Latest / The Goo Crew / How We Save Thousands Running Our Painting Business | The Goo Crew #16

Transcript

How We Save Thousands Running Our Painting Business | The Goo Crew #16 · The Goo Crew

0:00
SPEAKER_01: Good morning, brother.
0:00
SPEAKER_01: How you doing?
0:01
SPEAKER_01: I'm good.
0:01
SPEAKER_01: How about yourself today?
0:02
SPEAKER_01: Good, good.
0:03
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about how to save money in your painting business and like stuff we've done to like not waste money.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, it was last year I was looking at all of our expenses, and our expenses were climbing and our revenues were not climbing at the same rate, especially in the healthcare uh range.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, yeah.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: And I've been buying my own healthcare since I was 21.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: So I started and it was like 140 bucks a month, so it wasn't bad.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: But then when you start now it's$300 a person, but then if you add, I have three kids and a wife, and you have two kids and a wife, and then do 300 times what's that uh math nine?
0:41
SPEAKER_00: It's it's a fair amount.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, nine.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh, and then you're paying tens of thousands of dollars for health care, and then uh we have office rent, and then we took on um a loan to you know and paying back a loan for you know, like when we expanded trying to get into the office in the studio, and we're like, oh yeah, our expenses have outran our revenues, and we need to make some changes.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: So that was like 2025, and our business was solid uh that way.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: So we've pretty much just did like look at everything and then just start uh going down the list of like the first one was healthcare, then we're like, what's our paint supplies and just supplies in general?
1:21
SPEAKER_00: And we just like went down the list, yeah.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: And uh we've been probably a year and a half since we did that, and and we've made significant uh savings without ri reducing quality of most anything.
1:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:34
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think uh I just did some rough math on my calculator.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: We were paying about over 30 grand for healthcare costs between 30 grand a year.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I remember it was in the 30s.
1:46
SPEAKER_01: Between you and you know, just for two families.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: Just for two families.
1:50
SPEAKER_01: And we're like relatively healthy, yeah.
1:52
SPEAKER_01: So we don't have aside from like our ladies having babies and stuff, like it's that we haven't had a lot of health complications even with our kids.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: Well, just the normal healthcare through the standard like that any other corporate people would have, it was like the standard plan.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: And then the problem is like each new person, it's just another 300 bucks or another three, and then times that by uh, you know, 12 times a year, 300 bucks, how by nine people?
2:16
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: There's the math.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so now we're in like a health share thing.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so what we did is we moved to a health sharing plan, and I said, All right, what does this cover and how does this work?
2:27
SPEAKER_00: And so far, so good, it's some adjustments, but you essentially pay for the services yourself, and then they rent you a check for certain things and give it back to you.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: So, and but what we did is we cut our costs from let's just say 3,000 a month for nine people total.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: Now we're at what's six hundred and seven hundred, so that's like thirteen hundred, like thirteen fifty.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: So we cut it more than half.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: And then how that works is if you have like the first a thousand dollars for any, say, say if I break my arm.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the first thousand dollars is on me, but after that, it's all covered.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: But I'm go directly to the doctor or the surgeon, say, hey, I'm self-pay, and um that's it.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: And then we work with I think I believe it's at Zion Health Share, they've worked well so far with us, where they go, okay, any bill above, like I just submit the bills to them and then they'll write us checks and send it back to us.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: And that's just called a health share plan.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we haven't had anything go above uh a thousand bucks, but I'll tell you what, when you tell the doctors you're self-pay, it changes immediately.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like they go, Oh, you're self-pay?
3:33
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you don't need to do this test, you don't need to do this, you don't need to do that.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: It's completely different experience.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: And then for me, just because a lot of people when they do healthcare, they just look at oh, my it's my$50 deductible.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm like, well, how much does your actual like an appointment at the doctor's cost?
3:48
SPEAKER_00: At first they look at you like you're from Mars.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: Like, what?
3:51
SPEAKER_00: You need I need like yes, friend painting, you give them a price to paint their house, like I'm paying you, and it's around like 150 bucks an appointment.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then we found out where our kids were going for pediatrics, it was like 250 an appointment.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and we're like, 250, why is this 250?
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Then my wife would ask, she would ask those things to work, uh, uh, and they were like baffled that we were just had to pay ourselves.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: And so, and then like honestly, they kept they would reduce all the stuff that they would do because they knew they're like, Well, we the insurance, like they're they're not um obligated to do certain things, you only do what's necessary.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: So that's been awesome.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I mean, but what I looked at is okay, well, and there's like a cap on the health share.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: So if you pay like three grand total out of pocket for your whole family, everything above that is covered.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so like there's a limit to like how much you're supposed to pay.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: And then I granted there's they're not obligated legally to pay for stuff, but it's like kind of like your agreement.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: So there's a risk there, but honestly, I was like, well, if we're paying half, um, there's like an extra fifteen thousand dollars.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: Like, even if we had to pay fifteen thousand dollars out of pocket between all of our families, we're bet we're as good, we're right where we were.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: Right.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: And so that was a risk that I took, and so far it's paid off.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: So talk to us next year, we'll see.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: We'll see, we'll see how it goes.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: But you're covered for like cancer, you're covered for any like the yeah, it's more you're covered for the things above a thousand dollars uh per per incident.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: So if your kid breaks an arm, first thousand's on us, right?
5:18
SPEAKER_00: After that, it's on uh the health sharing.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're still kind of like figuring out where to go.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: And then there's like with vaccines and stuff, like different things where like you can't just bring on a kid, like, all right, we're getting all the vaccines, but now I know how much the vaccines cost.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: If you get them, it's it's crazy like in how much they differ between hospital systems.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: Like, why is this$800?
5:37
SPEAKER_00: Then over there's$400.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Like, it's insane.
5:40
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, why does my kidney need 82 shots?
5:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: Well, honestly, you get rid of a lot of the extra stuff.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we don't we don't need most of these, so yeah, but it was it was it was pretty wild uh to see the difference.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: And then uh even my wife's like, this because she deals with it with the kids, and she's like, it's completely different because we had the standard insurance forever, and you're doing all the tests and this and this and this.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: So that has been wow.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: So that was our biggest savings we did.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: And then I looked at, okay, uh, what else can we do?
6:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so one thing that's been really helpful that's like anyone can implement right away is so if we have uh rewards credit card, and our rewards we get, I think it's up to three percent for any type of like Home Depot, um home repair service.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: So that's Sharon Williams, Home Depot, all those.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: Pretty much everything we buy.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so and that's so if you get a rewards credit card, and if you're someone who doesn't overspend with credit cards, this is probably more for you and for us.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: So I said, okay, any rewards I get, I'm gonna go put towards our like just the credit card bill and just get our expenses down.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: So essentially you would save anywhere from one and a half to three percent automatically on any purchase we make.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: So that's a way just to reduce it.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: If you say, I'm just gonna take this and pay off the insurance bill, that's all we do.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: But like if your head is like, well, I can get an Amazon gift card, or I can get because they will offer those things in your rewards, yeah, then you might get an Amazon gift card and spend instead of getting a hundred dollar gift card, you'll spend 150, use your gift card and buy actually more stuff.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: So that was one that like if you just do that consistently for uh for us, it's been great because like, all right, every four months I'll just or three months, I'll take out the rewards, pay down the bill, boom, 300 bucks off.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: Right.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: Because our credit card bills are anywhere from two grand on the low and up to five.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: Depends on how much paint we bought.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: It's usually is that paint or is it just uh paint, materials, roller covers, that's Sharon Williams, Home Depot, like all the stuff we buy at Sharon Williams.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: Well, because do you do you pay off the Sharon?
7:35
SPEAKER_01: Because we have a charge account with Sharon Williams.
7:37
SPEAKER_01: Do you pay the pay card?
7:38
SPEAKER_01: With a credit card with a credit card on it.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I'll pay off my and I usually do that in the store.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh but you can do it phone or online as well.
7:44
SPEAKER_01: And Benjamin Moore, you have to uh pay with like legal gold tender.
7:49
SPEAKER_01: Like you have to pay with gold bars because they don't have computers at any of them.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: It depends on which one.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: So Benjamin Moore, they have different uh they're owned by different, I guess, people owners.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: So some there's some Benjamin Moore owners that own 50 stores and some that own like two.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: And we know one that doesn't have much technology at all.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: And another one that has the accounts just like we would at Sharon Williams.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh so it just depends on where you go.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: But even like Home Depot, Lowe's, all the places, if you swipe a card, you you can get your uh reduce your expenses.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: So that's been nice.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: That's just like a little something that helps.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna dramatically change everything, but it's like, okay, a couple hundred bucks, you know, every few months, it's just nice to have.
8:31
SPEAKER_01: Well, and then what we've been doing on like the way we get supplies and stuff, anything you know that you're gonna buy and go through a lot of, like, we do bulk orders on things.
8:41
SPEAKER_01: Um, and there's a lot of like sometimes there's like sales reps that you don't know exist, and uh and then there's uh some sales reps like our Sharon Williams rep pretty much just calls us every single one we've had, mostly what they do is call us and tell us that our prices are going up.
8:59
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
8:59
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then if that if any of the any of the painters that are listening to this just got hit with another increase, I think we got hit in September with like a 7% increase on around there like paint costs.
9:11
SPEAKER_01: So one of the things that helps with that is if you can talk to your sales rep and be like, hey, I'm not usually you have like products that you use uh a lot.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: So what they can do is they'll jack a price up on a product or a tier of product that you don't use.
9:30
SPEAKER_01: So like technically they've hit you with the increase, but then they can keep the stuff that you actually use low.
9:37
SPEAKER_01: So like we've kept our our prices fairly low for like ProMar sealing paint, emerald urethane, trim enamel, and like emerald matte, emerald satin, like the the stuff that we actually use all the time.
9:48
SPEAKER_01: We've been able to keep those relatively like stable, uh, and then they've jacked our price up on like cashmere or some paint that we never use.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: We still had an increase in all of our normal paints, but it might not have been seven for everything, might have been five or three or four.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: They're not they're still gonna juice it up, but you can be like, yo, could you screw me a little less on these paints?
10:10
SPEAKER_01: So uh and then one thing we've done is with our client management software is you like if you accept this is probably true for any software you're using, or if you're using like Stripe or any of those things to like take payment on the spot, or if you're like letting people pay online with their credit card, it's if you do like a decent size paint job, it's like th was it three percent across the board for credit card stuff.
10:36
SPEAKER_01: If you use a credit card three percent.
10:37
SPEAKER_01: So, and like on a big job, it's a pretty fat stack of coins.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: So if we have like a ten thousand dollar job and they charge if they're if our client would use a credit card, it'd be three hundred bucks out of her pocket.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: Right, and you're that that money's going to not like just the service fee, basically.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: Yes, the yes, all that the whole network and the banks and all that.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
10:56
SPEAKER_01: And that's not really from the software, it's usually from it's it's from the credit card and all that stuff.
11:02
SPEAKER_01: Service that provides you you can use a credit card with.
11:04
SPEAKER_01: And so I think for what we've done inside of Jobbers, we turned off the we don't take the credit card.
11:09
SPEAKER_01: You turned off the credit cards.
11:10
SPEAKER_01: It's because you can do like what, a bank transfer?
11:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's uh they call it an ACH uh deposit, and it just comes from their bank account.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: And our clients have been a lot of them do it.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then does the So that's one percent.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: That's one percent.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so you you would save you'd only pay thirty dollars out of uh like a hundred or uh what would it be?
11:28
SPEAKER_00: Whatever the math is on that hundred bucks out of a ten thousand dollar job, that's one percent.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
11:33
SPEAKER_01: So you versus three hundred bucks.
11:34
SPEAKER_01: And then the and then if we a lot of times what people have been pushing for we kind of encourage more is just paying by check.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
11:41
SPEAKER_01: And then try and get the check at the end of the job.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: So that's you get checks are you just have to deposit it in the bank, and now you can do it electronically with most bank apps.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: So quite nice.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: And that's the you know, depending on how your margins are set up and all of that, like just something to consider that is like shaving margin off your job, especially on bigger ones where you know it's not like a$30 chart.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: You you know, you want to make it convenient for them, and it just depends on like what tier of clientele you're dealing with.
12:09
SPEAKER_01: Some people might want to use their credit card because then they're gonna get points and things like that.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: Some people will ask, and we just say no, sorry.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, some people they'll pay with their credit card because they couldn't pay in real life because they actually don't have the money.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: Right.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: So there are those.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: But most of our clients, like, they have the money and they're just write a check's no problem.
12:28
SPEAKER_01: Yep, yep, which is where you owe it's a better depends on your clientele.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: But um, so yeah, but the nice thing is like when you're kind of going down the line and just like you know, you get your rewards into your expenses, you don't accept credit cards, and you get ACA, like you're starting to like shave percentages off of everything and saving money, and it really adds up over time.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
12:48
SPEAKER_01: And then we did the one where um the other thing we do for supplies is like we buy in bulk.
12:53
SPEAKER_01: So then once you once you've done and can I interject?
12:56
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, go for it.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: So for bulk is not like you don't need to buy a hundred gallons, like a lot of times a bulk order, if you talk to your manager at your store or your sales rep, it's 10 gallons of paint.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: So if I say if I buy 10 gallons of this, how much can we save?
13:09
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times they'll knock off 10%, 15%.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I didn't want to interrupt, keep going.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
13:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a good point.
13:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
13:15
SPEAKER_01: That when we yeah, to clarify what would be my bulk, you can find the threshold for bulk bulk orders from whatever thing you're doing.
13:24
SPEAKER_01: Like, even if you do like Lowe's has a program for contractors, like they have a lot of incentive points over there, like they have uh like Sharon Williams has certain thresholds for their things, and then there's even brands inside of those stores that have their own sales reps that if you contact them directly, you can get like 3M is a great example.
13:43
SPEAKER_01: If you use a specific type or any any type of 3M paint, or not paint, but uh products, so like, and they make a ton of stuff.
13:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh tape is probably the biggest thing.
13:53
SPEAKER_01: Tape, plastic, uh, like your your uh filters, the pink filters for your mat, your respirator mask, all that stuff, uh you can like you can figure out what the threshold is.
14:05
SPEAKER_01: I think it's like three cases of of tape hits that number, and then you get a rebate from 3M on top of the the bulk discount you get buying up front.
14:17
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
14:17
SPEAKER_01: So if we are the one sales rep that came here the one time, like if we do uh we you can get like a pretty juicy rebate from 3M if you're like, I want three cases of Pro Sharp tape and blah blah blah blah blah.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh so you can get like discount at the time and then discount as a rebate later uh if you submit it back to 3M.
14:36
SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of like those kind of deals, and for stuff that you're gonna use all the time, uh that's what's nice about like now we have some space in our our office studio uh like headquarters, uh, where Josh has been doing, he's been picking up like just extra white uh like emerald mat and pro mar sealing and emerald urethane trim enamel in like the bases that we typically use and like ball and we just have it on wire racks and have it paint there, and then when we go to get the paint mixed up, we'll just swap them gallons for stuff we already have.
15:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh and that way you've like locked in the price, you know, early on with your bulk order, and then you've just you've been pretty good at like replenishing our stores.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: The trick is to actually use your supply because you have, you know, because it essentially if you're getting a 10% discount, and honestly, you can just ask, you don't have to like wait for them to approach.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: Hey, if I do a bulk order, what how much would that be?
15:29
SPEAKER_00: And what kind of savings can I get?
15:30
SPEAKER_00: And just the worst they're gonna say is no no.
15:33
SPEAKER_00: But so like usually I find if I like if they won't do 10 gallons, like 20, and if it's a less expensive paint like ceiling paint, yeah, like all right, what can we get for 20 gallons of ProMar ceiling?
15:43
SPEAKER_00: Like, all right, I can do 10.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, well, can you do better?
15:45
SPEAKER_00: Like you can just ask, like, can we do any better?
15:47
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I don't need to, like, you don't need to place the order.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: And uh, I've just found that that one, it's like if you do a big bulk order, they'll deliver it a lot of times to wherever you want, even if it's your garage at your house.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, did you get it delivered here?
16:00
SPEAKER_00: I did.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I got 40, like 50 or 60 gallons all in singles delivered here.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: And it was uh quite nice.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: But we saved, I think I mean if you save 10%, it's like you buy nine, you get the tenth one free.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: Right.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: It's essentially what it is.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: And if you long as you go through it within a month or two, you're you're good.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't with the trick is not to just keep buying the paint, like you go through it.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I'll just replenish in gallons of 10.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you just need to have like inside storage as well.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then have a top.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes opportunities will come where if there's your local store, whatever you're doing, they're trying to sell more paint that month, and they don't care, they just care that you buy it.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: Because we've had approach like, hey, we're trying to meet our numbers this month, and it might be the end of the year, like December.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: Would you guys buy 20 gallons of ProMar?
16:48
SPEAKER_00: We've had like sales reps and managers approach, like a lot of times the manager of the store, because they're looking at their own numbers, yep.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and they're like, How much would you buy?
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Like, what kind of discount would you need?
16:57
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Like, what if I give you 15?
16:59
SPEAKER_00: Like, if they're in that position where their store really needs to make their numbers, you're in a much better position.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: And that's what's nice about like when you're just go through all your expenses and cut and save money.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: You might have some extra cash.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, I can invest in 20 gallons of this paint.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: We'll save.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you might save hundreds of dollars over time.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: Like, if you like a one gallon of paint's like anywhere from 50 to 60 bucks on our high-end stuff.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: So even if you buy nine, get one free, you might go through that in like two weeks, right?
17:26
SPEAKER_00: Or less.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: Right.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: And you just say 50 bucks here, 60 dollars there, and then you know, it could be a hundred dollars a month, which is twelve hundred a year.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I mean if it adds up.
17:35
SPEAKER_01: And usually you're doing like similar types of work.
17:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: So it's like you are probably stocking, we have about four products that we use all the time, and then it's like specialty within that.
17:46
SPEAKER_01: But like your primers, yeah.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: You know, we have two primers that we stock, we stock Pro Block, we start, we stock Fresh Start, and then we have emerald mat, pro mar ceiling paint, and then emerald urethane trim enamel.
17:58
SPEAKER_01: And like those, that's what's like stacked on our racks, but we also have like climate-controlled storage because that's inside of our office, which is important.
18:06
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to like buy a bunch of paint, have it up to get too hot, freeze and put it in your your garage or something.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: The basement's usually okay, as long as it's not too wet down there.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: But also, like you can use it, like just say if you had a bigger job and you're gonna order 10 gallons of paint, like 10 gallons of wall paint, which is what's that, five rooms, maybe five bedroom type uh situations.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: You could just call them, like, hey, I'm gonna do can I do a bulk order of 10 and emerald mat or duration mat?
18:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh what can we do?
18:32
SPEAKER_00: You already have the job like ready and waiting for.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: You could get a free gallon of paint.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's another way to do it.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: And uh, the worst they're gonna say is no.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: So, like the store manager can do that or your sales rep.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: Yep, yep.
18:45
SPEAKER_01: And then that's just uh the way to go through it's just pay attention to what you're using.
18:50
SPEAKER_01: Like if you have you know pan liners, edgy container, and liner, your brushes.
18:55
SPEAKER_01: Brushes you can save a decent amount of money with a bulk order.
18:58
SPEAKER_01: We found like where we get our brushes from.
19:01
SPEAKER_01: We get them from a Benjamin Moore store because we're using Corona Cortez stuff and uh roller covers, roller covers, and we just buy all that.
19:09
SPEAKER_01: You have like line items that you're like, we we're gonna do a bulk order.
19:12
SPEAKER_01: That way you're just like not nickel and diamonds.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: And they'll call it case pricing, especially at Sharon Williams.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: Like, I want a case.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: Like, how much I asked versus how much is in a case like we want frog tape.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: How much is in a case?
19:22
SPEAKER_00: Like six.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's not too much.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: So, all right, what can you give me for a case price versus buying an individual?
19:27
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we can give you an extra 5%, 10%, whatever it is.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, All right, I'll take three cases.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: It's 18 rolls of tape.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
19:33
SPEAKER_01: And then Sharon Williams usually has like bucket sales and stuff where usually your rep they really try and crank numbers during those bucket sales, so then you can just do a big bulk order during that time and try and like you know, you do that a couple times a year and you're in good shape and just kind of keeping it simple, and that way you already have you always have like the stuff you need to get your jobs done.
19:53
SPEAKER_01: And it's not like a scramble every time you're going out and doing stuff.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: It is nice.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: And you can just ask for hey, I've been buying a lot of this, whatever your new paint is.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: Is there a way I can get a discount on it?
20:05
SPEAKER_00: If you just ask that, then you have the savings locked in for the whole year.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: Oh, and here's a little trick too.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: If you're working for sure, like if you use a lot of Sher and Williams products, it's similar across the board with Benjamin Moore and whatever, mostly at like an actual Sher and Williams store.
20:20
SPEAKER_01: This doesn't work as well for like Lowe's and Home Depot, unless you like know somebody.
20:25
SPEAKER_01: But if you are like say you're a guy that's used a lot of duration and you want to try Emerald, if you talk to your sales rep or the store manager and be like, hey, I'm interested in trying this paint for this job, a lot of times they will comp you the paint to try and bump you up a tier.
20:42
SPEAKER_01: Or if you're saying, like, hey, I just want to try this paint out, uh, I've got you can get a lot of free gallons, like you can't keep doing it, but like if you're if you're on the fence about trying some new whatever, they'll they'll give you a free gallon or two to paint a room.
20:57
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then that's just a way to like trying to hook you in the more expensive product.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: Or if it's better, we liked it.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: We used duration for a long time.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: And I think when you painted your house, they gave you a bunch of emerald.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: Like they or they gave it to you at the duration price.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: That's another thing.
21:11
SPEAKER_01: I got I got a fat discount.
21:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's the other thing.
21:14
SPEAKER_01: They will give you a huge discount on paint if you're painting for your own house.
21:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's like a cut that's a company rule inside of Sharon Williams that they will I paid less than duration price for the emerald.
21:26
SPEAKER_01: Like it was significantly lower.
21:27
SPEAKER_01: It was it was like$40 a gallon or something.
21:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh for they must be like, You're always painting your house.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: You know, my house is huge.
21:35
SPEAKER_01: Or just keep paying the changing the colors.
21:37
SPEAKER_01: Um, so but yeah, there's a lot of deals like that out there, and then you know, they they always try and give us, especially Asheron Williams folks, they try and give us their brushes a lot, and we're like, Yeah, these aren't as well we'll take a free brush.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: No one's dethroned our Corona Cortez's yet.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: Not yet, not yet.
21:53
SPEAKER_01: It's been like over a decade.
21:54
SPEAKER_01: So that's fine.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: We're just so used to them.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:58
SPEAKER_01: So there are, I'm I'm sure there's other awesome.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Some brushes out there too.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, that's one of the things.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: If you're trying to, if you want to upgrade your paint and you're like, I want to try a gallon of say if you're using super paint, I want to try duration, they'll give you the super pri uh paint price for your duration.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: So you try it out because they would love for you to buy a more expensive paint because they make more money, have better margins.
22:17
SPEAKER_01: And just so every like there's a ton of margin on paint.
22:21
SPEAKER_01: Like we saw what a corporate account pays for some of the stuff we were buying, and it's it was astronomically lower.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: Like so they're still making money on buckets of goo.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: They're they're gonna give you a price that they're gonna do okay on.
22:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: But the worst thing they're gonna say is no if you ask for a discount.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: And it's uh if you just kind of go down everything, man, and just and then like even just re-quoting insurance if you haven't done it in a while.
22:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh we had a big insurance accident.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh in that remember uh the old sprinkler flood.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: No, I do remember that.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you do, yeah.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: One of my worst.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: And then they jacked up our rates as one insurance company.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: What is our only claim we've had?
22:58
SPEAKER_00: And then I shopped it, which I hadn't shopped in a while, and actually got a lower rate than we were paying before the accident.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: So that accident actually helped us save money on insurance.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was looking out for us.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
23:11
SPEAKER_01: But and then yeah, well, that that's so yeah, shopping the vendors, seeing like, you know, and sometimes you just go to an insurance company that you've had, and you're like, hey, I'm I might be shopping this year.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: I haven't done it in a while.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Is there any discount you can give me?
23:24
SPEAKER_00: You can do that with any vendor you have.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to do that every three months, but especially if you've been a good client.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: I remember did for car insurance.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, oh, you're you're shopping.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh, we found the special discount for you, and then you save 20% with one phone call.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you qualify for a blah blah blah.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: Oh, wow, this is amazing.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: You're like, I know, I know.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: I wish you would have given that to me before.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I feel like you could you should probably do that with like Verizon and all these other it's like when you threatened to like change your cable service.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: Remember when that was a thing back in the day?
23:51
SPEAKER_01: I guess now it'd be like your internet.
23:52
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
23:53
SPEAKER_01: And then you'd be like, okay, well, we're gonna you can do oh we found the special programming qualify in your area code.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: And then some logistical things that's helped save money is that I think something we're gonna start doing is like so when you you know when you do a paint job, a lot of times you've had the paint tinted to whatever, and a lot of times the client, some are more like persnickety with it than others, but a lot of people would prefer to have some touch-up paint.
24:23
SPEAKER_01: Uh, particularly people that have like painted for themselves before and are like comfortable doing it.
24:26
SPEAKER_01: Some people don't want to ever see the paint again.
24:29
SPEAKER_01: Um, but you like it's not a big deal to give them the wall paint, which we always do, and we'll like label it on top, but a lot of times you're using like stock paints for like uh ProMar sealing and emerald urethane trim enamel that's for a ceiling and trim, it's the stock white we use everywhere.
24:45
SPEAKER_01: So we tend to not leave any of that behind.
24:48
SPEAKER_01: So we usually have it where we're just like you know, we just take the partials with us and then use it on the next job and kind of keep it going.
24:56
SPEAKER_01: Uh, whereas we're like, okay, and then we've had a couple of times where the people are like, hey, what how I would have done the touch-up myself, but there's no paint here, then we have to come back and touch up.
25:04
SPEAKER_01: So, and then we haven't quite implemented this yet, but we're just getting some small, like the tiny little tupperware containers, and then take like a gallon of emerald urethane and just pour it, make like I don't know, however many of those things you could get out of a gallon, probably like 30, and then just stack them up, and that way we can just give people a little bit of you know, it'd be like a pint or something of emerald urethane for the case.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: Or if you're a baller like me, when I was at Sharon Williams, they gave me what they give the builders, it's like the touch-up like little container, and you can write that it's like a little tiny circular like cylinder, and you just put paint in, and it has paint so you can check off on the side, but you can tell it's for like uh a home builder because they're all like really crappy paints.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like cashmere is the highest paint on there that you can get.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, so they gave me four of them just for free.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: So it's like an empty can.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: Just empty, but it's um plastic.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: But it's like it was like if you get by like a toll brothers home, they'd say, Oh, here's your wall paint, here's your trim paint, these little plastic containers with a lid.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: And then you can write your paint on there.
26:09
SPEAKER_01: Is it like a sample container?
26:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'll have to I'll show you at the job.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: They gave me like four of them for free.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm interested.
26:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
26:16
SPEAKER_01: But I mean, you can just get tuckware for like a nickel.
26:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just something like that where like because it and then something Josh has been we've been getting better at is actually going through our stocks of paint.
26:26
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're painting for a while, you're gonna start having a lot of extra just partials and it primers and whatever.
26:35
SPEAKER_01: And if you kind of like go through your stash and consolidate it, and then be like, and what we have been doing more recently is just taking all the partials, because sometimes we have them in our trucks.
26:45
SPEAKER_01: Like we've got, I've got half a gallon of emerald urethane, you've got some Pro Block, you know, there's some ceiling paint over here, whatever.
26:52
SPEAKER_01: We'll take all the partials, take a paint strainer, and actually like consolidate all of it into one can or make sure we use it all up on one job.
26:59
SPEAKER_01: So no we we know we especially for trim paint, that's expensive.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: So if you have four uh half gallons of trim paint, we just all put it into you know one or two gallons.
27:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that way you're actually moving through your your stash.
27:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh not that there's liquid gold.
27:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean that's it is an expense, and that's you, it's like you know, you s it's it's like hundreds and then it turns into thousands of dollars.
27:22
SPEAKER_01: You just want to make sure you're moving through your stock.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: Um and some like if you can save 80 bucks a month, it's like a thousand dollars a year, right?
27:29
SPEAKER_00: Some maybe it's eighty-eight.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: It's like there what's the numbers equal?
27:31
SPEAKER_00: A thousand a year.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: So if you do that, you know, if you can save two hundred and fifty dollars a month, like it and it adds up, especially if you scale and get bigger and have more guys going, or you're just doing more jobs, adds up quickly.
27:43
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, but that's on the saving of the monies.
27:46
SPEAKER_01: Do you have any other things to add?
27:48
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't really I thought we kind of that's the main the main points is just and then like I've been doing what's been better recently.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: What I've we I think we talked about in another episode is just quarterly go through bank accounts, credit card accounts.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: I was terrible at doing it every month, like I know I'm supposed to be, but I was like, I just I wasn't doing it, so then I would just wait till the end of the year and then something's renewing all the time.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if I do a quarterly review, which I'll do in like the end of each quarter, I usually catch something.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: And then something that renews that you're not supposed to, like, oh, I need to go cancel that.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: And then go cancel it immediately.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: If it's some sort of subscription you don't use, which we've talked about before.
28:24
SPEAKER_01: The subscriptions can they can tackle pretty much.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: Quarterly review, you'll catch most everything quickly.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: Even the worst case scenario, it's gone on for three months.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: Right.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, that's uh because we wanna we want the money for ourselves.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're trying to keep as much as we can, and there's some simple things that I overlooked, especially the years think I'm oh I'm I've been doing this for a while, and then I was like, Oh, I'm not good at this.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: Because there's certain businesses that I'll say because I look looking at stocks and buying uh stocks.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: There's like insurance companies that have a very like they they know how to drive their expenses down, but the performance is amazing.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: But they have if you have less expenses, you can just keep more for yourself.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: That's what's nice.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: You own the company, like instead of paying an extra a thousand dollars on supplies, like you just keep the extra thousand dollars, like in a free raise, right?
29:10
SPEAKER_01: With a little bit of effort, yeah, which is uh that's nice.
29:14
SPEAKER_01: It is nice.
29:14
SPEAKER_01: So it's nice to have more money in your bank again.
29:16
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you want the because it's we we have we have the money, so it's yeah, it's mine.
29:21
SPEAKER_01: It's mine.
29:21
SPEAKER_01: Like we you you did it, so like there's no uh you know, you don't have an expense account unless you, you know, what is it like per diem or whatever?
29:29
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
29:30
SPEAKER_01: It's uh when those people have like those sales reps have the uh that's not called per diem.
29:34
SPEAKER_01: Per diem is like your rate per day, but like the you just have a business expense.
29:39
SPEAKER_01: They have like an expense account that they're gonna be.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: We have friends in the corporate world that oh I can uh expense this dinner or lunch.
29:44
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, dude, uh, yeah.
29:46
SPEAKER_01: We've gotten you can run into that too if you get like some sales reps coming out and be like, you guys want to go like the Phillies game?
29:52
SPEAKER_00: You're like, no, I just want better pricing on my whatever you're gonna spend in the Phillies game or take me out to lunch.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, don't need to do lunch.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: Don't even want to do meetings.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to avoid meetings most of my life.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, yeah.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: That's uh no more meetings, no more Zoom calls, none of this nonsense.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: Like a phone call is fine for me.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: But I don't need to do any of that stuff.
30:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, give me I will talk to you while I'm painting and you're gonna be in one of my AirPods.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, or I'm driving somewhere.
30:14
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I've got one more money-saving thing for for the the con this goes for contractors across all spectrums is packing your lunch.
30:23
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
30:23
SPEAKER_01: So like packing doing that for packing your lunch is very underrated as far as like it's so much cheaper.
30:31
SPEAKER_01: And then particularly if you are like working for yourself, if you own your company and you're like operating the we know a lot of crews that work for you know, the fellows that are working don't own the company, and they'll take expansive lunch breaks and drive off and go get food and all of that, and it takes a ton of time.
30:52
SPEAKER_01: Like it's you're losing your time and you're spending money on it, and you're spending you're getting you're paying retail for whatever, you know, and you don't know necessarily because you're working in all different areas, so you might be buying, you know, you go to Wawa, you go to Chick-fil-A, you go to it's probably not the most expensive.
31:06
SPEAKER_01: It's fun every once in a while.
31:07
SPEAKER_01: Once in a while is cool, but like that adds up quick.
31:10
SPEAKER_01: It does.
31:11
SPEAKER_01: And then if you like break down, like if you even if you make yourself like a really nice sandwich and stuff, if you actually like price it out, it's like you know, you could basically have a full, really nice lunch for like under three dollars every day.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: Like it's and that adds up because if you spend ten bucks a day, that's$300 a month, right?
31:27
SPEAKER_00: Well, the 22 working days, yeah, it'd be$220 a month if you spend$10 a day on yourself.
31:33
SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a that adds versus probably less than$50.
31:36
SPEAKER_01: And you're also burning your own time because we take about a 30-minute lunch break every day, uh, and that's about it.
31:41
SPEAKER_01: So we don't like some guys take you know over an hour to go because you gotta drive out, you gotta find a place, you gotta buy it, you gotta come back and eat it, and then and it's not as healthy.
31:52
SPEAKER_01: It's j usually not as healthy, and then you also like your time is valuable.
31:56
SPEAKER_01: So if you burn an extra half hour every day just to go through your lunch, you're losing like hours a week of your, you know, if you're trying to be productive and actually get stuff done.
32:06
SPEAKER_01: That also, you know, adds to your bottom line.
32:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it does.
32:09
SPEAKER_01: So it does.
32:10
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, that's my hot tip.
32:11
SPEAKER_01: Pack a lunch.
32:12
SPEAKER_01: That's a good one.
32:13
SPEAKER_01: That's a good one.
32:13
SPEAKER_01: But pick-twoos.
32:14
SPEAKER_01: And Josh, Josh brings little like squirrel food with him in like a brown sack or like a dog poop bag.
32:21
SPEAKER_01: You can also just get like a lunchbox, which I kept losing my lunch boxes and then have to clean them.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to clean, I just want to throw it away.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: And my lunches need to be instant.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, I need to be able to make it in about 15 seconds.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I have well, it's my wife makes my lunch.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
32:34
SPEAKER_01: I have Josh just giving it a stink.
32:39
SPEAKER_01: I shut up.
32:41
SPEAKER_01: She's made you she made you guys lunch one time too.
32:44
SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, it's it's good.
32:47
SPEAKER_01: Anyway.
32:48
SPEAKER_01: All right.
32:48
SPEAKER_01: I think uh I think that's about it.
32:50
SPEAKER_01: Uh, check out the goo crew.
32:52
SPEAKER_01: Josh has been working on some stuff in there, making it cooler.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm not gonna say anything's gonna release until it actually releases, but um, we have a friendly competition in there.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: If you post a before and after picture, you have a chance to win a$50 Amazon gift card.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: So we're doing that for the month of October, and we've had a lot of guys be uh posting their before and afters.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: Cool.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: And if you have a question for anything contracting related, happy to answer it.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: Sweet.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, check out the goo crew, link in the description.
33:17
SPEAKER_01: And until next time, y'all take it easy, work smart, and have a good one.