I was reading a report on a website called ripoffreport.com and came across a post by someone who was angry at Certa Pro. When I usually read something negative about Certa Pro I want to inwardly cheer the complainer on. But in this instance, this guy needs a lesson on how a painting company should run and I found myself defending Certa Pro.

Here’s the post -

Original Report:
HOME OWNERS AND BUSINESS BE AWARE OF CERTA PRO PAINTERS THEY WILL SUBCONTRACT YOUR PROJECT. I worked as a “subcontractor” for CertaPro Painters Milwaukee, WI from april, 2008 to feb, 2010.during this time i was very clost to lost all wat i have but finaly i took the decision and in Jan 2010 i star work directly with my own customers i am better in my financial and my business is more stablished now and myown customers can save around 35%. Certa pro painters subcontract out about 98% of all their jobs. They pay their subcontractors only 50% of the contracted price, and that is for both labor AND materials This is by far the lowest pay for a subcontractor. Be awere!they never tell the property owner that they are subcontracting I believe this is dishonest i recomend to the home owners to get a less 3 or 4 estimates frome local painting companies and ask if thay will not subcontract your project because if they do you will pay from 50% to 25% more.

After reading this report, I had to respond…this is what I wrote:

I just want to start off saying that I have no affiliation with Certa Pro at all, in fact, I’m not a huge fan of theirs, but there are some facts that need to be corrected here…this is not a ‘Rip Off Report’ for Certa Pro Painting.

Hiring subcontractors is a normal occurrence in the in the painting industry. It’s done a lot more than people know – and probably this painter knows. It’s a great way to ensure that your costs are stable and consistent for every job. Hiring hourly employees to paint a house can sometimes loose the painting company money because the painters drag their feet, take far too long lunch/smokes breaks, leave early, get to the job late, etc. Then what happens to the warranty that was given if the company is out of business? You’re right, you’re out of luck…

Hiring a subcontractor at a set wage is safe for both parties – the painting company knows exactly what its COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) are, and the subcontractor knows exactly what he is going to get paid before he or she starts the job. There is no one holding a gun to the subcontractor’s head saying that the subcontractor has to paint the house at that price; he can say no, he can take an hourly job, subcontract with another prime contractor, or simply find his own jobs. Again, if this painter felt slighted because of something he agreed to, how can he complain – he agreed to it? Are we not all accountable for our own decisions? (sadly…this is becoming the world in which we’re living…)

The GOOD painters prefer this method to any others. Good painters know that if they’re given a budget, they will work like crazy to beat it. If they’re given four days to get a job done, and it’s going to pay them $1000 – wouldn’t you try to get it done in three days? Of course you would…as would anyone. Because of that philosophy, this method of paying painters attracts the best, most knowledgeable and fast painters. They are the best of the best. These painters are not sidetracked at all – they paint. They don’t have to leave to go do a quote, they don’t have to worry about anything other than getting your house painted. They understand they’re good at painting, not running a painting business – these two things are greatly different.

There is a huge difference in between a painter running a painting company and a business man running a painting company. The painter doesn’t understand the costs and processes that need to be present (most of them anyway), whereas a business owner does (or should anyway – and Certa Pro guys do). The business owner knows that he is going to put about 10-15% into advertising, 50-60% into COGS, and probably about 15-20% into other overhead items. There isn’t much left over for the ‘greedy’ owner, but this is how a painting business should be run, and the way consumers want the business run so they know that the business will be around for warranty work, if it’s needed.

Homeowners – you will always get what you pay for. Hiring a cheap painting company might not always make it the best company to hire. Paying a little more for the quality and customer service can pay off in great dividends. I completely agree with this painter that you should get three estimates and vet all of them. See which ones have the best reputations, how many jobs they have done like yours, how long they have been in business, ask for testimonials, ask for their last three jobs as references (not just three references – you’ll get their mom, sister and best friend), etc.

Certa Pro has created a good and bad name for themselves in a variety of markets. In places where they have a good name, they’re able to charge more to their customers – as they should, they’ve built their reputation and proven to everyone that they can be a great contractor.

Certa Pro has done more painting jobs than any other painting contractor in America – and yes, they will get bad reviews from time to time, but please don’t make these poor reviews dissuade you from calling them to give you an estimate.

Again, I’m not part of Certa Pro, in fact I belong to a competing painting company in this same market, and many other markets – we compete with them all the time. Rarely (if ever) do we pick up the mess from Certa Pro after a job has gone awry, but we do all the time after other, cheaper painters. Who cares more about their business and wants good customer reviews? Someone who has invested more than forty thousand dollars on their business on day 1 to get their business going? Or someone who has been painting for a few years and suddenly thinks he or she can operate a viable painting business? For sure the guy who has probably spent his life’s savings on the just buying a Certa Pro franchise…

Certa Pro, like many other painting contractors, hire subcontractors all the time…it’s becoming the norm in this industry, and the consumer will probably benefit more if he or she hires such a company. What this painter wrote about Certa Pro really isn’t fair, and the only one ripped off here might be the customer that never called Certa Pro because of this post.

You have 10 seconds to make an impression. Are you making a good one?

Imagine for a moment that you are John Q. Prospect. You called your company for a first meeting and
consultation and after the third try you finally reached someone. The consultant showed up late, in a
sweat-stained t-shirt and messy, wrinkled and holey jeans. His hat is covered in mud or paint, his hands
are dirty, and he has an odor of rotting feet.

Bearing in mind that you are putting your precious home in the hands of a stranger, what would you
think of this painter? Would you trust him? Would he stand out as a professional?

What about a consultant who answers the phone on the third ring instead of the third try; whose clothes
are freshly laundered, his shoes are clean, his hair is combed and his hat is on squarely. His hands and
nails are clean when he shakes your hand and he obviously has good hygiene.

Here is a golden nugget of advice: even if you regularly get dirty on the job (heck, getting dirty is the
job), keep a fresh uniform in your truck. Keep a comb in your pocket and always have some handi-
wipes and deodorant (NOT cologne) nearby. Remember that everyone you meet is a prospective client
and if you don’t shine in that first 10 seconds then you might not get another chance.

Did you know that facial hair could also make an impact? Check out Scott Abbott’s blog, “If You Have
a Beard You are Now Cool” at www.dscottabbott.com

The subject of quality comes up a lot in the painting business. It is a critical aspect for any company
that offers a service but is especially noticeable for painters. When your canvas is as large as a room,
it’s easy to lose quality in the big picture. Even though your canvas is large, the quality itself comes
down to the tiny details in a job, for instance are the edges smooth and together? Is the layering of the
paint even and uniform? If you were the customer would you hire yourself again after seeing this paint
job? Would you recommend yourself and your services to a friend?

Quality isn’t limited to the paint on the walls. Did the crew show up on time? Did they reflect a clean
and professional appearance? Were they courteous and respectful of the customers’ home and time?
These all factor in to the quality equation.

Quality is a habit. If you habitually do your work at a high level, give the customer a pleasant
experience and act in a professional manner then quality is easy to guarantee. Even though it might
mean a little more work for you your customers will notice the difference and you will gain more
business because of it.

Ken Blanchard, noted author of “Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service ,”
wrote “Your customers are only satisfied because their expectations are so low and because no one
else is doing better. Just having satisfied customers isn’t good enough anymore. If you really want a
booming business, you have to create Raving Fans.”

If you want to create raving fans, you have to deliver your service at a quality level not just better than
your competition, but better than any other option available to your customer.

If someone on the street asked you what the number one best way to grow a painting business was, would you know the answer? Would you tell them they need to have the best advertising pieces? The most billboards, banners, or other signage? How about the best newspaper ads? If you said any of the above, you would be forgetting the simplest and easily the best way to grow a painting business (or any business for that matter).

Before I give you the answer to the riddle, think back with me for a minute to the last time you bought a car. How did you choose the dealership? Did you choose the one with the flashiest ads, or the best commercials? It’s possible, but probably not. Maybe you liked the free popcorn or hot dogs they were giving out? Again, possible, but probably not.

Chances are, you chose a dealership that you had a) worked with before or b) someone close to you recommended. If that was the case, how much did the dealership pay for acquiring you as a customer? Nothing. If you’ve heard which dealerships to avoid for the same reason, how much did that cost them? A lot.

The lesson here is simple. What someone else says about you, your work, and your business is 1,000 times more powerful than what you say about it. They can’t trust you. It’s nothing personal; you’re just too close to your business to make an honest recommendation. They want to hear what other people think about you. If people aren’t saying anything about you, that says a lot too.

Oh, and the answer to the question we started with? Get people talking about you!

Painting with my dog, 2004

When I first started this company I was a painter, painting every single day. Then I worked as a foreman, and then managing the business. Each new position held different hats and job responsibilities on a daily basis. The company was started up in Canada, but we had a good company running with several crews while I was living in Las Vegas. I was driving around all day selling and producing jobs just as a franchisee would.

My life changed when we sold the Las Vegas franchise, moved to Utah and I began spending my days sitting behind a desk. It is a completely different mindset. I am no longer meeting with painting customers; my sole purpose now is to spend my time doing whatever I can to help our franchisees with their painting business. It is, in a sense, much more structured than before as I now attend scheduled meetings and sit at my computer or on the phone, but at the same time it is less structured because I am no longer running from place to place to meet appointments. When I first started at the corporate office I would go home every day exhausted from all the brain work. It took me a few months to adjust to such a stark change in my work habits. My new focus became making sure our franchisees are successful, happy, and that we have a good relationship – anything we can do to make sure their businesses thrive.

Now we have another shift. We have expanded our franchise business to include other concepts. We are learning to train others how to be a franchisor in other kinds of businesses like Sub Zero Ice Cream and Five Star Holiday Décor. All the systems and business know-how it takes to be a franchisor need to be written down and duplicated, like it did when we started franchising Five Star Painting. It needs to be teachable through whatever means, be it videos or manuals, meetings or hands-on training. This is an active adjustment we are all making here at Five Star.

As we expand Five Star Franchising by partnering with Five Star Holiday Décor and Sub Zero Ice Cream (among others) we are also continually expanding our core business, Five Star Painting. In fact, Five Star Painting was recently awarded #33 in the Utah 100 which ranks the fastest growing companies. We have a growing number of franchises in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil. Clearly we have not lost focus on Five Star Painting. A benefit to growing, not only with painting but also other franchise concepts, is that we can now afford to hire specialists in things like web design and marketing. We are also continually learning better ways to franchise and are working to develop more effective estimating software. As we learn and grow, we’re able to pass our expanding knowledge and experience on to our franchisees, which will help change, modify streamline their business.

Is your room ugly?

Leg lamps, outdated wood paneling, and faded mint-green hospital colored walls are out of style, and they’re ugly! And if it’s ugly, we want to see it. That’s why Five Star Painting has created the Ugly Room Contest. If you think your room is less than beautiful, then upload a picture of your ugly room to our Facebook contest page, and invite your friends to vote your room as the ugliest. If you have the most votes when the contest ends, Five Star will paint your room for FREE!

That’s right, we will repaint your ugly room for free. What’s more, we’ve partnered with Decorating Den who has generously offered to include a free one-hour design consultation as part of the grand prize. This contest is valid for anyone in the United States and Canada. That’s a lot of ugly rooms to compete with, but don’t worry, we’re awarding many of our runners-up with great discounts on an entire paint job. Winners won’t be chosen until January 3^rd, so you have plenty of time to enter and vote!

Five Star and Decorating Den want all of North America to know that we can turn your ugly, outdated or ordinary room into something you can be proud of. We’re very excited to see the kind of change we can make in your home and to prove that our quality of service can’t be beat.

Although we are all very busy here at Five Star, we know that it is important to reach out to the people who keep us in business by helping out some of our less fortunate or charities in need once in a while. It doesn’t take too much time, but we know it can mean the world to someone. In line with our dedication to service, we have put together a nationwide volunteer event for which several of our franchisees are volunteering their time and efforts to restore and repaint their individual communities.

A Friend's House Lobby before the C.A.R.E.S. Project repaint

Al Pearce of Atlanta, Ga. is working with a non-profit organization called A Friend’s House. This shelter provides a home for abused, neglected and abandoned women and children. It acts as a home for children in custody of the Department of Family and Children Services and is dedicated to meeting the emotional and physical needs of children in crisis. Al plans on painting the foyer, hallway and two visitation rooms for the organization.

King Dominguez of Oakland, Mich. plans to paint the home of 80-year-old Joanne Zpilayak . Her many years of service to her friends and neighbors have left a positive impact on the community.  King feels it’s only fair to give something back to her in return.

The science lab at Beverly Elementary to be repainted

Steve Oransky from the Danvers, Mass. area is taking on two projects: painting the science labs at the local elementary school and working on a restoration of the John Cabot House with the Beverly Historical Society.

Jordan Gross, located right here in our office and covering the Provo/Orem area in Utah, is working directly with Habitat for Humanity. While his project will be covering the span of a few days, he’s still planning on working with volunteers on Saturday as part of the C.A.R.E.S. project.

Check out the LIVE feed from the 2010 Builders Blitz

Across our country, we have many volunteers itching to help out with their neighborhood in any way they can. So far, the response to this project has been no exception. I am really proud of all of our franchisees and our corporate C.A.R.E.S team for working with so much dedication to put these projects together.

Thanks again, everyone!

We’ve been in business for about a decade now and I know that I personally have gained a lot of know-how as far as business operations go. When we began franchising, I figured it would be somewhat simple to predict who would do well and who wouldn’t; I was mistaken. There is really no way to tell; there are so many variables that together alter the likelihood of success significantly. We will sell to any honest, hard-working person that is interested.

There are a lot of people who are attracted to our business because of the support they will receive. They might also like the painting industry but can’t seem to get over a certain hurdle with their current business, or they simply want to take their business to the next level. There are also a lot of people, of course, who are attracted to the common desire to “Be Your Own Boss”. They figure that opening their own business can take care of that want or desire. But among all of the really good reasons to want to open a Five Star Painting business, while being your own boss might be one of them, it’s easy to overlook the fact that the boss figure moves around a little bit – you will always have someone to answer to – they just might not be your titled supervisor.

Once you open your business, every one of your clients will become your boss for the duration of that project. Just like in some jobs, your boss can be great, but in others, he or she may not be easy to get along with. The same goes for your clients: one customer may become a great friend, while with others you just focus on finishing the job to get paid. But all in all, I personally love the freedom to choose which boss I would like to work for, and you can’t do that in the corporate world.

I’m a big proponent of doing your homework before you get involved in pretty much anything. If you don’t understand what you’re getting yourself into, you will have a more difficult time succeeding in that endeavor. Please don’t rely on other’s knowledge; do your own research and come to your own conclusions. A reason that may make someone say ‘yes’ may be the exact reason why you might say ‘no’. Five Star offers a lot of information to its potential franchisees, as do many other franchise concepts out there – please make full use of those resources and that information to its fullest before making any decision. Having one foot in and the other out will make your business falter and most likely fail. We want you to have both feet in and be fired up about your new business… whether you choose Five Star or not!

Happy Painting!

When you apply epoxies or lacquers, make sure to ventilate the area correctly. Having good ventilation will ensure that no one gets sick from the noxious fumes; with it being so hot outside now, that tends to enhance the toxic fumes that paint emits. At all times, even if the ventilation seems sufficient, wear breathing protection. If you need convincing to wear a mask or some other form of protection from paint fumes, according to the Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, inhaling solvents or gases causes hypoxia (lack of oxygen), pneumonia, cardiac failure or arrest and/or aspiration of vomit. If that doesn’t sound pleasant to you, I’d suggest wearing some form of breathing protection.

These products are also very flammable and the summer heat makes the combustible nature of the fumes a foremost consideration. If the area is not well ventilated and the concentration level of vapors is too high in the air, you could risk a fire or an explosion with a simple spark. Some potential igniters include a pilot light, a lighter, a match, electric or gas heaters, or simply a lit cigarette. I personally know of a gym that burned down because someone carelessly left their thinner-soaked rags in garbage bags. These sorts of careless acts are a real danger and could do extensive damage to the property. Lives could be lost if the proper precautions are not met. The best way to solve this is to soak the rags in water in an air-tight metal container. You could also spread the rags out on grass or somewhere outside until they have dried completely.

No matter what, proper ventilation is crucial when dealing with anything flammable, especially when there is fume emission. Even though painting with these sorts of products seems like a pretty simple, straight-forward job, there are things that can go wrong. It’s best to protect yourself in any way possible by doing everything in the safest way possible.

I have worn many hats in the paint service industry. From painter to contractor to co-founder and COO of the international painting service company Five Star Painting, I’ve learned the ins and outs of the painting business. I post my knowledge on a weekly basis in my blogs, but I also share my experience, periodically, with a more specialized audience.

The Painting Contractor is a magazine targeted specifically to the professional paint contractor. My latest and greatest article is a sequel to my previous article on franchising. This newest article focused on answering a few of the questions that potential franchisees ask.

Anyway, here is my article that was recently published:

Q: What questions should I ask the franchisor?

A: The best thing a potential franchisee can do is talk to the current franchisees of the system he or she is investigating. They will give you the goods and will tell you how it is. If there are problems in the system, you will find out from the franchisees, not from the salespeople. The franchise agreement will have all current and past franchisees’ information for the potential franchisee to call. I would encourage you to call as many as you can to get the complete picture.

Another great source that a potential franchisee could use is the Franchise Business Review. It independently interviews franchisees from all industries and rates the franchisor according to what its feedback was. This is a third party doing the research, so the franchisors can’t influence the results. This is a great gut check for us also—it greatly helps our business out as sometimes it uncovers things that we may be falling short on, or it might be that we are excelling at something that we never knew.

Q: What will they expect from me?

A: There have been some painters we have thought would fall on their faces, and then they blow things out of the water. Others we think are going to be superstars, and they trip, fall and can’t get up. We get a good idea of people’s character and motives by the questions they ask during the courting phase. We also get a chance to see them during the discovery day which allows us to meet them, understand their demeanor and see how they interact with other people.

We have also heard from a franchise guru whom we respect greatly, Craig Donaldson (CEO of ChemDry) that “One can’t be too sure who has the right stuff and who doesn’t, so sell to just about any honest, decent, hard-working person and a good system will carry them to success. And if it doesn’t, then there is work to do.” We have tried to live by that rule. If someone fails, we look inward to see where we failed that franchisee and then improve our system so the likelihood of someone failing for those same reasons gets diminished drastically.

Q: How do I stay in good standing?

A: We do have certain expectations or goals that we set with the franchisee, but they are not bound by them. There are a couple of guys in the system who do very little work and are completely comfortable with that. They do the painting themselves and make a very good living. They rely on us for the marketing expertise and the software, but love to paint and have the business as a quasi-retirement. We have others that blow their goals out of the water and have an unquenchable desire to make more and more money, or to be the biggest and best in their areas. They all have different goals for their businesses. We try and help them fulfill those goals, whatever they may be.
We would like to have sales as high as we can—it increases the royalty revenues that we see. Making money is our goal, but to the detriment of our franchisees. We view them as partners and we want them to be happy and successful in their definitions of the word, not ours.

Happy painting!

-published in The Paint Contractor, July 2010

You can check out the article here or subscribe to the magazine on their website: http://www.paintdealer.com/paintcontractor.

For more information about Five Star’s franchising opportunities, check out http://www.fivestarpaintingfranchise.com or give us a call at 866-96-5STAR (866-965-7827).