How To Navigate Covid-19 As a Painting Contractor

It’s safe to say that this pandemic has been difficult for everyone to handle, no matter who you are. Unfortunately, the effects have extended far past health as the Coronavirus has required certain social measures to try and prevent the constant spread of the virus. Small businesses have really felt the impact of this virus in ways few thought possible, and it’s forced many businesses to adapt or shutdown.

Fortunately, the last 5 months have actually proved to be rather profitable for my painting and pressure cleaning business, Picazzo Painting and Pressure Washing. I’m going to cover the three aspects of business that we’ve had to evolve in, how we did it, and how we can approach the future to make sure our businesses keep on rocking. 

Painting Operations

The most obvious part of our businesses that’s going to have to change are the operations. The most basic thing to keep in mind during these times is that safety and distance is the absolute top priority. With that being said, there are a couple of standard practices that you and your business can implement to make sure you’re operating safely:

1. Reduce the size of painting crews to make sure the painters have sufficient space to work on the same project without being in close proximity to one another. 
2. Make sure you’re wearing a mask whenever necessary. 
   1. Keep a mask on indoors
   2. Always wear a mask when communicating with someone in person, especially the customer. 
3. Practice heightened levels of personal hygiene to make sure that the virus doesn’t spread through contact or surfaces. 
   1. Keep hand sanitizer on hand 
   2. Watch how you interact with your mask when you take it off and don’t touch your eyes, mouth, or nose after taking off the mask. 

Those couple of tips are pretty standard and should help you not only operate in a way that is safe for workers and customers, but it will give customers much more confidence when dealing with you. The last thing you want to do right now is make it seem like you’re operating carelessly. Not only is it dangerous, but clients could even become hesitant to work with you. 

Client Acquisition

For many of us, we’ve seen that more and more clients are hesitant to consider painting work right now. Not only is the average person concerned about their health, but they’re also worried about what their finances could look like in near future. These concerns push painting your house further away from being an immediate priority. 

Thankfully, there are still plenty of people that are going to strongly consider getting their houses painted. As far as referrals are concerned, make sure you’re nurturing any and all leads that have come in from referrals in the last couple of weeks and ensure customers that you’re operating safely. 

When it comes to acquiring new customers, there hasn’t been a better time in recent history to jump into digital marketing. Platforms like Facebook and Google have seen their costs go down because more and more companies are pulling out of advertising. If your company has the cash flow to weather the storm and jump into advertising, this could be a golden opportunity. 

However, if paid advertising is not something you can consider right now then consider working on your organic channels. Invest time into your social media platforms and start to create a healthy amount of content that can help as things start to pick back up. Call old customers and ask if they could leave you a review on your Google My Business, etc. 

All in all, try to come up with ways to take advantage of what you’ve already built. These slow times are great for doing some housekeeping and tackling tasks you haven’t had a chance to do yet. 

Anthony Lara

Director of marketing for Picazzo Painting and Pressure Cleaning in Miami, Florida. He has worked with dozens of contractors around the United States to help them scale their businesses with digital marketing. He’s also the co-founder of a contractor marketing agency in Miami. Overall, Anthony has experience with all aspects of Digital Marketing and specializes in helping contractors scale their businesses.