A Business Success Story

For many years he concentrated on the new-builds but then gradually expanded into the re-paint and commercial property market. The business grew so well that Anthony desperately needed a property to store all his equipment, his vehicles and also, office space to work from. He purchased a residential property 5kms from town on a main, duel-carriage road. Now being on a main road it would naturally make good sense to boldly advertise your business, but because of strict council rules, you have to abide by the size of the advertising. As Anthony desperately wanted passing traffic to know about his business, he came up with a very innovative way to attract attention. Now! close your eyes and imagine this; (Well; read the following first of course). The property has a fifteen metre picket fence along the front. The top half is painted in bright blue and the lower half in pink, but in a wave effect. To make it stand out more, the driveway gate is painted with white dots of different sizes. His legal-size advertising board now prominently stands out for all to see. A very clever marketing tool in my opinion.

For many years his wife did all the bookwork but as the business grew, Anthony realised he needed a professional bookkeeper. This made a huge difference to his turnover and the effectiveness of his business and is what he says now, ‘The most important decision I ever made’. Another smart decision was to reduce the number of builders he had. From having eight, he picked the best and most profitable and reliable payers of them and is now down to two. This also helped his cash-flow as builders tend to hold onto your money, or not even pay you.

Anthony does all the quoting himself and when we met up, I was quite impressed to see how he does it all from his phone. Measurements, time, notes, are all entered into a program which can be accessed by the office staff who then finalise the quote and sent out to the client. The competition in Townsville is no worry to him as 30-40% of jobs are accepted which is enough to keep his staff employed. Another question I asked was, ‘What is a good number of employees are you happy with in your business?’ As I have preached many times before when talking to painters, ‘More is not always good’ and in Anthony’s case, he totally agrees. He reduced the number of painters from 45 and believes having 13-14 painters and a few casual administrative staff in the office is the perfect number. Check out his website at https://ajspaintingtownsville.com.au/

Apart from his successful business, Anthony belongs to a support group called ‘Strive To Be Alive’. This is a group that meet up every three weeks who encourage people that are having, or know of anyone with mental health issues to join in. Everyone is welcome to go along and have a chat as they are all there for each other. Anthony is also very active in charity work and every year he donates his time and material

(worth around $6,000) to paint their property. They may be down on their luck and can’t afford it or they may be suffering from mental illness. A gesture like this gives them hope.

Note: I would like to thank Anthony for his time by giving me his great story and also the hospitality he gave myself and my wife while we were in Townsville.

Jim Baker

www.mytools4business.com