🔴 How To Write A Successful Painting Estimate LIVE

oh well we're live we're live yay welcome thanks for being with us here we go yeah um tonight tonight's topic is how to write or how to write a quality estimate yeah we're gonna give you some tips and tricks on three tips writing a professional quality painting estimate and I mean this kind of wood will go for you know kind of broad for not just painters it could this is information that can be used for any business any business especially any construction business even if you're you know a carpenter like DFW crowns or if you're a framer yeah yeah I mean and the thing is is we started Chris started a small painting business 15 years ago and this is how we've done it so all we can do is share our experience and what's worked for us and I think anybody can tweak it and make it their own because you do sell the big packets yep and we are going to be giving away when live tonight three hundred dollar value so stay with us because we're gonna be giving away that tonight um yep one of my big packets right here it's a 20-page document now it's got 20 pages in that thing when I write a bit just for a one-bedroom that goes out you know for a one-bedroom bed so we're gonna be giving away one of those to somebody tonight we're getting gonna be giving away some talk applicators is good they company sent me a whole case of them again I'm gonna be giving away eight of them tonight kind of cool so we have a time we're gonna begin way a Titan um there are 88 tip one of a che tips so right there don't give away that we have to give away I've got to give away a hide mud gun ice I test that thing out it actually works kind of cool and kinda takes a little bit of getting used to just getting that right yo trigger pull and stuff and squeeze it on there so are you talking about and just you know see we are here to equip empower and educate we want to be a source that can help you thank you so much Lance as well art and Andrew thank you you're helping me with my postage I really really appreciate yeah thank you so much yeah thank you very much we had two people that already super chatted us a hand Ruth's love a sec and Lance is all it says wall Lance's wall art so Lance II was on wasn't he on Facebook and Instagram and he's going to be moving to Texas so it might be really helpful so stay with us because you have a chance to win so what about this weekend did we tell me how was your week been yeah um yeah so I we painted all week no but Saturday yeah so the week ended so yeah I always go to my I don't miss my kids sporting event so my daughter plays rugby for Idaho State and in Pocatello Idaho so we were I was all excited it's 250 mile drive 250 mile drive that's all excited to go watch a play and we got up early in the morning to drive in there and I texted her boyfriend Gabriel and said 150 miles into the trip 150 miles into the trip I said alright yeah I got a text from McKenna saying the other team's not even here at 10 o'clock and I'm like what's not even till 1 o'clock so why is she saying that because they now don't get there till like an hour before yeah and like that's weird and I'm like something's up so I texted Gabriel what time the game was and he said we thought it was at 1 and we typically will get there a half hour before and he said it started at 11 and so that wasn't good no it wasn't good he wasn't happy but I think what we learned is when life gives you lemons you make lemonade and we actually ended up well we turned around we didn't drive next 100 miles and we ended up going to Bruno's sand dunes yep and so maybe on some of your intros you'll be able to show them that because Idaho does not have an ocean but we have a peach so yeah and then we ended up going to Shoshone and there's a huge water tower and Shoshone we've been asked to bid it and so we went there and it was kind of cool and we drove up to it and this thing is gigantic got it it's got to be like a hundred feet high it was huge and I'm like you know I'm looking at it just going now I wonder what you know the condition I was in yeah I threw some numbers out and we drove off started heading to Bruno sand dunes and on the way there we got quite a ways away we're like oh my gosh I have my drone we should have flew the drone up next to it so that was 20 miles yeah just that we've turned around drove back and got the drone out flew the drone all around that thing right up next to it and now I can see exactly what it looks like the condition that's in and I put it on Instagram and you yep and and there's getting a lot of a lot of comments on Instagram and how cuz I asked people to help me bid the thing really really thank you for that we drove over 400 miles and it was a lot of driving but we ended up having a great day so I think in life you have to learn to be flexible yep but also one more thing for me today I went with our baby she's 17 and graduated from high school visitor in December and I went and watched her get her senior pictures taken oh so cool her daughter so this is the last one so cool I guess we're aging ourselves yeah well she's gonna be moving out so you bought this in the mail and you got excited about opening it yeah I saw it open it oh yeah so people send me t-shirts which is kind of cool yeah we got last one right there oh yeah Hawaii we have Texas we have the UK and I where's he from brothers painting as long as the fireman yeah I can remember raised oh you're with us tell us some cool marketing stuff hair on a pad of paper it's kind of cool so they sent me powder paper you've opened up the Carter's cut Clark they're kind of cool here's the t-shirt some promotional stuff kind of cool some of the promote this is really cool just a business card check that out it's in the shape of the paint can priority painting that's really cool and just for marketing your business two cards very professional awesome and that man I'm not sure that must that's either a sticker or a magnet so kind of cool sure priority pain check that out thank you really cool um here's the front of it jay-j yeah I already painting right there kind of cool size large I wear a medium if you guys gonna send me shirts and you want me to wear them yeah they'll rotate on the wall but they're gonna go on the wall and and then even a medium is smaller so doesn't take as much space on my wall so even a small medium so the topic tonight is about let's get started here estimating have you ever done a bad estimation like I haven't ever screwed up an estimate yes have you so yeah you know um estimate is not you know it's not easy to do it's not hard to do either but you know uh there was one time I wrote an estimate and this is crazy because I do we're so busy sometimes just it's overwhelming how many estimates estimates we got and I work with the guys Rob's out painting with you can see you got peanut my hands that's like six thousand square foot house is just ridiculously big is so huge and and then I got to go afterwards and start writing estimates and yeah this was a while ago but um yeah and sometimes I'm just in a hurry and I don't even get out and walk the houses I just drive right by and I tell this house it's a single-story stucco it was fairly new I'm like oh the piece of cake now we just looked at it grove wrote an estimate and they accepted the bid and they liked our bid package the bid package that I have it when I used to meet with customers oh it's you know when it's probably 70 80 percent of our bids but what's the signal yeah okay but long story short you know we got the bid accepted showed up to do the house and start painting and/or power washing it first and walked around and it was three stories in the back so it was what I didn't see is that the property it was flat and then it dropped off you know down this ravine and it was three stories and there was part of the house that it was just incredibly difficult to reach how to have a 30-foot ladder unbelievable so yeah that was you know mess up so and I've done that a few times and if you do it more times than not then you're not gonna be successful yeah business yeah so luckily it doesn't happen very often and we didn't lose I mean we didn't even come close to losing money on the job we just didn't make as much money as we thought yeah so why don't you tell us one of your worst blenders when it came for an estimate we want to hear because yeah yeah if you have any that we're not alone yeah if you have any uh you know tips or tricks you know writing a service and stuff let us know the feed was it going outs going no no it was like stock for a second so I don't know if John yeah John he's on yeah I'm just so John John's not here behind us he's at home taking care of kids so he's on here to answer your questions so if you have any questions definitely ask we won't be answering them but he will yeah I can't type and and do this whole life show it doesn't work too well so you have some giveaways on Facebook I see you know yeah um Pete we're giving away I finally got it all entered the tighten caps for a 115 it's about a fifteen hundred dollar sprayer Wow it's available now on my website to enter to win it and it's you can enter on Facebook there's a tab over on the left and I'm giving away the Titan cap spray I'm giving away a Titan Maxim elite gun that's a $300 gun and then we're giving away a I don't have it with me a pro powernail Brad nail or super nice nail gun things awesome those are three giveaways on the on my website now or it's available on Facebook we will keep you get asked me on Facebook I keep getting these questions when's the spray are gonna be given away so go on there it's available to be given away so you know we're talking about tips for estimating and the first thing was is kind of at the very beginning of starting out right what does that mean yeah you know it's starting a business out right and on the right foot is is part of going into writing a good estimate and you know I wrote down some of our note I mean you want to have you want to have insurance you need to be insured and and this all this stuff goes in your bid package and you want to be insured you want to be licensed now you know in some states it's required to be licensed or you can't even be a painter so in California I know you have you can't go out and pay unless you have a license here in ID oh it's there is there is no license for painting thing but I have I wouldn't apply because this is you don't have to do anything but just fill out some paperwork and pay some money it's a it's like a contractor registration it's a state it's a state license I forget what it's called it's on knock on door yes right that that's a different one but well that it's it's a it's license and to be able to do you got to have that license to write state jobs all right bids and estimates for state jobs which I never even died in any of them government but it's it's a license and I pay seventy five dollars a year for that license and it really doesn't even mean anything but it's just it's another thing to add to your bid packet to keep to you know build your bet brand to build customer confidence and to just legitimize your company and so try to find out any licenses that are available that you can that you can apply for and just you know pay the money to have them what in whether it's it's very important if it's $75 $75 it's very important that a customer just sees that piece of paper as part of your bid package that you're licensed even though I never had to do anything but there is some checks and balances with that because if you do something wrong the people can go to the state and report you and so there there is legitimacy in having those yeah that's the up here you have to be a registered contractor to pain you pay this dumb $25 fee yeah and to be and it does nothing but it gives the customers if they have a complaint about a contractor they go to this board and then the board will come to you and then they can revoke that thing but you know you can still paint without it but I'm so and look for that look for accreditations and that any accreditation that you can be a part of to add to your bid packet all these things are gonna go into your bid packet and be part of your your ass estimate that your hand to somebody so your website that's another thing you know you you got to have a website I think it's the there isn't a question of yo should you or shouldn't you it's an absolute must they have a website one thing if you don't you're missing out on a lot of potential estimates we get a lot you you get a lot of requests me I do I do and I think that one thing too is last week you shared a tip about you know website scan your computer person and so it wasn't intimidating to you but for most people it is and it's very costly but fiber you told people about that is a great tip that is I mean you can get a website built for inexpensive yeah yeah and um there's so many crazy things online that it's it's very cheap - yeah but yeah if you go look at you just said website you know being built inexpensive on Fiverr go look at my website the Idaho cyclist com they had no cyclists that website I paid $150 on Fiverr for a guy to create that national yeah it's like a great I mean it's it's basic but it's really I mean it's yeah but all you need is a painting company just really three pages you know like one that's your your homepage and then one page that's your services and then another page that's to request and ask the man yeah you got to do it and then it's really important you should pay somebody to do your SEO search engine optimization otherwise nobody's ever gonna find your website I do it all myself you've got a lot of college education in computer software web development yeah I just got you know a college degree got computer licenses and stuff and stuff in doing that but so you know get a website that's an absolute must and it goes in your package I I mean I got a page in my bid packet that is my website and anything you know people that the customer sees the overall picture they're gonna see because they I required 50% down we really have fifty percent positive a week before we ever touch their house and that could be five thousand dollars fifty percent down and so they have to trust you they're gonna give your money and you're gonna show up and all these things are how legit amazing my business building customer confidence they're like well I mean he's probably not gonna run away with our money he's got um he's got a website he's got he's licensed he's registered he's a member of the Better Business Bureau and the Better Business Bureau we've been a member of the business Better Business Bureau for maybe 12 years and or more one time we got an A+ rating and you know you got to keep that rating a plus always it's not a not a good thing to be a member of if you've got a bad rating but the the the Better Business Bureau uh I really have a hard time with the organization because man they we used to pay just a couple hundred dollars and now they're absolutely just gouging us me advertising I'm they do a little bit for you but they want you to pay so we haven't used it to its fulfillment but it's showing these people have been here there we can trust them if there's a problem they'll be back because they have everything at stake and when it comes to um being a member of the Better Business Bureau here's another thing yeah I don't know how much how much does it cost - yeah you should be $325 but now I think it's almost a thousand dollars in they do if you go look at the analytics the Better Business Bureau there's quite a few people that go on search the Better Business Bureau for contractors and they give you these detailed analytics and there's quite a few people that go look at us look at our profile and then call us from there you can see how many people click how many people call you and we do get on several jobs a year and we get at least one usually two to three or even more and one job will pay for the membership to the better there's disparate so you have to look at it like that you're gonna get at least one job by being a member of the Better Business Bureaus so men just pay the money just pay the fees go ahead oh so I was just saying like the we're talking about estimating but this is the very beginning when you're starting that you need to do all these things to start building your business because it this is this is part of your your bid packet and that's why there's 20 pages to this document in you know the twenty pages has you um you know for instance here's on the street there's a copy of one of my licenses I've got multiple licenses and stuff like that so that's in the bit packet and so a customer can see that and so you know and I think it's it's really important this is one of the biggest mistakes I think you know contractors in general make and painters make is they some of them just give you a verbal estimate some of them write an estimate I've seen estimates just on one page I've seen in kind of like they're those on carbon copies and they'll just be one page carbon copy I've seen just handwritten things just like a handwritten piece of paper like that or so or somebody will create like an estimate and just it's this one page photocopy and they just take a piece of paper they fill it out and hand it to the person right there and you know that's one way to write an estimate but to me if you really want to win you know a lot of beds and when you're 70 80 even more on percent of the bids that you write you gotta have a professional bit packet that is what sells you're the customer because they another thing is they haven't even seen your work and so you know how do they know you're gonna make a painter but for you on your website you show pictures of house I do you have addresses and so that is all building your profile like this is the address you can drive by and look at the house we painted it five years ago we paint ten years ago and so but if you but the tip one was just getting the business started yeah and this I mean this if you if you write this amazing big packet right here I hand it to the customer a lot of people are gonna look at that and go is that representative of his work he's gonna do it probably is and they're just like if that's the type of paint job he's gonna do I'm gonna hire this guy so Kentico numbers peak concurrent is I think that's the highest that when the highest I've ever seen it kind of go along so so why don't we do a giveaway yeah why don't you do the tape oh you're gonna do it tonight we're gonna do two giveaways a little bit different kind of exciting a little bit easier way than just rammed what us you know having to force the pick a name and stuff cause it always makes it a little uncomfortable because there's so many people that support us on the air and stuff and we want to be a little bit more fair but I'm gonna give away a tip I wrote a number on the back back of this tip between 1 and 50 the first person that guesses this number is gonna be the winner so just you got to just put it in the comments below right there and and start guess and watch watch the feedly said and with the first time you see somebody guess that number 150 so just type in a number with your name and if you type the right number welcome to humble wait if you type the right number good job Andrew not there who was it weird little is offend somebody else guesses Joshua Hagin just guessed it oh my gosh that was crazy Esther so email us your address I think I've mailed you stuff before my email on your address that was kind of fun we have more giveaways that'll be fun there was um where we're supposed to do something else but um we talked about we'll go um we'll forget it right now oh sorry no no that's right that's right because I didn't want you to say the number right the bath oh yes it rocked about that's right okay I'm…