How to start a painting business without skipping the boring bits
You will need the authorisation and insurance required for the work where you trade — including height, commercial sites or restricted coatings if that is the work you will actually do. Check the local authority. Do not copy a fee table from a forum.
A painting job dies in the gap between the consult and the final-coat invoice. Close that gap before you hire a second pair of hands.
Set up the business behind the work
Choose the legal structure available where you trade, register for the taxes that apply, and open a separate business bank account. Ask a qualified local accountant which registrations and records your business needs; do not rely on a generic checklist from another jurisdiction.
Build a simple first-year budget for tools, vehicle, insurance, software, tax, and a cash buffer. Decide who the first customer is and how they will find you — referrals, local search, property managers, builders, or maintenance agreements — then track which channel produces accepted work rather than enquiries alone.
- Register the business and required tax accounts
- Separate business banking and bookkeeping from personal spending
- Budget fixed overhead, job costs, tax, and working capital
- Write a repeatable way to win the first ten suitable customers
- Keep evidence of licences, insurance, quotes, variations, and invoices
Quote by room, not by vibe
Prep, coats, colour changes and making good are different lines. If you cannot see the walls, it is an estimate. If you can stand behind a total, it is a quote. Name the document.
Write exclusions: repairs, furniture moving, after-hours, a second colour the client picks on day three. That is how variations stay civil.
Hours on the site, not in a notebook
Crew clock-ons per site are how you know whether the day-rate quote was honest. If the hours only exist in someone's head, the next job is still a guess.
The painting job management page shows quotes, time and progress invoices in the product. This guide covers the order: authorisation, quote, schedule, invoice.
Deposit, then progress, then final
A deposit before special-order paint. A progress invoice when the walls are closed. A final when the work order closes. Three papers, one job — not a lump at the end they have forgotten.