How I made $3 million (& counting) in the Curb Painting Business (Address Numbers)
-12/6/2015
FREE 13 pg copyrighted Business eManual & 2 flyers (for reflective & regular paint), emailed within hours per instructions on Blog Page!
It seemed to be an ordinary day over the Christmas break in 1985 when I was visiting my parents in Jacksonville, FL, home from college break at the University of Florida in Gainesville. There was a ring from the doorbell and my mother answered to a man & woman who asked if she cared to have her address numbers painted on the curb to help her address be found especially by emergency vehicles being right at the roadside for a donation of $3 to $5.
It was a very reasonable price and since the neighborhood had no roadside mailboxes as they were attached to the houses, for such a nominal cost it provided the benefit of having the address at the roadside with really no alternative, so she agreed thinking how great such an affordable service is.
After the couple pointed out the numbers they had painted next door and the two across the street, all I could think was has much of a slam dunk honest and deserved income they were generating, watching the job taking him only a minute or two so with the four houses including ours how he was making $12 - $20 in about 15 minutes, even counting for the woman's time soliciting while he painted! About a dollar a minute! In 1985 when minimum wage was $3.35/hour!
Even when slow sales times averaged in, $30/hr was easily doable, likely higher. It didn't take long for me to drill the couple for information and found out that they were local Jacksonville University students who also promoted working their way through college as the last line of their brief sales presentation. I decided not to include such in my sales presentation as promoting helping the sales agent out, be it "though college" or "to keep them off the streets & out of trouble" always turns me off and I believe a product or service should sell itself.
For the cost of a can each of black & white paint and cheap paper stencils, I started in Gainesville promoting the service at the same rate, a $3-$5 donation, testing both leaving flyers on doors and simply knocking on doors. I too found that like the couple, by knocking on doors or hanging flyers I was making the $30/hr or more that I had anticipated. I soon got a license and a business name and was doing great. Hanging flyers also allowed to reach almost everyone other than the few that happened to be on vacation, whereas the people weren't at home or didn't answer the knocked were missed opportunities completely.
I then merely did a quick drive through the major streets of neighborhoods and recorded by color highlighting pens which streets had curbs that would be worth contacting, and organized them geographically, listing streets in order next to each other from one end of the neighborhood to the other end to make sure I worked all the streets in many future years. Customers also got used to the flyers and felt much more comfortable purchasing after seeing the same outfit year after year knowing I wasn't a fly by night or new business.
In Feb 2014, while making sales to individual residents in Greater Orlando, a customer told me "I can't believe this - I was just online trying to find someone in the town that paints curb numbers to do for our association!" I told him that I have done so full time for 28 years and have an A+ rating with the BBB and within days I was in Orlando doing the work for the association of over 200 homes!
It was then I realized that I needed an online presence, so in Feb 2014 right after returning from Orlando, I purchased the domain names curbnumbers.com, curbpainting.com and a few others and have definitely not regretted doing so as is clearly visible from the recent group managed property checks at the top of this page which I update with new ones regularly.
I hope you can benefit from my experience and knowledge of being in the business continually full time since 1986, and have made such knowledge available in complete entirety for you below. If you hopefully decide you want to continue in the business long term, and would be interested in being available to contract paint group managed properties in and near your location, FREE 13 pg copyrighted Business eManual & 2 flyers (for reflective & regular paint), emailed within hours per instructions on Blog Page!
Thank you!
-12/6/2015
FREE 13 pg copyrighted Business eManual & 2 flyers (for reflective & regular paint), emailed within hours per instructions on Blog Page!
It seemed to be an ordinary day over the Christmas break in 1985 when I was visiting my parents in Jacksonville, FL, home from college break at the University of Florida in Gainesville. There was a ring from the doorbell and my mother answered to a man & woman who asked if she cared to have her address numbers painted on the curb to help her address be found especially by emergency vehicles being right at the roadside for a donation of $3 to $5.
It was a very reasonable price and since the neighborhood had no roadside mailboxes as they were attached to the houses, for such a nominal cost it provided the benefit of having the address at the roadside with really no alternative, so she agreed thinking how great such an affordable service is.
After the couple pointed out the numbers they had painted next door and the two across the street, all I could think was has much of a slam dunk honest and deserved income they were generating, watching the job taking him only a minute or two so with the four houses including ours how he was making $12 - $20 in about 15 minutes, even counting for the woman's time soliciting while he painted! About a dollar a minute! In 1985 when minimum wage was $3.35/hour!
Even when slow sales times averaged in, $30/hr was easily doable, likely higher. It didn't take long for me to drill the couple for information and found out that they were local Jacksonville University students who also promoted working their way through college as the last line of their brief sales presentation. I decided not to include such in my sales presentation as promoting helping the sales agent out, be it "though college" or "to keep them off the streets & out of trouble" always turns me off and I believe a product or service should sell itself.
For the cost of a can each of black & white paint and cheap paper stencils, I started in Gainesville promoting the service at the same rate, a $3-$5 donation, testing both leaving flyers on doors and simply knocking on doors. I too found that like the couple, by knocking on doors or hanging flyers I was making the $30/hr or more that I had anticipated. I soon got a license and a business name and was doing great. Hanging flyers also allowed to reach almost everyone other than the few that happened to be on vacation, whereas the people weren't at home or didn't answer the knocked were missed opportunities completely.
I then merely did a quick drive through the major streets of neighborhoods and recorded by color highlighting pens which streets had curbs that would be worth contacting, and organized them geographically, listing streets in order next to each other from one end of the neighborhood to the other end to make sure I worked all the streets in many future years. Customers also got used to the flyers and felt much more comfortable purchasing after seeing the same outfit year after year knowing I wasn't a fly by night or new business.
In Feb 2014, while making sales to individual residents in Greater Orlando, a customer told me "I can't believe this - I was just online trying to find someone in the town that paints curb numbers to do for our association!" I told him that I have done so full time for 28 years and have an A+ rating with the BBB and within days I was in Orlando doing the work for the association of over 200 homes!
It was then I realized that I needed an online presence, so in Feb 2014 right after returning from Orlando, I purchased the domain names curbnumbers.com, curbpainting.com and a few others and have definitely not regretted doing so as is clearly visible from the recent group managed property checks at the top of this page which I update with new ones regularly.
I hope you can benefit from my experience and knowledge of being in the business continually full time since 1986, and have made such knowledge available in complete entirety for you below. If you hopefully decide you want to continue in the business long term, and would be interested in being available to contract paint group managed properties in and near your location, FREE 13 pg copyrighted Business eManual & 2 flyers (for reflective & regular paint), emailed within hours per instructions on Blog Page!
Thank you!
Start Curb Painting Business (Address Numbers)
FREE 13 pg copyrighted Business eManual & 2 flyers (for reflective & regular paint), emailed within hours per instructions on Blog Page!
Make money from individual residences & associations like in checks above!
*Best Home Based Business Is Curb Painting Says Report From Shoestring Publishing*
FREE 13 pg copyrighted Business eManual & 2 flyers (for reflective & regular paint), emailed within hours per instructions on Blog Page!
Make money from individual residences & associations like in checks above!
*Best Home Based Business Is Curb Painting Says Report From Shoestring Publishing*
Included in eManual:
b) Save much wasted time in checking flyer responses.
c) Counter low responses to forecast rainy (or snowy) weather.
d) What paint color scheme to advertise for use, and when and if to advertise the use of reflective paint additives to increase profits.
- Which license is vastly preferable and why
- Choosing a Business Name to deter copycats & Organization Type – DBA vs. LLC vs. INC
- The two critical factors in predicting how good the response rate will be
- How to compensate for painting in cold weather conditions
- The critical wording of the flyers to:
b) Save much wasted time in checking flyer responses.
c) Counter low responses to forecast rainy (or snowy) weather.
d) What paint color scheme to advertise for use, and when and if to advertise the use of reflective paint additives to increase profits.
- Dimensions & materials to make or purchase stencils & frame, best types of paint, quickest method to prepare and transport materials to minimize wear and mess, quickest cleanup (5 mins/day to clean stencils), best dress/attire for customer presentation, weather, and wear, and collection methods for best results.
Imagine a time tested home business setting your own hours and spending most of your time getting ideal exercise hanging flyers in the fresh outdoors offering a nominally priced life saving service - often the closest, most unobstructed address identification directly in the path of passing headlights of 911 vehicles and others for the cost of less than a month's home alarm monitoring!
Curb Address Painting Business Success Articles:
"Painting curb numbers path to nursing degree" by the Manteca Bulletin (Manteca, CA) - Jan 1, 2009
"Shoot for the moon. If you miss, shoot for the stars." by Associated Press (AP), Cairo, NB - August 3, 2014
Curb Address Painting Business Failure Articles (The no-no's not to do!!):
"Student Curb Service Real or Scam" by The Next Corner (online publisher) - April 24, 2010
"Address Painters Told to Curb It" by The LA Times - Sept 18, 2000
"Painting curb numbers path to nursing degree" by the Manteca Bulletin (Manteca, CA) - Jan 1, 2009
"Shoot for the moon. If you miss, shoot for the stars." by Associated Press (AP), Cairo, NB - August 3, 2014
Curb Address Painting Business Failure Articles (The no-no's not to do!!):
"Student Curb Service Real or Scam" by The Next Corner (online publisher) - April 24, 2010
"Address Painters Told to Curb It" by The LA Times - Sept 18, 2000