Diversification.

I am real honored to be attempting to fulfill this role in being able to make biweekly entries on this totally awesome web site and I hope that I can also bring something to you folks.

I kind of feel like a novice at this because I just created an established painting business April of 99'. But the one thing that I cannot stress enough, is that I love everything about what I do when it comes to laying the paint. I really enjoy seeing folks' eyes light up when we take a room with that 'wild antique-white' and really jazz it up with a really dark, provocative color. The amazement that rolls through the room is quite unique.

Anyway, throughout the course of doing business last year, I knew that once the North Dakota winter rolled around, the volume of jobs would decline dramatically and I might be finding myself with too much time on my hands. Well, I was right about that. My exterior jobs dropped off dramatically about the end of October and as time drew me closer to the holidays, so did my interior jobs.

Many of you are probably wondering, "Where the heck is this going?" Good question, I've often wondered where I've wanted my business to go. And the one place I KNOW that I do not want it to go, is south (not geographically). With that break in the action, which lasted for about 3 weeks, I thought I should use my time wisely and think of some new ways to get the word out. I know & my previous customers know that my work is beautiful beyond words, but I thought, "There has to be another way to reach many, many more people."

Diversification. Bottom line in my mind. I'm a one-man operation and that's the way I want things to be until I become a 100% master at what I do. I do everything & anything that remotely comes close to having anything to do with painting. I also do drywall repair, texturing & faux finishing. All of these are great ways to move the business into the outer limits, but in order to get the ball rolling, I had to find avenues to do so.

Do any of you folks know if the town you reside in, has some type of welcome-ing service (private)? I have always wanted to get in contact with them, but never had the time or just didn't like the thought of having to pay to get the word out. At any rate, my brush was dry, the tax-man was hungry and I was getting thin so I decided to give them a call. That was the best thing I have ever done. What these folks do is put a binder of specials, from various merchants, together into a binder and then distribute these binders to all newcomers to the area. And the cost to the merchant is a mere $1 per resident! I couldn't believe it! I can't even buy a 20 oz bottle of soda for that amount! I just put my letterhead together and submitted it, but I'll keep you folks posted on the results of that.

Examples. Now, I know that this may not be news to any of you veterans, but I'm going to toss it out anyway because this HAS & IS working for me. I visited my local team of home interior decorators and discussed with them what I did & what I could do for them and we worked out a system where they have been responsible for about 60-70% of all my jobs! When I found this 'void' in my schedule, I asked if they would like some samples of my work, to which they said "yes". I thought of my before & after photos, but then I thought, "Why eat hot dogs, when you can eat steak?!"

So I went to my local lumber yard and purchased a few sheets of sheetrock, chopped them up into equal sections and went nuts! My house has been & still is a faux-finishing convention center! My friends don't dare show up anymore because some are afraid that I'll ask them to get involved and the others just think I'm completely insane and would be better off just being left alone! At any rate, the friends will return, but this fire inside me may not. I have urethane, glaze, paint, joint compound from head to toe, but you know what? I have a lot of really great, trendy & lucrative ideas on some little pieces of rock that are ready to be put on display so that I can get back to work, back where I belong!

I doubt that these will come as a huge surprise to many of you, but I would just like to add that if it has worked for me, then it would have to work for you. If you're already doing this or have did it in the past and it's working for you then let's just smile about it together. If you have did it and it hasn't brought the results you would have liked it to, then try changing it up a bit. Try that one finish that you thought no one would like or else, try that finish that looked too difficult or that didn't appeal to you. It's not rocket-science and probably never will be, but the neat thing about it is that it is very subjective and that's what makes it totally dynamic! We, as painters, are not spinning nuts onto bolts, so we need to take advantage of that. Try new things, explore a little bit, take a chance, hell, try something that you would have never even thought of a couple years ago!

Like many of us (I'm sure) have said before, "If it doesn't turn out the way you want it to, just paint over it!"

Thank you all for your time.

Very sincerely,

Dave Larson

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