How to Write a Painting Company Business Plan [+ Template!]

What Is a Painting Business Plan and Why Is It Important?

A business plan showcases the setup of your painting business as it currently stands, the projected growth plan for the next five years, and your strategy or “roadmap” for reaching those goals.

It consists of vital information to either start a new painting business or grow and develop an existing one.

A well-thought-out, structured business plan can help you source and raise funding (if needed), identify areas where you need to focus, and strategically plan how your business will grow.

It’s important to note that a business plan isn’t a once-and-done job but a ‘living’ document that the business owner should update annually.

In short, a painting business plan will help you improve your chances of success.

How to Write a Business Plan for a Painting Company

Crafting your own business plan can be daunting if you don’t know where to start. But don’t fret—we’ve compiled a step-by-step guide to the sections all good business plans should include. 

We’ve even created a downloadable business plan template for you. It’s at the end of the article.

But first things first—let’s get acquainted with the sections.

Executive summary

The first section you should include in your business plan is a concise but compelling executive summary. This should include:

• Business overview: A brief introduction to your business—its purpose and objectives. Be specific, state the goals clearly, and outline what you aim to accomplish. 

• Target market analysis: Establish your target market segments and describe them here. Ensure you include the key demographics, psychographics, and any relevant trends in the market. Explain how your services will meet your market’s needs.

• Unique selling proposition (USP): Explain what differentiates your painting services from your competitors. If you specialize in any way (such as residential, interior, exterior, commercial, or specialty coatings), mention that here.

• Financial projections: Summarize your revenue forecasts, expenses, and profit margins. Note milestones and growth projections and include funding requirements if applicable.

Company description

In this section, the goal is to ensure stakeholders (investors, customers, suppliers, and employees) understand the ins and outs of your painting business and what it offers. Be sure to include the following:

• Business name and legal structure: Clearly state your business name and its structure—is it a sole proprietorship, partnership, or limited liability company (LLC)?

• Mission statement: This is a summary of your mission, i.e., the purpose of your business and the value you aim to bring to customers. Highlight your vision and values here, too.

• History: Briefly describe any significant milestones, achievements, and key events that shaped the development of your business.

• Services: What services do you offer? What are their unique benefits, and how do they address your potential customers’ needs and pain points?

• Target market: We touched on this in the executive summary, but you can go into more detail here. Highlight the different segments your company serves, and be sure to include any specific industries or niches.

• Expertise: What are your main competencies and skills? How do they contribute to your business's success?

• Location: Include physical locations, like your headquarters, offices, and branches.

• Team members: Introduce yourself and key members of your management team. Include their qualifications and what their day-to-day role is within your organization.

Market analysis

Conducting a thorough analysis of your target market is crucial if you want to understand the painting industry landscape in your area, the demographics, and any competitors.

Having in-depth knowledge of this information will enable you to plan your marketing strategies better and tailor them to the different niches and demographics.

Once you’ve completed your market research, include your findings in your business plan. Some of the essential elements to include in this section are:

• Painting industry insights and market trends and how your business will approach them.

• Customer preferences.

• Market segmentation and any niches you’ve identified.

• Competitor analysis.

Marketing and sales strategy

Now you understand your market; you can use the information you gathered for your previous section to inform your marketing plan and sales strategy.

Start by establishing SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) marketing goals, such as raising brand awareness, retargeting existing customers, or reducing unsold estimates.

Once you’ve got your objectives down, add them to your business plan and develop your marketing strategy.

Including a tool like ServiceTitan’s Marketing Pro at this stage is advantageous.

Marketing Pro allows users to create, run, or track various aspects of marketing campaigns, including email, social media, pay-per-click (PPC), direct mail, and reputation management, all in one place.

The tool comes with an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor, which allows you to set up the visuals for your campaigns with just a few clicks.

Once you’ve set up your campaigns, you can hyper-target your audience based on the information you have in ServiceTitan, such as whether they have unsold estimates or the length of time since they last used your service.

This is a great way to easily address different segments of your target market and can help grow your customer base.

Plus, with in-depth insights into the performance and return on investment of each of your campaigns, you can see which ones are performing well at a glance and stop the ones that aren’t—no more wasting money on campaigns that just don’t work.

Another great tool in Marketing Pro’s tool belt is Reputation, the review management feature. As so much of a painting business’s success relies on word-of-mouth and local SEO, it’s vital to ensure your online presence in this area reflects your business well.

With Reputation, you can take control and receive more reviews and consistent listings through automated review requests. You can also match the reviews to customers and technicians to see which ones are bringing in the best reviews.

Plus, you can manage all your reviews from one place, quickly respond to reviews, and gain deeper insight into your customers.

Operational plan

For this business plan section, describe how your business will run daily. 

Make sure to include details of the following:

• Production processes: Explain how you will deliver your painting services to customers. Include aspects such as how you will prepare surfaces, apply paint, handle different types of projects, and address any customer requirements. If you use any special techniques that make you stand out from the competition, highlight them here.

• Supply chain management: Detail your main suppliers for all your painting equipment, including paint, tools like brushes and rollers, and other materials. Explain your procurement, inventory management, quality assurance plan, and how you will manage supplier relationships. Be sure to include strategies for alternative suppliers to assist with minimizing supply chain disruptions.

• Staffing requirements: What kinds of personnel do you need for your painting business? Outline the skills and experience you need for all painters, subcontractors, project managers, administrative staff, and any other roles you may need to run your painting business. Establish roughly how many employees you need based on your workload and projected growth plans. Define your hiring process, including recruitment strategies, training programs, and onboarding procedures.

• Equipment needs: List all the tools and equipment you need for your projects, including vehicles and painting equipment like brushes, rollers, paint sprayers, scaffolding and ladders, and any specialist equipment. Your equipment must be maintained and, eventually, repaired or replaced, so detail your schedule here.

• Quality control: What measures will you implement to ensure high-quality work on all painting jobs? Outline your quality control processes at each stage and describe how you will address customer feedback, issues, or complaints.

• Safety: Describe how you ensure a safe working environment for all employees and clients. Include training, safety equipment, and regulatory compliance (such as OSHA).

Once you’ve figured out all of this, you can start implementing tools that will help make your daily operations more efficient.

With ServiceTitan’s Service Scheduling Software, you can streamline your scheduling process and ensure you never double-book a painting contractor again.

Having access to your schedule weeks and even months in advance makes it simple for you to plan for big, complex projects that will take longer than the average paint job. 

Plus, because you can categorize your jobs, you’ll be sure that your technicians will have all the equipment they need to complete the painting work. 

Your dispatchers can even track precisely where each of your technicians is in the job cycle in real time so they can quickly be queued up for the next job. Say goodbye to guesswork and hello to a better customer experience.

Financial plan

It’s important to include a clear and comprehensive overview of your financial projections and finance management strategy in your painting business plan. 

In this section, make sure you include:

• Financial statements

  • Income statement: A projected income statement that shows expected revenue, expenses, and net income, either monthly or annually.

  • Balance sheet: A balance sheet shows your assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific time. If this is your first business plan, you can add a projected balance sheet.

  • Cash flow projection: Outline your expected cash inflow and outflow over a set period (e.g., monthly). This helps assess your ability to manage cash flow and meet financial obligations.

• Funding requirements (if applicable): Clearly state the capital needed to cover any startup costs and grow your business, and explain how you will use the funds.

• Pricing strategy: How will you price your services? Include the factors you consider in setting your pricing, like cost-plus or competitive pricing. Detail how this strategy aligns with your objectives, market, and competitive landscape.

• Break-even analysis: Conduct a break-even analysis to understand how many sales you need to cover your costs. Include your findings in this section. Charts and graphs can make this easier to understand.

Another useful ServiceTitan feature that you can use to inform your financial strategy is the project profitability report.

This feature lets users quickly and easily see the costs involved in each painting project and its profitability. This information is invaluable when planning your financial management and mitigating any financial risk.

Arizona Painting, a residential and commercial painting business based in Phoenix and Tucson, said this feature was the biggest benefit since they started using ServiceTitan in 2019.  Here’s what CEO Joe Campbell had to say:

“We can pull up any job we're doing and know exactly where we're at with paint and labor [costs].  It's much easier to manage and track with ServiceTitan.”

ServiceTitan also has accounting features that let you take control of your business's cash flow and automate everyday accounting tasks, like invoice generation and payment collection.

You can sync the accounts tracked in ServiceTitan with QuickBooks, Intacct, and Viewpoint Vista or export them into a CSV file for use with other software.

And, with the easily digestible data reports, you’ll always know precisely where your accounts payable and accounts receivable stand.

Legal and regulatory considerations

Compliance with local laws and the regulations that govern the painting industry is of the utmost importance if you want to have a successful painting business.

First, you need to decide on a legal business structure suitable for your business. We recommend consulting a legal advisor to determine the most appropriate one based on your goals and circumstances.

Next, research what permits and licenses are required to operate a painting business in your area. 

This could be a general business license, a contractor’s license, or specialized permits related to any specialty painting services you offer. Note any permits you acquire in this section of the business plan.

Also, make sure to acquire the right kind of insurance coverage. This could be general liability insurance, but it’s best to research and chat with an insurance broker to ensure adequate coverage. 

You will probably need workers’ compensation and commercial auto insurance for your staff if you have business vehicles.

Lastly, be sure to acquaint yourself with any environmental regulations, especially those relating to using, handling, and disposing of paint, solvents, and any other materials that can be hazardous to the environment. Detail your waste management practices here.

What Is the Easiest Way to Write Your Painting Business Plan?

The information discussed above will help you determine what to include in your painting business plan, but it can be a lot to take in.

To make your work easier and streamline the process of planning and building your business strategy, you can use resources and guides like this to help you understand what information to gather.

Then, you can use an industry-specific template (like the one you can download at the end of this article) to assemble your plan quickly.

Ensuring you tailor the business plan to your unique needs and goals is essential.

Grow Your Painting Company With the Right Tools

Whether your business is in its first year or well-established, a well-structured business plan can help keep you on the right path and tweak your operations to make your goals more achievable.

That’s why we created this downloadable, customizable painting business plan template. Now, you can create your business plan in just a few minutes.

Implementing a tool like ServiceTitan can further help you streamline your scheduling, make marketing campaigns easier and more efficient, and give you better access to your audience insights.

ServiceTitan is a home services software that helps painting businesses understand their market and manage their marketing campaigns. It's used by over 20,000 companies in trades across the country.