Episode Details
Back to EpisodesA $1.5 Million Painting Company Can Still Run Out Of Money
Description
We break down why a painting business can be busy, profitable on paper, and still nearly broke, using a real case of $1.5M in revenue with only $7K in cash. We lay out a simple order of operations that stabilizes cash flow before you ever consider spending more on ads.
• spotting the three primary constraints: demand, labor, and money behavior
• why profit is not cash and busy is not healthy
• the danger zone of having under one month of overhead in the bank
• labor overruns as the hidden cause of weak gross profit and cash squeeze
• a rule of thumb for employee labor costs near one-third of job price
• deposits, progress payments, and receivables as cash flow levers
• stopping owner draws from choking working capital
• deciding on ad spend only after cash systems and labor systems are stable
If you get value from this type of information, grab a free copy of my book, Profitable Painter. Click the link in the description to grab a free copy, just cover the shipping.
This episode was originally recorded as a video for YouTube.
If you hear me say things like “in this video” or reference visuals, don’t worry —
the content still works perfectly in audio form.
And if you ever want to watch the video version, you can find it on the
Profitable Painter YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/@BookkeepingForPainters