Entering the painting business

How does one break into the interior painting business? How do I know what to charge? 

There are several ways to decide what to charge for any services you provide. One way is to call a contractor and have them give you a bid to paint your house. You can use the information to figure out what he charges per square foot. Another way is consider the time and materials it would take you to paint an average wall, inside and out. Figure your materials, for instance a 8 foot high wall by 10 feet long is 80 square feet. A gallon of paint will cover roughly 300 to 400 square feet, so even if you put on two coats, it will take less than a gallon to paint the wall. A gallon of good paint might cost $30. Now think about your tools, a roller and sleeve, a brush, rags, drop cloth, tape, etc, maybe another $30 to $50. Next you will need to consider your time. It might take you 1.5 hours to paint the wall, depending on how good you are. By the time you cut in the ceiling and corners, 1.5 hours can easily elapse. What are you worth an hour as a painter? Are you very good at painting and your jobs always look professional or are you good, but not perfect? Would you pay someone of your ability $25 per hour? $35? Whatever you come up with, add the total hours, say 1.5 hours times $25 equals $37.50, plus the paint at $30, plus the other materials for a total of $97.50 for the one wall. Now look at this from a couple different perspectives. The wall is 80 square feet. Divide the square footage by the amount. 80 divided by 97.50 equals $1.22 a square foot. So, for example, if a house has 10 rooms, each room is going to be around (for this example) 400 square feet of paintable space. That’s four walls and a ceiling. 400 square feet per room times 10 rooms equals 4000 square feet of paintable space. Multiply that times your price per square foot, $1.22 and that equals $4880. That seems like a lot, however, the example house is a bit big. After you have considered the proposal a contractor gives you to paint your house and after thinking about what you are worth and what materials are going to cost you, then you will have an idea as to what you should charge for your services. There is no tried and true method for pricing. You need to get your name out there and get some projects under your belt and take the good with the bad, lose money on one job and make a killing on another, to learn and appreciate the finacial side of owning your own business.

And feel the enormous sense of accomplishment for a job well done and those people who truly appreciate your hard work.

I hope this helps…..