Starting this month, I'm adding a recurring feature to this newsletter called Inside the Numbers.
Every month I'll open the books on something real. Some months that'll be my own painting business — revenue, average job size, margin, where the leads came from, what went wrong. Other months it might be a challenge I'm working through, an opportunity I'm chasing, or another operator's numbers who's agreed to let me share them.
The point is the same either way: real figures from real businesses, not theory.
There's a lot of talk online about blue-collar business and very little of it comes with receipts. It's easy to say a trade company can make good money. It's harder to show you.
So here's the deal. I'll publish the strong months and the weak ones. There will be weak ones — winter is coming and this business has real seasonality. If I only showed you August, this would be marketing, not information.
We'll start with mine. This was month six of my second painting business, the one I started from scratch after selling my first for $1.46 million. No franchise, no debt.
Here's August.
The numbers
Revenue: $62,000
Jobs completed: 6
Average job size: $10,333
All residential
Gross profit: 48.6%
Leads from paid advertising: zero
What that actually means
$62,000 at 48.6% gross profit is roughly $30,000 before overhead. In month six.
The average job size is the number that jumps out. At $10,333 that's well above the $5,000-7,000 typical residential repaint I usually quote. August ran heavy on larger whole-home projects. I don't expect that every month, and you shouldn't build a plan around it.
Six jobs. That's the part worth sitting with. Six jobs produced $62,000 in revenue and about $30,000 in gross profit. People assume this business is about volume. It isn't. It's about getting decent-sized jobs and not giving away your margin.
Which brings me to the number I actually care about. 48.6% is right in the 45-50% band I aim for and recommend to anyone starting out. That's the line between owning a business and owning a job. Below 45% you're working hard to hand most of it to somebody else.
Every lead this month came from a referral. Zero dollars on advertising.
Not because I'm against paid marketing — I'll get to that. Because referrals are what you build when you do the unglamorous things right. Answer the phone. Show up when you said you would. Do what you promised. Then ask.
Most of this industry doesn't do those four things. That's the whole opening.
What went wrong
One of my crews broke a light fixture on a job. An accident, not negligence, but it happened.
I called the customer before they found it themselves, told them what happened, and had it replaced right away.
That's the part worth paying attention to. The fixture cost almost nothing. Getting ahead of it is what kept it from becoming a bad review and a lost referral — and in a month where every single lead came from a referral, that math matters.
Always stay ahead of bad news. The customer finding it first is a completely different conversation than you calling them first.
What I'm watching
Leads slowed once school started back. That's normal — residential repaint demand softens when families get busy again.
Fall usually brings another bump, though not as big as spring. To avoid riding the slow stretch down, I'll likely turn some paid advertising on to keep flow steady heading into that window.
Which is the honest footnote to everything above. Referrals are the foundation, but they're not a faucet you control. When flow dips, you need something you can turn on.
That's August.
Zac
P.S. If you're serious about starting your own painting business, I work with a small number of people through a 12-week intensive. You can book a free strategy call here → https://www.thebluecollarfounder.com/coaching-page