Fix It and keep it

In these tough economic times with downsizing's and lay-offs sometimes you are better off starting your own business instead of being at the mercy of an employer. Starting a house painting business can be one of the easiest businesses to start due to the low cost of supplies needed to get it started. Getting started in a painting business can be eased into if you just do it on weekends to make extra money, at first, and then eventually move into doing it full time.

One business that requires very little to start is a house painting business. Starting a house painting business in your area would require you to go to your local business licensing division and get the necessary permits and licenses for you to operate your painting business legally.

Starting a painting business requires very little in the way of start-up capital. Most likely you will need:

1) Paint brushes, from one inch to three inches wide and all sizes in between.
2) An airless paint sprayer
3) A vehicle that you don’t mind getting paint on
4) A business name
5) Letterhead for estimates
6) Color swatches – Sherwin Williams has a really large one with hundreds of colors
7) Business cards


Starting a painting business is a semi-recession proof business because people will rather hire someone to re-paint the indoors of their house to freshen it up than have to move. A re-paint job is much more cost-effective to the cash-strapped homeowner. If the homeowner is fixing his house up to sell a new paint job on the indoors of the house will improve the homes value and make it smell fresh to prospective buyers.

When painting the indoors of a residence you should know the type of paints typically used indoors. First a flat paint is usually used on the ceilings and walls. Don’t make a mistake and put semi-gloss on either it will look real bad. Also, indoor house painting requires that you have tarps and plastic blankets to cover the floors and furniture.

For outdoor house painting you don’t need to be as careful about the floors but you will need to cover concrete driveways and patios. Also, outdoor house painting brings with it some other challenges in the form of insects, such as bees and spiders, etc. When you start your house painting business and prepare to do any outdoor painting remember to pack insecticide to keep the insects at bay.

If you decide that starting a painting business is for you start by doing your research at Home Depot where they have painting classes to help you get started, also check out Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore stores for assistance. They often have business supplies and advice to help you make the right choice in paint and materials and help you with business tools to grow your business.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009 at 7:46 pm and is filed under Home Owner. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.