How To Start a Painting Business: 7-Step Guide

One of the best ways to spruce up a building is by painting it. Whether it’s a fresh coat for your kitchen or an entirely new color for the outside of your house, paint adds aesthetic appeal while protecting exterior walls and other surfaces. 

The market supports this demand—painting services projected to expand from $63 billion in 2023 to $93 billion in 2031. Starting a painting business lets skilled painters become their own boss and set their own schedule. This guide walks you through everything from choosing your painting services to finding your first clients—covering business registration, insurance requirements, equipment purchases, and marketing strategies to bring in customers.

Types of painting services

Before investing in equipment or licenses, determine which services will differentiate you in your local market. Each specialty requires different tools, skills, and insurance considerations—and commands different price points. Understanding these categories helps you avoid overextending your startup budget on equipment you won't use.

Here are some of the most common types of painting services that you could consider offering with your own business:

• Interior painting. This involves painting walls, doors, ceilings, and baseboards inside a building. You could also include more specialized add-ons like cabinet painting and decorative finishes.

• Exterior painting. Offer services in which you paint the stucco, siding, trim, doors, and shutters on the outside of a building, with add-on services like waterproofing or power washing and preparing surfaces before painting.

• Wood staining. Deck and fence restoration projects often command premium rates with less competition than basic interior painting. This specialty requires mastering sanding, staining, and finishing techniques for outdoor durability.

• Color consulting. Another service is to offer advice about color selection and application for both interior and exterior painting.

• Drywall repair and removal. Painting services can also offer drywall repair and removal services for walls and ceilings.

How to start a painting business

1. Research the painting industry in your area
2. Write a business plan for your painting company
3. Set up your painting business
4. Research safety requirements
5. Buy painting equipment
6. Create a website for your painting business
7. Develop marketing efforts to find clients

Use these steps as a guide when it comes time to launch your own painting business:

1. Research the painting industry in your area

Perform a competitive analysis on other painting businesses in your local area. Look at websites, online reviews, and listings on platforms like Angi and Nextdoor. Who are their target customers? Are they primarily residential or commercial clients requiring painting services in your area? What are the average price points for painting services? This research prevents you from launching into a saturated market with no competitive advantage—the primary reason new painting businesses fail to gain traction.

Think about how your business can develop a unique value proposition in your local market. For example, your research could show the local market is crowded with companies offering interior painting services. However, there’s little to no competition for wood staining services.

2. Write a business plan for your painting company

Write out a detailed business plan that outlines what you want to achieve with your painting business and your timeline to get there. Build yours from an existing business plan template that includes some key sections:

• Executive summary. This is a one-page summary of your overall objectives and strategies, typically written last after building out the other sections in your business plan.

• Company overview. Describe why your company exists, where you will offer painting services, and how your background positions you well to run your company, highlighting your work history and what painting skills you’ve developed through your experience.

• Products or services offered. Explain what painting services you will offer with your business, including specialized services and add-ons like exterior power washing or interior cabinet painting.

• Market analysis. Include your competitive analysis as well as other important market research about factors like market size and market saturation.

• Marketing plan. Create your marketing plan, a document that explains what strategies you will use to gain clients, including online and offline marketing campaigns and your overall pricing strategy.

• Logistics and operations plan. In this section, describe how your business will handle the logistics and operations that go into providing painting services, from sourcing paint products and equipment to transportation.

• Financial plan. List out any of your startup costs and operating expenses, as well as financial projections for earnings based on market research. Explain how you plan to fund your painting business—for example, self-funding, crowdfunding, or a small business loan.

3. Set up your painting business

Start by legally establishing your business by choosing the business structure that best suits your size and needs. For example, if you’re running a small painting operation on your own, you could choose a sole proprietorship. By contrast, a limited liability company (LLC) offers several advantages, including protecting your personal assets from financial losses incurred from property damage or legal judgments.

In the US, obtain a general business license from your local town, city, or county. Depending on where you live, you might also need to apply for a state contractor’s license. For example, painting businesses can operate in Colorado without a state license, but California requires businesses performing painting projects that cost $1,000 or more (including materials and labor) to obtain a C-33 Painting and Decorating Contractor license from the state. This involves passing a two-part exam and proving four years of experience in the painting industry.

Open a business bank account and purchase general liability insurance to protect your painting business in case of property damage or bodily injury. Consider other types of insurance to cover your business, like commercial auto insurance for your work vehicle and workers’ compensation insurance if you plan to hire employees.

4. Research safety requirements

Review all rules and regulations that apply to your painting business. In the US, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (also known as OSHA) regulates safety requirements for painting contractors. Here are a few of the OSHA rules:

• Painters’ footwear needs to be non-sparking, meaning using rubber boots or rubber-soled shoes without nails, and rubber gloves rather than plastic ones to avoid static sparks. 

• Employees spraying paint with toxic solvents (like many oil-based paints) need to use airline respirators.

• Coverall clothing needs to be made from cotton.

• When using flammable paints (like oil-based paints), you need non-flammable equipment, meaning the metal parts of paint brushes and rollers are insulated.

5. Buy painting equipment

Your equipment impacts the quality of your work. Purchasing high-quality painting tools for your painting projects may cost more at first, but will pay for themselves through efficiency and results.

The specific painting equipment and supplies you need will vary depending on what services you offer. Here are some of the most common types of painting equipment to consider buying:

Essential tools

• Painter’s tape

• Paint brushes

• Paint sprayers

• Paint rollers and roller trays

• Drop cloths (to protect surfaces like floors from paint)

• Tape measure

• Can openers

Surface preparation tools

• Putty knife and putty (for filling holes and cracks in walls)

• Sandpaper

• Caulk and a caulking gun

• Wall cleaning products

• Pressure washer (if you plan to offer exterior surface painting)

• Priming paint

Safety and access

• Ladders

• Extension poles (for reaching higher surfaces)

• Personal protective equipment (PPE) like glasses, gloves, and respirators

6. Create a website for your painting business

Before launching marketing efforts, create an attractive website where you can direct clients to book painting appointments. Launch a website for your painting services business on a reliable platform like Shopify. 

You can download appointment booking apps that integrate with your Shopify website and let clients schedule painting services directly from the website. Use high-quality photos on your website that feature previous painting jobs.

7. Develop marketing efforts to find clients

Implement the marketing strategy you developed for your business plan to attract potential clients for your painting business. Some of the most effective strategies that you could pursue include:

• Local business listings. List your painting business on online directories that consumers use to find services, including Angi, Nextdoor, Yelp, Fiverr, and Thumbtack.

• Direct mail and other printed materials. Print flyers, brochures, and business cards with your business name, services, website URL, and contact details and send them to potential customers in your area. Hand out or post printed materials in places with heavy foot traffic, including community centers, malls, coffee shops, and public parks.

• Local SEO. Local SEO involves improving your rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs) for your local area by using strategies like claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile and adding relevant local keywords to your website.

• Social media marketing. Post useful how-to videos and tutorials on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, promoting your business and expertise while offering useful information to potential clients.

• Word-of-mouth marketing. Encourage word of mouth by incentivizing happy clients to post reviews and make referrals through a referral program or loyalty points program.

• Partnerships. Research companies in your area you could partner with to generate new leads for your painting business. You could contact property management companies, real estate agents, and general contractors in your area to see if any of their clients need painting services.