"Getting Out of The Bucket"

    O.J. Simpson saved my life. Well, sort of. After O.J. killed Nicole, I became fascinated with the case. It became my way "out of the bucket". I had been running a small painting company for about fifteen years. Looking back I was really just working for myself and earning some of my helps pay at the same time. Then came the trial. I didn't want to miss a minute of it. I wasn't sure how I was going to manage that though. We had just bought our first house and the mortgage was almost twice as much as the rent we were used to paying. How could I afford to pay a new mortgage, bills, etc. and only work till 11:30 AM everyday? To top that we were about to start one of our biggest contracts ever. It was 170 carports on an air force base with a completion time limit and inspections to pass.

    I decided that what I'd do is go in every morning and work as hard as I could for 4 -4 1/2 hrs. Then give the guys instructions for the rest of the day. Well, the morning went great. The afternoon was a disaster. Nothing got done when I wasn't there. I had to think quick. I had to find a way to get jobs done on time, pass inspections, make money, and not have to be on the jobs myself. I knew how long it took to paint one of those carports. I had estimated them. On top of that I had painted a few myself. I knew what I had in each carport for labor. I decided to go for it. The next day I showed up first thing in the morning. I had four guys at that time. I told them, "O.K. guys, things have changed and so has the way I'm going to pay you. You guys get X dollars for each one of these carports that you each paint and passes inspection". Instantly, the four guys that I was paying 15.00 per hour were all of the sudden earning 20.00 or more per hour. Needless to say they beat the deadline and inspections too. I saw every minute of that trial. O.J.'s guilty. Duh!

    We've never looked back. That was our last government job. We did 1 more new giant custom home. Everything else has been residential re-paints. Referrals are up. Customer satisfaction is up. Employee loyalty is up. My income has tripled. I work 20 hours per week. I'm not trying to brag here. I just want people to know that it's not as hard as you may have thought or have heard. It's not as easy as a walk in the park, but it's not as hard as brain surgery either.

    It happened to me pretty much by accident, but if that is your goal, to get "out of the bucket" and make lots more money than when you were in it, then it might not be as far off as you think. These days there is plenty of help to help you get there.

    I've known lots of paint contractors through the years that planned on getting "out of the bucket" in the beginning but they never really got there. They were close but didn't know it. They were scared to change. Afraid to take a different path. It can be done. It happened to me overnight and I'm no rocket scientist. I just took a different route than I had been taking for 15 years. You can too. Think different!

Good Luck, Paul Burns

All articles appearing on this site are copyrighted by the Painters Chat Room. Permission to reproduce any portion of this site including submitted articles must be obtained by e-mailing us at administration@painterschatroom.com. (c) 2000

Archives of Tricks of the Trade.