“Are your painters employees or are they subcontractors?”
You probably wouldn’t be shocked to hear that this is a question we get quite often. As a fellow painting contractor, you probably get the same one. Why is this question being asked?
Customers want to feel safe. They want to feel that they’re making a good decision with the painting contractor they’re hiring. They want to trust that the job will be done well, done on time, and done on budget. There is a general (mis)conception within the trades that the BEST way to provide a trustworthy level of service is by utilizing only employed painters. Is it the best, though?
I entered the trades with no painting experience, just a whole lot of sales and management experience. When I launched Ellison Painting in the spring of 2022, I was coming off the heels of running another local painting company for almost five years. My goal was to run the most professionalized, most modernized, and most efficient painting company in the country.
In order to meet those goals, I chose to build my company as a full-subcontractor model and it was the best decision I could have made. It’s allowed me to go from $1 million+ in sales in the last seven months of 2022, to $3 million in 2023, and a projected $5 million in 2024. So, I’ve grown fast…but how do I overcome the most common roadblocks that most come across while using subcontractors?
“Subcontractors paint with lower quality than employed painters.”
What do you think is more motivating to a painter: knowing they’re going to get the $20-$25/hour just by showing up, or knowing that if they work more efficiently and at a higher quality they’ll be rewarded financially far more than a standard hourly rate? My subcontractors aren’t just punching a clock. They are motivated by the financial incentives our partnership offers. We have crews that are generating $60+/labor hour (what we pay them, not what we charge the customer), which is not only more than they’ve ever made before working on their own but certainly far more than they’d be able to make as an hourly employee anywhere else.
Because of this financial reward, they consistently produce high-quality work within our budgeted timelines. We have very few callbacks and have gotten more 5-star reviews since we launched than any other company in Michigan. Frankly, I’d put the quality of my crews against any other company in the country when it comes to quality…and I don’t think it would be a fair fight.
“Subcontractors are unreliable.”
Ellison Painting seems to attract (and retain) subcontractors who value being able to work for themselves but maybe aren’t as equipped to market and sell the way we do. They take an incredible amount of pride in their work, show up on time, and exceed our quality expectations. Essentially, they are business owners who don’t want to “work for someone else.” Whether it’s an intrinsic value or a cultural one, they like being able to go to church or their kids’ soccer games and say, “I own ABC Painting Company.” Sure, the majority of their work comes from other painting contractors, but they still own their own business.
Other companies squeeze their subs for every penny in order to increase gross profit. They manage them poorly, if at all, and live within an endless cycle of recruiting, onboarding, and losing subcontractors. They end up attracting the bottom of the barrel, and unsurprisingly those crews have reliability issues.
The reason reliability is a common problem in our industry but not here at Ellison is because we have one clearly stated goal for our subs: we want to make their lives as easy and as profitable as possible. We never ask internally how we can pay our subs less; it’s always about how we can pay them MORE while still maintaining the profit margins we need in order to continue to grow in a healthy, stable manner. Because of this approach, the subs we attract (and retain) are in it for the long haul. They understand the value of a relationship with Ellison Painting and know that the relationship can only continue if they’re as reliable for us as we are for them.
”You can’t build company culture with subcontractors.”
Yesterday I had one of my crews over to my own house to prime the walls and ceilings of a couple of bathrooms we are having renovated. When I tried to pay him, he said, “Thank you, but you’ve done more than enough for me, I’m not charging you for a couple of hours of work.”
Yesterday I also had another crew send me a message after seeing a clip of me talking about our relationship with our subs. He said, “I’m telling you the truth that we stopped working with other contractors because we don’t need nobody else, just you, Brad. You make everything easier for us. From the first day that we met and had our meeting, everything you and Rachel said came out to be true. And that made us love you guys very much.”
Does this sound like a company with no culture? With subcontractors that aren’t bought into our vision and culture? For the record, I did insist on paying the first crew for their work at my house, and the second crew does take on some of their own jobs in addition to ours.
Bottom line, there are many ways to build a painting business the “right way.” Some choose an employee-based model, some choose a subcontractor-based model. What matters more than which way is right or wrong is that the workers themselves are benefitting from the system. Our quality is superb, our service is beyond reliable, and our culture is thriving. I am PROUD to tell our customers that not only do we use subcontractors, but we have the best painters in Michigan!
