[lee]

Hi Guys,

I wonder if someone might be able to give me some advice ?

I will be moving from England to Florida in a couple of years when my green card comes through.

We initially intended to settle in Naples but a lot of locals have told us that it's a fantastic place to live until the snowbirds land and then the town changes completely.

Bearing this in mind we like the look of Punta Gorda, I know it has a large retirement population and a low local employment market but I intend to start my own Painting and Decorating business as this is what I have done in England for the past 20 years.

Do'es anyone have any idea if there is potential for this kind of buisness in the area ?

In England we are booked up 6 to 8 months in advance and I wondered if skilled tradesmen were in as big a demand in Florida as we are in England ?

Many thanks......

[MrTudo]

YOu need a government license in order to "paint" in this area or face arrest. Since Hurricane Charlie wiped this place out there was an over abundance of lowlifes who came into the area ripping off people and the state took actions which made it more difficult for anyone to do something as simple as painting the outside of a house. So be prepared to go to school and take a government course ( and pay for it ) in order to get licensed to paint. If you plan on doing more than that, be prepared to get more licenses.

On the flip side, a friend of mine came here from England 14 years ago and "did it all" in terms of contracting and did it the right way too. Make a fortune and now lives on a lake in Mexico, retired. 14 years. Done. Adios muchacho's.

Good luck

[lee]

Thanks for the info MrTudo.

I've looked on a few web sites to try and find some information on colleges
where I would be able to take the relevent courses but I'm not having too much luck, has anyone been through the system and maybe offer some advice?

[MrTudo]

No, not colleges. The "government" will advise you of the course, where to take the test etc etc. It's more of a money grab than anything else.

For our "protection" LOL

[carolac]

Lee - here are a couple of websites to help you get started:

Florida Division of Workers' Compensation

This provides information for workers' compensation benefits for your employees or, if you will be a sole proprietor, an exemption application. This site is a little confusing, but there are some links to the far right which will be helpful.

You will need to incorporate -- even if you're just trying to get a workers' comp exemption. The law changed at the end of 2003 and anyone running their own show, not just an employee, must now be a corporation due to all the workers' comp and tax fraud. Painters used to be able to call themselves "subcontractors," work for one painting company, and the painting company would save a TON of payroll taxes and workers' comp because the sub would pay his own taxes and have his own exemption. That's changed as stated above.

Just FYI - workers' comp coverage is hugely expensive in Florida. I was under the impression if you were incorporated and had any employees, they had to be covered by workers' comp. Someone just advised me that is not the case--you can have up to about three employees before coverage is required(?)--not sure about that. We have a payroll company where my hubby and I are employees too, we turn in the hours everyone has worked, they provide us with workers' comp coverage and certificates of coverage when we need to provide them to customers, and they file all our payroll tax returns. We went this route on the recommendation of our liability insurance carrier because we don't have a lot of employees. Our prior company, Hartford, stopped workers' comp coverage in Florida.

Here's another one - Internal Revenue Service

If you go to this website, you will see a little link near the top "businesses." If you click on that, you will see the requirements from the government. You can download handbooks and other information from there. You will need a Federal Employer Identification Number ("FEIN").

Just FYI. Because of the Florida climate, painters flock here--there's work all year round. That may have changed due to the big jump in housing prices--not sure.

I have been seeing some older painting companies closing down--two companies I know of here, and others are losing business and having to change strategy to try to get more business. Companies are hiring illegal immigrants, setting up several painters in very small residences and paying them smaller wages, and those companies with American citizens as painters can't compete with the cheaper prices.

Good luck in your endeavor. My jaw dropped when I saw you have a six month backlog of work. We may move where you are

[lee]

Thanks for all the help guys.

Being in business in the U.S. is alot more complecated than it is in the U.K. !

I will check out the sites you recomended carolac, it's a great help.

We will be coming over to Naples in September for our vacation so hopefully I will have a few leads to follow up when I get there.

Thanks again for all the help

Lee

[dcorres]

Originally Posted by lee

Hi Guys,

I wonder if someone might be able to give me some advice ?

I will be moving from England to Florida in a couple of years when my green card comes through.

We initially intended to settle in Naples but a lot of locals have told us that it's a fantastic place to live until the snowbirds land and then the town changes completely.

Bearing this in mind we like the look of Punta Gorda, I know it has a large retirement population and a low local employment market but I intend to start my own Painting and Decorating business as this is what I have done in England for the past 20 years.

Do'es anyone have any idea if there is potential for this kind of buisness in the area ?

In England we are booked up 6 to 8 months in advance and I wondered if skilled tradesmen were in as big a demand in Florida as we are in England ?

Many thanks......

Hi Lee,

I was wondering if you can give me some helpful tips. I am trying to start my own painting and decorating business but so far have not had any luck. I advertised with doorhangers, postcards and newspaper ads and no one calls. What am I doing wrong? It seems like I am the only one without work and it's very fustrating I see you are booked up 6 to 8 months in advance (Boy...would I love to be in that situation). Can you please help. It would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

David

[lee]

Hi David,
Firstly are you starting your business in the UK or US ?

If it's the UK I may be able to offer a little advice, if it's the US I'm not the guy to ask but anyway here goes.

I have been in business in the NE of England since 1989 and I must admit that when I started it was a very lean time for all tradesmen in the UK so it was a struggle for the first couple of years.

One of the first things I did was to get my business registered with the British Decorators Association (which has now been re named the Painting and Decorating Association).
I found that once you could tell customers that your business has been checked out and approved by a trade organisation and the work that you carried out for them was guaranteed it inspired a lot of confidence and gave you the edge over the cowboy decorators who were coming in with rediculiously low prices.

The second thing I did was to take out an advert in the Yellow Pages which proved to be worth it's weight in gold.
I did not take out a huge advert, remember you don't want to pay for an ad that brings in more work than you can cope with so start with a 3 inch box.
In your advert let people know that you guarantee your work and if a customer does have a problem give it priority people really appreciate it.
Being a member of a trade organisation also allows you to advertise on their corporate box section of the Yellow Pages which works out very reasonable.

I find that advertising with postcards, flyers or the local newspaper does not attract customers who a looking to pay a fair price it's usually someone who just wants a cheap job done and they are the ones who it is the most difficult to get your payment from.

When you do your estimates always try to have a chat with your customer to make them feel at ease with you before you start measuring up , by this I mean just pass a few minutes don't settle down and invite yourself to supper!

Never let a potential customer know that you have no work on the books, you must always be booked up for at least 4 weeks unless you get a cancellation in which case you may be able to do the work sooner, always remember
A GOOD DECORATOR IS A BUSY DECORATOR !

Always give your customers a professional estimate on headed paper and cover all the work that you are quoting for and if you do your estimate in the customers home NEVER NEVER try to push people into accepting your quote because most people are going to get more than one quote so accept this and let them know that if they would like you to carry out the work the best time to catch you is after 6pm at home.

Also try not to be the cheapest quote, most people are realists and they know that no one works for nothing but people don't like to pay over the odds so if you can hit that middle ground you are onto a winner 9 times out of 10.

I hope these words of wisdom are of some help and if you are setting up in Florida I might be coming to you for a job in 18 months!

If there is anyting else I can help with just let me know.

Best of luck

Lee