sherwin Williams.
“Josh, I wanted to thank you for coming out to Utah today. I was impressed with what you had to share, in fact, I took six pages of notes, four of those were on what you taught. I will keep this short, I struggle estimating with confidence and the little exercise you had us do open my eyes a lot. I also took away a lot from job costing and advertising. But it was what you shared about the “Primary Aim” that moved me to write this. Thank you very, very, much. May God bless you in your family and business.” – Ben