TradesPainters

For Painters Who Own the Business, Not Just the BrushYou can cut in a straight line at speed. Nobody ever taught you to price, hire or get paid on time.

This is for the painter who owns the business: quoting the jobs, chasing the builder for the progress claim, and still cutting in ceilings on Saturday. Everything here is built for Australian and New Zealand painting business owners who want the business to pay them properly.

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A painted scene of a painter in whites on a step ladder, cutting in the verandah of a Victorian terrace with iron lacework above him

The week this is about

Running A Painting Business Looks Like This.

The prep always costs more than you quoted

You priced two coats over sound walls. On site you find chalking weatherboards, filler that has dropped, and oil under acrylic. Three days of sanding and sealing go in before a topcoat lands, and none of it was in the quote.

Someone down the street quotes half

The client rings and says another painter came in thousands cheaper on the same house. You know he has no insurance, no licence and no intention of two full coats. You drop your price anyway, because the van payment is due Friday.

You paint all day and run the business at night

Brushes out at four, home by five, then quotes, invoices, a colour schedule for tomorrow and a builder to chase for last month's progress claim. By the time the laptop shuts it is ten, and nothing that grows the business got touched.

Stay on that treadmill and you will still be cutting in at fifty, with a business that stops earning the day you put the brush down.

A trade business owner working alone at the kitchen table late at night, laptop open and paperwork spread across the table, work boots and tool bag by the door

How we help

Nine Ways We Help Painters.

Every one of these is a way painting business owners get out from under the business and start running it properly. Start wherever it hurts most.

Training

Painter Business Training

Structured training that turns what painters know on the tools into a business that runs properly.

Coaching

Painter Business Coach

Greg Allan in your corner, holding painters to the plan. By application.

Systems

Painter Business Systems

Systems painters build on their own data, so the work runs properly without them standing there.

Software

Painter Business Software

Software painters build on their own data, instead of renting tools built for every trade at once.

Business apps

Painter Business Apps

The simple screens painters build for their crew and customers, on their own data.

AI for Painting Businesses

AI agents that do the office work for painters, their way, so people stay on customers and the crew.

Marketing and leads

Painter Business Marketing

How painters get the phone ringing with the jobs worth having, not just the cheap ones.

Pricing and profit

Painter Business Pricing

The number painters should actually be charging, worked out properly rather than guessed.

Hiring and team

Painter Business Hiring

How painters build a crew that does it right without being watched.

A trade business owner watching his child play sport on a Saturday morning, coffee in hand and phone face down — Nights and weekends back

A trade business owner and his partner in the kitchen looking at a tablet showing the numbers going up — Work that actually pays

A trade business owner shaking hands with a new apprentice in the work yard — A good hire who stays

A trade business owner standing calmly in the yard while his crew load two utes behind him — Out of the middle of everything

Worth knowing

Two Things Every Painter Running A Business Should Know.

In Queensland you need a QBCC painting and decorating licence for painting work over $3,300, and painting over that same figure also triggers a Queensland Home Warranty Scheme premium.

Source: Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)

Painters and their apprentices are covered by the Building and Construction General On-site Award MA000020, which sets base rates plus tool, industry and travel allowances.

Source: Fair Work Ombudsman, Building and Construction General On-site Award MA000020

Greg Allan mid-explanation with his hands open, talking to a trade business owner across a desk

Why Greg

You speak to the owner who has already done it.

Greg built Response Electricians in Perth into a 30+ staff business with 1,950+ five-star reviews. A general manager runs it.

He has trained 9,000+ trade business owners across Australia and New Zealand.

He grew a coaching company to 35 staff, a CEO and 15 coaches, then cut it back so every owner deals with him directly.

Most coaching companies hand you to a salesperson, then to a coach who has never run a trade business. Here you get the owner.

Read how Greg built a trade business that runs without him

What changes for you

The old way. The new way.

Illustration: a trade business owner standing over three office staff buried in paperwork at night. — The old way
More customers meant more people doing the computer work, and more wages nobody invoices.

Illustration: a tradesman shaking hands with a homeowner in her driveway, his phone showing jobs quoted and invoiced. — The new way
You stay with your customers and your team. The office stops landing on you.

The old way

More jobs. More paperwork. Less of the owner left.

Most trade businesses grow the same way.

More jobs means more quoting, invoicing, chasing and scheduling.

None of it gets paid for.

So the owner does it at night, after a full day on site.

Or hires an office person to do it.

The office grows. The wages grow. The margin does not.

And the owner is still the one everything waits on.

Where we take you

More work. More profit. More of you left.

The phone rings with the jobs you want, at the price you set.

You grow when you're ready, never faster than the business can carry.

Every job is priced to make money, so the busy months show up in the bank.

The best tradies in your area want to work for you, and they stay.

The chasing, the paperwork and the 9pm admin stop landing on you.

The business runs the day. You pick which parts of it you're in.

Bigger, without the headaches. Getting bigger stops meaning getting busier.

9,000+tradies trained4.9★Google rating4.9★App Store rating

Questions

Painters Ask Us These.

Do I need a painting licence, and does it change from state to state?

It changes by state. The QBCC requires a licence for painting work in Queensland above $3,300, NSW above $5,000, and WA painters registration begins above $1,000. Consumer Affairs Victoria exempts single-trade painting, South Australia requires a building work contractor's licence regardless, and New Zealand has no painting class under the Licensed Building Practitioner scheme. Working with Greg helps you get the right ticket for where you actually work.

How long am I on the hook if a client complains about my paintwork?

Longer than most painters think. In NSW, paintwork is the textbook minor defect under the Home Building Act statutory warranty, which runs two years. The QBCC treats painting as non-structural, with a twelve month statutory warranty. Photograph your prep and coats on every job, and use the systems training in the Learning Hub to make that a habit your crew follows.

What do I have to pay a painter and an apprentice?

Painters sit under the Building and Construction General On-site Award MA000020, published by the Fair Work Ombudsman. It sets the tradesperson rate, apprentice rates as a percentage of it by year, higher rates for adult apprentices, and tool, industry and travel allowances. Check the pay guide each 1 July, then build that real cost into your charge-out rate. The Profitable Pricing Masterclass shows you how.

A builder is sitting on my progress claim. What can I actually do?

You have more power than a phone call. Every state runs a security of payment scheme. Under the NSW scheme a subcontractor's payment claim must be answered inside the statutory window, unpaid claims go to adjudication, and you gain a right to suspend work. Working with Greg helps you set payment terms that stop the problem earlier.

Straight answers

Answers for Painters.

A new question from painting business owners, answered every day.

How do I choose a painter business coach?

Every answer for painters

Other trades

See all twelve trades

A painted scene of a trade business owner home before dark, sitting on the tray of his ute while his son runs to meet him

Join the Waitlist to Work With Greg.