Summer time really is easy for a painting business. Jobs are all over, competition is slow or nonexistent. Days are long, and the living is easy.

A lot of painting companies will be crying when the summer is over.

After the seasonal madness of the holidays has passed and everyone is recovering from spending all that money, painting jobs become scarce. And when a job comes up, and the owner calls 8 painters, it is like a feeding frenzy. And the fish are biting each other to get a shot at that job, because they are starving. What painters do, is to keep reducing their prices until the lowest one that the owner trusts gets the job, or the owner takes the lowest price to the higher priced painter that they trust and like more than the low ball painter, and uses that low price to beat up the higher priced painter, who they want, but see that low price from the starving painter.

How do you avoid that? How can you not get caught up in that “feeding frenzy”? It is impossible to avoid it, unless…

You start planning now.

Start marketing right now for the winter months. Oh, sure it sounds crazy. Crazy like a fox. You will need this time because you still need to provide for today and the upcoming holidayslike it.

Start scheduling now. Take all the exteriors and try to schedule now of course, and try to get your interiors to schedule after the holidays. How do you do that? After you sign their contract, tell them you will offer them 10% right off the top if they can wait until after the holidays. Taking 10% off the top, you say, I can get it now full price. When January and February roll in, you would be happy to take that job for ONLY 10% off. When the feeding frenzy arrives you would be happy to take that paint job with only 20% off. Because it really is a frenzy with all the painters in the same position as their clients, that is broke after the holidays.

You will avoid the frenzy by quoting or not. But it is funny how having work “in the bank” gives you the confidence to be immune to the frenzy. Sometimes that confidence may get you the job in the frenzy; because you are the only cool looking painter in the bunch.