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.

Have a chat with Greg

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

Seven 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 Coaching

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

Systems

Painter Business Systems

The documented process that lets the work happen properly when painters are not standing there.

The free app

Painter Business App

Lessons, tools and a room full of other owners, free for painters with an active ABN.

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

Why you get me

I built the coaching company everyone else runs. Then I took it apart.

Most coaching companies work the same way. You enquire, you get a salesperson. You sign up, you get a coach who has never run a trade business.

I know, because I built one. I grew the Academy to 35 staff, a CEO and 15 coaches. It ran without me.

And I hated it. The bigger it got, the further I was from the owners I started it for.

What gets me up in the morning is getting under the hood of a trade business and helping the owner hit their goals in the least time possible.

So I restructured the whole thing.

When you enquire, you speak to me. If you are accepted into the Academy, you work with me. Directly.

And with agentic AI, the results come sooner than most owners can imagine.

Places are limited. I only take on owners who are committed and ready to do the work.

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

Who you will be talking to

I built Response Electricians in Perth into a 30+ staff business with more than 1,950+ five-star reviews.

A general manager runs it day to day. I live in Byron Bay.

I have trained 9,000+ trade business owners across Australia and New Zealand.

What AI actually changes

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 your computer work, and you paying for all of it.

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. Agents run the office your way.

The old way

Grow, then hire people to do the computer work.

Every new customer brought more quoting, invoicing, chasing, scheduling and reporting.

So you hired people to do it. Office staff, bookkeepers, admin.

None of it is billable, and every hire costs wages, sick leave and another person to manage.

Profit and time only grew as fast as you could add people.

The new way

Keep the human work. Give everything else to agents.

Your people do what only people can do: looking after customers and leading the team.

Everything else goes to agents that do it your way, instantly, any time it is needed.

No sick leave. No capacity problems. They scale as far as the business does.

So the only people you add are the ones facing your customers and your team.

A human-centred business that runs on systems you build in minutes. Nobody still running the old way can compete with it.

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.

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

Have a Chat With Greg About Your Business.