About The Painter Project
Helping painting contractors find better clients, win more profitable work, and build stronger businesses.
Doing great painting work is only part of running a successful business. You also need to find clients, prepare estimates, follow up, manage expenses, and make sure the jobs filling your calendar are worth taking.
The Painter Project exists to help with that side of the trade.
Built from experience in the trade
I’m Ivan, a painting contractor and the founder of The Painter Project.
Running my own painting business has given me firsthand experience with the decisions contractors face—from pricing jobs and managing a schedule to building relationships with clients who hire you again.
It’s also made me interested in a question that goes beyond staying busy: How do you find work that makes your business better?
That might mean more profitable jobs, dependable repeat clients, less time chasing estimates, or a schedule that gives you more room for life outside work. The Painter Project is where I explore those questions and share useful answers.
What you’ll find here
Our content focuses on seven parts of building a better painting business:
- Find Commercial Painting Work: Discover opportunities and understand who hires painting contractors.
- Win Recurring Accounts: Build relationships that can turn individual jobs into ongoing work.
- Prospecting & Outreach: Find potential clients, start conversations, and follow up.
- Win More Estimates: Communicate your value and turn more quotes into booked jobs.
- Get Local Painting Leads: Help customers in your area find and choose your business.
- Choose Better Work: Evaluate opportunities based on profitability, client fit, and your goals.
- Business Tools for Painting Contractors: Explore software, templates, and spreadsheets that make running the business easier.
Practical advice, supported by evidence
The goal is to publish information you can put to use: a clearer way to evaluate a job, an approach to reaching potential clients, or a tool that saves you time.
Where possible, we aim to support our articles with original research, industry data, conversations with contractors, and examples from actual painting work. We distinguish personal experience from broader evidence and explain the limits of the information we share.
When we discuss software or tools, we make clear whether we’ve used them firsthand or researched their features. We welcome corrections and update content as we learn more.
Build a business that works for you
Whether you’re looking for your first commercial account or trying to improve an established business, the aim is the same: help you make better decisions about the work you pursue and how you run it.
Explore the articles to find your next practical step.