Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 3,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their painting businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a painting business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.
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A business plan provides a snapshot of your painting business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes market research to support your plans.
If you’re looking to start a painting business, or grow your existing painting business, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your painting business in order to improve your chances of success. Your painting business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.
With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a painting business are personal savings, credit cards, bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable, but they will also want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.
Personal savings is the other most common form of funding for a painting business. Venture capitalists will usually not fund a painting business. They might consider funding a painting business with a national presence, but never an individual location. This is because most venture capitalists are looking for millions of dollars in return when they make an investment, and an individual location could never achieve such results. With that said, personal savings and bank loans are the most common funding paths for painting businesses.
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If you’d like to quickly and easily complete your business plan, download Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template and complete your plan and financial model in hours.
If you want to start a painting business or expand your current one, you need a business plan. Below are links to each section of your painting business plan template:
Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key section of your plan.
The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of painting business you are operating and the status. For example, are you a startup, do you have a painting business that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of painting businesses?
Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the painting industry. Discuss the type of painting business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target customers. Provide a snapshot of your marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.
In your company analysis, you will detail the type of painting business you are operating.
For example, you might operate one of the following types of painting businesses:
In addition to explaining the type of painting business you will operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.
Include answers to question such as:
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In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the painting industry.
While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.
First, researching the painting industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.
Secondly, market research can improve your strategy, particularly if your research identifies market trends.
The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.
The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your painting business plan:
The customer analysis section of your painting business plan must detail the customers you serve and/or expect to serve.
The following are examples of customer segments: homeowners, homeowner associations, apartment complexes, small business owners.
As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of painting business you operate. Clearly, homeowners would respond to different marketing promotions than a small business, for example.
Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, include a discussion of the ages, genders, locations and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Because most painting businesses primarily serve customers living in their same city or town, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.
Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers.
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Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.
Direct competitors are other painting businesses.
Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from that aren’t direct competitors. This includes handyman services and construction companies. You need to mention such competition as well.
With regards to direct competition, you want to describe the other painting businesses with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be painting businesses located very close to your location.
For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:
With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to ask your competitors’ customers what they like most and least about them.
The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:
Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.
Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a painting business plan, your marketing plan should include the following:
Product: In the product section, you should reiterate the type of painting company that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products you will be offering. For example, in addition to painting, will you provide plastering, handyman services or sell paint products?
Price: Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections of your marketing plan, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.
Place: Place refers to the location of your painting company. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success. For example, is your painting business located in a busy retail district, shopping plaza, mall, etc. Discuss how your location might be the ideal location for your customers.
Promotions: The final part of your painting marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your location(s). The following are some promotional methods you might consider:
Finish Your Business Plan Today!
If you’d like to quickly and easily complete your business plan, download Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template and complete your plan and financial model in hours.
While the earlier sections of your business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.
Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your painting business, including sales, customer service and painting.
Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to complete your 10 th apartment complex, or when you hope to reach $X in revenue. It could also be when you expect to expand your painting business to a new city.
To demonstrate your painting business’ ability to succeed, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company.
Ideally you and/or your team members have direct experience in managing painting businesses. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.
If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act like mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in managing renovations or successfully running small businesses.
Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statements.
Income Statement: an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.
In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you paint one home per week or three per week? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.
Balance Sheets: Balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. While balance sheets can include much information, try to simplify them to the key items you need to know about. For instance, if you spend $50,000 on building out your painting business, this will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $50,000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.
Cash Flow Statement: Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt.
In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key costs needed in starting or growing a painting business:
Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your office location lease or a floorplan of apartment complexes or commercial buildings you are working on.
Putting together a business plan for your painting business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the painting industry, your competition, and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful painting business.
Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your Painting business plan?
With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!
Click here to finish your Painting business plan today.
Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.
Click here to see how Growthink’s professional business plan consulting services can create your business plan for you.
