Profitable Painter Podcast
Profitable Painter Podcast is a rich resource for anyone interested in starting, running, and scaling a professional painting business, offering valuable insights, strategies, and interviews with industry leaders. Through case studies and in-depth discussions, we deliver a vivid picture of the painting industry, with a disclaimer that any financial or tax information is general and not a substitute for professional advice.
Profitable Painter Podcast
Family, Faith, and $4 Million: The Blueprint for Painting Success
From $160K to $4.5M in 4 Years: The Monster Energy Painting Success Story
In this episode, we sit down with the CEO of Montenegro's , to uncover how he and his brother built a thriving painting business in Idaho, starting from scratch and scaling to millions in revenue. Learn their secrets to balancing residential and commercial projects, managing cash flow, and overcoming major challenges like delayed payments and contract pitfalls.
🔑 Key Takeaways:
- How knocking doors and relentless hustle led to their first $100K commercial project.
- The critical mistake in a contract that cost them a year of payments, and how they bounced back.
- Why maintaining a strong residential base is essential for weathering commercial cash flow delays.
- Their growth journey: $160K in Year 1 to $4.5M by Year 4.
- Tips for hiring, team communication, and staying positive in the entrepreneurial grind.
Whether you're in construction, painting, or any service-based business, this episode is packed with actionable lessons on scaling, risk management, and the power of family partnerships.
👉 Don’t miss their advice on finding the right market and saying NO to bad deals!
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https://bookkeepingforpainters.com/Webinar
I want to personally invite you to something special happening on September 9th at 12 p.m. Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific."
I’m hosting the official launch of my brand-new book, Profitable Painter. During this live event, I’ll walk you through 3 powerful frameworks from the book that I’ve used to help over 400 painting businesses scale profitably to $3 million and beyond.
Reserve your spot now at ProfitablePainterCPA.com/webinar
Welcome to the Profitable Painter Podcast. The mission of this podcast is simple to help you navigate the financial and tax aspects of starting, running and scaling a professional painting business, from the brushes and ladders to the spreadsheets and balance sheets. We've got you covered. But before we dive in, a quick word of caution While we strive to provide accurate and up-to-date financial and tax information, nothing you hear on this podcast should be considered as financial advice specifically, welcome to the Profitable Painter Podcast, the show where painting contractors learn how to boost profits, cut taxes and build a business that works for them.
Speaker 2:I'm your host, daniel Honan, cpa and former painting business owner, and your guide to mastering the numbers that drive success. So let's dive in and make your business more profitable, one episode at a time. I'm super excited today to be talking to Jose and Alan of Montenegro Painting, super excited to jump into it. Welcome to the podcast, guys.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you Appreciate that. I appreciate the opportunity, man. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Absolutely no. I'm glad to have you. You guys have built a great business over there in idaho and so I um, I think you will bring a lot of value to the podcast. I'm super excited to jump into it. Uh, could you just, for the listeners, could you kind of give us a picture of what your journey has been in the painting industry, like how did you get started and what are some major milestones that you've had along the way?
Speaker 3:all right first. First of all, I just want to introduce myself. I am Josue Montenegro, ceo of Montenegro Painting and Construction, and I'm Ale.
Speaker 4:Montenegro. I'm the CEO of Montenegro Painting and Construction.
Speaker 3:So when we started, we moved from California like five years ago, almost five years and a half ago, and we started working. We was working for another company in Idaho, like you know employees per hour. And one day, you know, I just talked to my brother and I told him bro, we need to make something. You know, together we have a good communication and quality. You know, we're master painters, we know the work, you know 100%. So we decided to do our own business. You know, we build the logo and we find some magnets, some signs, magnet signs, and we buy one small black Tacoma and we start knocking doors. You know knocking doors and big companies, huge painting corporations, doing cheapest, cheapest work as a contractor, you know. And five months later, or almost eight months later, the people they just don't know about, montenegros, you know, and who they are, or they do a good job. So that's how we start.
Speaker 2:Nice. So it sounds like you guys moved over from California to Idaho, you teamed up with your brother, alan, and you guys just basically started doing guerrilla marketing. It sounds like you're doing getting putting signs up and then going door to door just knocking and trying to find folks that were that need some painting done.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, we make some business. Car flyers, uh, door hangers. We was walking on um stock divisions knocking doors um if I see construction and my brother we saw like construction. We stopped by and we tried to find the superintendents or somebody on the project and introduce myself and offer them our services. That's how we started.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, definitely guerrilla marketing. That's awesome. I mean business card flyers. Doing networking Were most of the starting out in the beginning, were most of the work that you're getting residential repaint, I'm assuming.
Speaker 3:Yes, okay, yes, it was residential On the beginning. Right were most of the work that you're getting residential repaint.
Speaker 2:I'm assuming yes, okay, yes on the beginning.
Speaker 3:Right, and that was that was back in. Was it 2021? Yeah, 2021, yeah, that was back in 2021 july.
Speaker 2:We started the business in july 2021. Okay, so you started getting traction with. Okay, so you started getting traction with residential repaint. And then where did it go from there?
Speaker 3:So in the first year we didn't do any commercial job, just residential jobs, and we made some good profit. So we started investing more in our suppliers, you know, and in our equipment too. So we start doing some small commercial projects because we do drywall texture, interior and exterior painting. So then we start. You know, the painting method, you know, is completely different in residential than commercial and it's a different animal, you know. So we start learning about it. We have some bad experiences and, uh, then we start after. When we learn, you know, uh, we start from there, uh, going more commercial. Now I can tell you, you know, we do like what, 40 and 50, or maybe 40, 60 percent residential and 40 commercial yeah, yeah, okay, so 60 residential, 40 commercial.
Speaker 2:Um, in the the second year you started getting some of those more commercial jobs, and are they? Were they, uh, business to business, or were you working under a general contractor, or was it a mixture of both? Business to business? Yeah, business to business, or were you working under a general contractor, or was it a mixture of both?
Speaker 4:Business to business.
Speaker 3:Yeah, business to business.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they were directly to us.
Speaker 2:Okay, so business to business that's always usually seems to be the better route when you go commercial. Is that direct relationship with the business owner instead of having to go through like working under a general contractor. How did you guys get into that? Because that's always a big thing where folks they're in residential repaint and those commercial jobs. They can be a lot bigger than residential in some cases and that can be pretty attractive. How did you get into the commercial space?
Speaker 3:Can I tell you a funny history. You know it's most it's like lucky. You know we was really lucky because one winter, the first winter in Idaho, winter is kind of slow because you cannot, like, do nothing outside, no exterior paint, just inside. So one day I stopped by to one project, you know like it's a huge multifamily, 210 units, and that was already framed in the concrete windows and everything. And I just go directly to one small trailer you know the superintendent trailer and I knocked the door like Gorilla Market. What did you say? And I knocked the door and a big guy, a huge guy, you know his name is Jeff, you know Jeff. And a big guy, he opened the door and he told me, hey, what's up? And I said, hey, man, I was like a little bit intimidated and I said, hey, hey man, I am Josue Montenegro.
Speaker 3:You know we are a small business, you know, and we do good work. We just need one shot, give me the opportunity, and he doesn't care, trust me, he doesn't care. So I give him my, I give him my business card, and I just stood around, you know, and he noticed my name and he asked me hey, hey, yo, what's? Your name Is Jose or jose. And I told him it's jose. Oh, where are you from? I'm from honduras. And he told me oh, my wife is, my wife is from honduras.
Speaker 3:So we start talking over there like for four or five minutes and there, there the history come. He told me do you know what? Tomorrow we have a national meeting with the owners. Can you come tomorrow? I'm going to give you a shot. We hired some painters from Utah already. They have a signed contract. But I'm going to give you a shot, if you can, I'm going to give you the opportunity to go in the meeting. When is your time? You have to sell your products, sell yourself, you know. And I told him, yeah, so next day I was there at 7 am in the morning with my sherwin william rep. So we make a plan. Uh, we uh check all the plans so I go like a hundred percent like prepare, you know, to talk to those guys.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, when there was my time, you know, uh, the owners, they asked me like a thousand questions, though, like a thousand questions in less than a minute. You know, like quick, yeah, my hands, my hands sweating and everything. And uh, yeah, they don't tell me nothing. They just told me okay, good job, nothing. So four months later I was driving one of my personal cars, because we didn't have a fleet yet. You know, I want a small red car, a Honda Civic. And I received a phone call in my cell phone and hey, we're calling from the strategic builders from Utah. I just want to let you know you guys are a work on the project and that's a. That was a six hundred thousand dollars project.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was the first one 210 unit, and I started crying on that moment though that's a huge job six hundred thousand dollars yeah, one, for I was scared and I was thinking what I'm gonna do, you know how we going to do this big project. And another one I was really excited. So I called my wife and I said babe, we made it. You know, we made it. And I called my brother we made it.
Speaker 2:And yeah, so that's how we started.
Speaker 3:And that was in the second year that you got that. Yeah, that was in the beginning of 2022, true, yeah, okay, beginning of 2022. So then, um, I, we started doing the work, so we got more income, so we started investing more in our fleet equipment, employees and, uh, big, uh signs, you know signs, and we started having, like, more phone calls, more phone calls, more phone calls for commercial you know, because I have a big commercial going on.
Speaker 2:That's amazing and you said you were lucky. But it sounds like you kind of made your own luck because you were going out. You're doing door knocking not only residential homes but also commercial properties basically. So it doesn't sound like you're lucky to me. It sounds like you're just working hard and you went out and you made things happen.
Speaker 3:But that's amazing $600,000 project and you're just working hard and you, you went out and you made things happen. But that's amazing. Uh, six hundred thousand dollar project and you're only eight months in and you locked that in. So that's sorry, and we make like how much we're making change orders, so that one so that probably went probably like point one point million. Yeah, we make almost a million over there. You know we change orders like 400 more and exchange orders on that project.
Speaker 4:We have the drywall, and they had a drywall before, so they try to take the mile from there. So they give us the contract at the end for drywall too. So we put our grows there to start the drywall, and then that's what we get more, you know, income from there that's awesome and and uh and the.
Speaker 2:The crazy thing is, you know you said you're you have these big commercial jobs coming in, but at the same time it's only 40 percent of your total revenue, so you're still doing most of your work with residential right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, usually what we do, daniel, is do you know, commercial. They take too long to pay. I don't know in other states, but in Idaho they take between 60 to 90 days to pay you and they have big amounts, big checks. So what I do with my brother it's, uh, we keep one crew. We have 15 employees right now, so we keep one crew on commercial residential. So, do you know the residential is quick money, you finish and you get paid. So that money is the cash flow for us. You know the cash flow. We can cover payroll insurances, workers' comp suppliers, and then when the big check comes, you know from commercial we can invest or saving, you know, for payrolls. That's what we do.
Speaker 2:That's really smart. So because of the long the terrible payment structure, payment schedule for commercial where you're getting, you're having to wait 60, 90 days to get paid and it's really hard on cash because you have to pay out your team, you have to pay for your materials and you're just waiting for cash to come in. And to mitigate that, you keep a crew who's focused on residential, who's getting those paid quickly because you have those shorter term projects with residential. Are you also taking a deposit on residential as well to help with that further?
Speaker 3:Yeah, usually we take 20%, sometimes depending on how big is the job and how big is the amount, and sometimes 50%. And then at the end, my brother Alan. He walked through around with the owner and they have five business day to pay us the remaining balance at the end.
Speaker 4:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So 20 to 50% down for the residential side and that's keeping the cash coming in so that you can weather that long period of time on the commercial side of waiting to get paid. And it sounds like you have a really good balance too, because most of the work you're getting is residential and then less than half is coming from commercial. So you're able to manage that cash flow, which is super important for commercial, because I know a lot of folks they get into trouble when they try to do just commercial and they don't have financing lined up and then they're just putting money on credit cards or whatever else and they go into a lot of debt and they're really tight on cash and it can be really painful because you're just waiting to get paid.
Speaker 3:Yeah, honestly, in 2022, we make a big mistake. Uh, we, we, uh, we was a work for one project at Fred Meyer. It's a Fred Meyer it's a big supermarket here in Idaho and we make that project for one big company it's a big corporation here in Idaho 20, $225,000 project. So we handled that project and that was the second year of Montenegro's and we was excited. You know another big one working nighttime, because in supermarkets or hospitals or schools, you only work nighttime. You know the payroll is time and a half, so increase your cost, your labor cost, right, and uh, okay, we have a budget from the other project, uh, from the apartments, and we use that budget to cover the labor on fred mayor. You know fred mayor store and, uh, this company, they take like almost a year to pay us. We went, yeah, we sued them and we went in the court like on properties, liens on the building. They don't care. We went on court like four times, you know, and they pay us the money like small amounts and small amounts like that, and we sign a contract. We make a mistake. We sign a contract and the contract say you know, when the owners pay them the full amount, they can pay us the full amount. So that takes like almost a year.
Speaker 3:On that year, in 2022, we almost was in bankrupt. In bankrupt, you know, we was like kind of scared. We have a really hard time to pay people, uh, to pay suppliers, you know. And after that, in 2023, we change. We change the metal, you know. Okay, now we work with, uh, the team here in the office. If we have a big budget, I start looking for a big commercial. Okay, I can't fish a big one right now because I had the budget, you know, for any reason, you know, and if we don't have that budget, I just keep in residential, you know, I just stay there yeah, okay, that that's really smart.
Speaker 2:So in 2022, you had a large project $225,000 from this friend mayor's store and you completed the project and they took like a year to pay and there was a hidden clause in the contract that said that they didn't have to pay you until they got paid, and so that was like a big learning experience. It sounds like that's definitely a good thing for the listeners. Like, if you're getting into commercial, make sure you understand the contract or at least have a lawyer or somebody who's good with contracts to look it over for you so that you know what you're getting into. So that's a really I appreciate you sharing that, because that's that can be a mistake that other folks can avoid yeah but I really love the in 2023.
Speaker 2:After you learn from that large project. That kind of went the wrong direction. You changed the way you handled taking on commercial projects. You basically sounds like you you make sure you have enough residential booked. Once you get to a certain level of residential booked projects, then you're like, okay, now we can take on another commercial because to make sure that your cash flow doesn't get too strained, is that right?
Speaker 3:Yes, exactly that's what we do.
Speaker 2:Okay. Do you have a formula, or is it a certain amount that you're looking to book on the residential side before you? What does that math look like?
Speaker 3:I think no less than $100,000. You know, probably four, two, three months of payroll. That's usually what I try to save before to take a big one. Yeah, okay, and I think, montenegros, we can handle one or two big ones per year, no more than that, because it's a big risk, not commercial. So that's why I usually take, and we usually take, like a small clinics, chiropractic clinics, uh, starbucks, um, you know, like a small commercial jobs like thirty thousand dollars. I, I take that ones, you know, like the same day I take it, but on multi-families, uh, school hospitals, families, school hospitals, like a big commercial, like talking about big amounts of money.
Speaker 2:I just take one or two per year, and so big projects, is that like defined as over $100,000? Or is that like considered a big project for you?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Okay. So you kind of limit how many projects you take because you want to make sure you have the cash in the bank to cover payroll on that project before you start to go do it because you know you're not going to get paid for 60 days, 90 days or maybe even longer if you have that fred meyer thing happen again where they didn't pay you for a year. So I think that's really smart. You're basically making sure you have the labor covered because you got to keep paying your people during the commercial jobs. You can't put that on your credit card. You got to have cash for it. So you make sure you have the cash in the bank from your residential before you get into any larger commercial project.
Speaker 3:Yeah, people ask us you know how we make it right, how we make it right, uh, how we make it? Because, uh, until 2025, we just barely got the line of credit on the bank for montenegro's, you know. So we was using our own money. Everything is montenegro's money, not bank money. So right now, until this year, because we grow a lot, so, yeah, we don't have any options. So we got to the bank and then, yeah, I like the credits and they give us a lot of credit. You know, now we can handle more nice, nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's, that's great. So now you have a little bit of extra room with that line of credit. Um, I'm sure you had to probably provide some financial statements and all that to get approved. Usually the bank want to see kind of what your your profit and loss and balance sheet and all that stuff looks like. But you get approved for line of credit. So now you can have a little bit more flexibility on on those commercial projects.
Speaker 3:It sounds like yeah, and it's a bank, they know us. So when we start the business, we start with that bank. And yeah, they ask us, right, like tax, uh, tax, um, or taxes, paper taxes, you know, like taxes proved for three years. So they check income, uh, they check the profit, the gross profit, and uh, they told us okay, this is what you guys can have right now. Do you want to take it or not? And they say it's a good start, then it's 2026. We can ask them for more.
Speaker 3:It's just a bet on how the year goes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and lines of credit are great because you don't have to. You can just have that available if you need it, but you don't have to use it. It's just there if you need it, which is great, especially for commercial. So you could keep doing what you're doing with making sure you have the cash, but if something really goes wrong, you have that line of credit as a backup.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's right, yeah, that's super smart, okay, super smart, okay. So 2021, you got started, got into residential. 2022, got into some some commercial, learned some lessons about those larger commercial jobs, figured it out in 2023 to manage your cashflow by balancing residential and commercial projects. And, uh, and now in 2025, you have that line of credit from the bank.
Speaker 3:Along this journey, the last five years or so. What's your revenue look like each year? The first year, in 2021, we started business in July. So between July to December, we just make $160,000. Just me and my brother and my brother-in-law so we was working together on the field. The second year, we made $485,000. Yeah, that's 2023, right. And the following year, we make $1.7 million in 2024. 2023, yeah, $1.7 million. And last year, 2024, we made $2.5 million. Wow.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. That's amazing growth. Congratulations on that. That's pretty amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Go ahead, congratulations on that. That's, that's pretty amazing. Yeah, go ahead. Oh, and I was just saying like 160 000 in the first six months, um, and then now in 2024, full full year, in 2024, 2.5 million. That's amazing growth. I mean that's, that's crazy how fast you guys grew, so you, you must have been kind of busy those, uh, those four years.
Speaker 3:That's a lot of work yeah, to be honest, we make a lot of sacrifices, you know, because, uh, now we have an instructor, uh, uh, because we're growing. So you have to. You know, like, for example, we have our executive assistant, we have a, a secretary, my brother, he's the PM. You know a CEO, he runs all the fields, and I am the business guy. You know the sales guy, the estimator, and we have our leaders it's true, yeah, it's true and a superintendent. So that's because we're growing, so we don't have time talking about time, so we make a lot of sacrifices. On family, you know, sometimes we work nights, sometimes we work weekends, but it's worth it though, you know, because it depends on your goal, your vision. You know where you want to go. Yeah, we're very clear on that.
Speaker 2:Do you mind sharing what your vision is like? What do you have? What's what's the plan?
Speaker 3:I don't know my brother's one, but mine, in my personal opinion, um, this year I want to buy a land, you know, maybe one or two acres, and um, maybe next year find a construction lawn and, uh, build own place, you know, like more than a house place, like big warehouse, and that way we don't have to rent, you know, make a parking lot or office. That's, that's one of my goals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'd be great, that's awesome.
Speaker 4:Well, same, we would do the same for a company. I just going to follow you, yeah, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome. So at this point, which which you have is a alan's doing the project management, you have one or two sales people uh, just me right now uh, sometimes he helped me, but it's just me right now okay, so you're doing the sales right now, and then you have obviously your crews and your crew leaders, and then you have someone in the office. Is it one or two people in the office?
Speaker 3:Two. So usually what I do is on the week, five business days. So on the week I take two days or three just to go outside to do estimates, contracts, networking, you know, talk to other contractors and other people relationships. I take three and two days inside my office doing all the estimates and pass the estimates to my executive assistant. So in the office we always we are like three or four people all the time, yeah, and then uh, 11 or 13 on the field yeah, and and so, alan, you're doing all the project management for the the 2.5 million or greater at this point I'm the one who take care of the job.
Speaker 4:So if the job has to be done the right way, quality first of all. We do quality. I specifically myself doing a quality control and stuff like that, you know. So the job can pass and people can still call on us. So that's one of the reasons people call us, because we're like show up on time. So if they call us, this is wrong. We always show up without like a charge, without nothing. We just go there, try to make the clients and people happy. That's the first thing that we liked and people love that, because if the customer clients are happy, we're happy and everybody go home and everybody get happy.
Speaker 4:So that's why it's a hard job for me, because sometimes I got to deal with a lot of stuff, especially with the crews, because I got my kids too, you know, and it's like if I haven't more kids, I know the place or I run with them every time telling them do this this way. So it's fun. I'm still I'm learning and like, uh, years ago I used to work at California as a superintendent a big project, uh, commercial stuff too. So I got a little bit. I know a lot of stuff about it, so I know how to deal with the stuff. So that's why that's one of the things that make us grow up too, because I got the how do you say the I forget the word experience about it. So that's what we, that's what it made. My brother has his own experience and different stuff, and I have experience in my, on the job, on the work, so that make us a good company, you know, like good communication, good team. So that's where we are right now. That's why that's why we're here.
Speaker 2:So and it was so to uh doing being the production manager on 2.5 million or more. That's, that's a lot. Um, so what is the scope of your job? Because you know some folks different painting companies. They define their project managers role a little bit differently. So I'm just curious like you know, the office probably helps with some of the onboarding of a new customer, like getting colors. Where do you actually pick up the responsibility from?
Speaker 4:So I take it once my brother do the estimate and they said, ok, this approval. I just Elizabeth the office. She sent me a text or the information of the property and I just go walk with the superintendent and check it out before we start the job and, knowing more about the customer, I see, tell them who I am and from there I just got, I got the job and then from there I just give it back to the office when it's done so they can charge, and then I walk with the person and get the money back. So from that call, from that text, everything is my responsibility. I'm the person who has to do everything from there.
Speaker 2:Okay, so basically the estimates signed, the proposal signed and the office just lets you know hey, we have a new customer, and then you take it over from there. It sounds like.
Speaker 3:Yeah, usually. So when we have an option, you know, to approve or decline, right on the customers. So when they get approved, my office she called them or she called the customers and they put in contact and they start making a contract, because on the beginning we was working without contract and a lot of people they don't pay us. You know that we get a scam a lot and for big corporations too, they steal money. You know big, huge corporations. So now, uh, we are different, so when it's approved we make a contract. When they sign the contract, uh, they can do that electronically or they can stop by to your office. So when, uh, they sign that we ask them, you know, for, uh, the percent, sometimes the deposit is 30 or 50 percent what I was telling you, um, and then we pass everything through island and we schedule. You know we check the schedule, which dates we have availability to put that job on.
Speaker 2:And yeah, right on, ready to move forward project is approved, like you're taking it, and then getting getting the initial deposit, if needed, and getting it scheduled, and then, and then from there, alan takes it from there.
Speaker 4:yeah, okay, gotcha they've got a schedule for me too, so they have our schedules. So they make a schedule for me a day so I can walk with the superintendent.
Speaker 2:So just walk and see how we're gonna do the job and from there, yeah, and are you producing the, the residential side too, as well as the commercial? Everything okay yeah, cool that. That, yeah, that's, that's. That's a lot on your plate. So, uh, it seems like are you guys gonna produce in 2025? Like what's your projected? Are you guys going to produce in 2025? Like what's your projected revenue? Are you guys going to be about 2.5 again, or are you going to be able to?
Speaker 3:do more than that. More than that, the goal is to stay there, or the goal is 4 million. You know, hopefully we can hit that amount, but we'll see man 4 million in 2025?. Yeah, that's the goal. Yeah, so we're now just in the middle of the year. I think we're closing like almost a million point three, a million point four, so I know maybe three million.
Speaker 2:Yeah, three million. Okay, it seems like it could be. I could be wrong, because there are some painting businesses that can get away with, you know, in terms of we need to bring on another project manager or another salesperson to really get past that point.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think we were talking about that. You know, we do meetings here at the office. We do one monthly meeting or safety meeting as well. So when we talk about it, I think we're almost on that point, you know, we're almost on that point to hire another sales guy, another sales guy and maybe another project manager too, because it's too much responsibility for my brother. Brother, it's a lot, you know. And, um, sometimes he had to deal with clients, he had to deal with, uh, employees, he had to deal off with the office and he had to deal with suppliers. So, you know, so it's a lot. So here we are, we're trying to get in there, uh, because it's just depend the demand, know, and right now we have a big demand. But usually in winter it's kind of a little bit slow, you know, because you know there's a lot of snow around. But in summer, you know, maybe for next summer we have to do it, because summer is our best season, you know it's the best. It's starting from what?
Speaker 3:april may yeah, I think between may and may to october. You know that's our biggest, biggest months you know, but we're talking about it. You know we have, we're talking about it and I know we have to get it there. You know another salesperson and another.
Speaker 2:Uh em yeah yeah, it seems, yeah, you guys are, you guys are killing it and you're doing, I'm sure, a ton of work. So that's pretty impressive to do to have one salesperson, one production manager and and do three or four million in revenue. So that's kudos to you guys. But yeah, it seems like you know to get to the next level beyond that, probably a project manager, another salesperson to add to the team, and you know I know a lot of folks for compensation packages. You know folks are doing like 8% for a salesperson usually. You know, maybe, maybe pay them like six and a half percent of what they close and then you add in like the payroll burden on top of that ends up being about 8% of what they close. Maybe mix it between base and commission, um, and then tie that to like, uh, customer satisfaction scores and gross profit is common things to tie the compensation to those, to those, those metrics like Google reviews or gross profit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, usually here they work by commission. You know, in Google reviews owners, they paid him like a hundred bucks for each review. You know, for the sale guys commission. You know, for the uh, cell guys, um, commission. You know, whatever they close, uh, they commission, they have a commission about it.
Speaker 3:But we didn't hire, like uh, pm right now or um, another superintendent or cell guys, because we're kind of kind of a little bit picky right now, you know, on hiring, because you never know, you know which people is going to show up. And uh, we made that mistake in the beginning. You know, we just was hiring people, a lot of people, hiring people just to show the customer. Hey, yeah, montenegros, they have a big manpower, they show up everywhere, you know. But we have struggles with payroll, we have struggles with, uh, quality control, we have struggles with workers come, you know, and uh, and struggles, you know, with employees. They just show up two, three days and they just gone, you know. So now we, we didn't work like that.
Speaker 3:Elizabeth, she is the uh, the so, and Carla. So we have an application, so they have to fill in the application for work, you know, and if we are hiding those applications, they go to me and my brother. So we read everything and if they have the feed like what we're looking for, we call them, you know, and they come to our office and we have a personal interview and if they have, we have that vibe. If we have that vibe and we know, oh, that guy, you know what he's talking about, so we give them a shot. You know, if doesn't, we just call it an alignment? Sorry, but you're not the right fit, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So that's why you know we're looking, we're waiting for the good. That guy is going to come. We know he's going to come.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's definitely a key role. Yeah, project manager, salesperson, very, very important role. So definitely choose wisely, for sure.
Speaker 3:It is because, look, it's your responsibility, right? It's your brand, it's your name, it's your company, you know, so has to be somebody who loves your company, though you know who loves, who loves what he's doing, because, if done, it's a big, big risk. You know it's red numbers, yeah yes, sir, awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, jose and alan, you've been super generous with your time. Really, you've dropped a ton of value on the listeners and you guys have built something really amazing over there in Idaho Super impressed. And was there anything that you'd like to close out with or ask the audience of, or anything else you'd like to say about growing your business to the level that you have to give any final tips or anything before we let you go today?
Speaker 4:Just keep it positive. That's the only thing that I can say. A lot of people don't trust that brothers can make it, because that's true. People say when they have a business with your brothers or family, they broke out. So it's a lie.
Speaker 4:If you're positive and you have good communication with your brother or whoever is your partner as a family, that's the main thing that you have to do. Keep good communication and good relationship. That's what we have as a family. That's the main thing that you have to do, like keep a good communication and good relationship. That's what we have. So that's what makes Montanerros more stronger, you know, as a family and as a business. That's the only thing I can say. Just keep it positive. Keep your mentality like that and don't never give up. Don't let anybody tell you this is wrong and now you're doing your way and you will find out like you're doing your way and you will find out like you're doing right and in my case, in my case for the audience, or in other contractors and other painters, one of my advice advices is like find the right market.
Speaker 3:You know the right market for your company. Uh, don't take the jobs just to take the jobs, because that's red numbers. That's what I'm saying when people they want cheap, or a customer told you, or another contractor told you I'm going to provide you materials and supply, just give me the labor. Don't take those jobs, because that's red numbers.
Speaker 2:Yeah sage advice well it's, it's hard to do, but uh, you, you guys have figured that out for sure, and kudos to you. So I really appreciate your time today, guys, and for our listeners. We will see you next week thank you.
