How 360° Painting Gives Franchisees an Opportunity to Outpace the Competition

Founded in 2005 as one of Premium Service Brands (PSB)****’s three flagship brands, 360° Painting is a painting-services franchise based out of Charlottesville, Virginia that offers a comprehensive, personalized painting service to customers. Ever since the brand introduced its franchise opportunity in 2006, 360° Painting has become the go-to resource for all things commercial and residential painting. The franchise has grown to include 121 units nationwide and was ranked the **No.

1 franchise in the painting category for two years in a row on Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500 List****.

“Our painting franchise offers an opportunity for a scalable business as well as a low initial investment without the need for a brick-and-mortar location,” said Joel Gotshall, Vice President of 360° Painting. “As franchisees, our partners have access to our proven business methods and exceptional support infrastructure, ensuring that they will run their painting business efficiently and cost-effectively in order to maximize earnings and provide industry-leading services. There are strong margins in painting that are very easy to control with proper management of labor and materials, resulting in the ability to be profitable within one year.****”

In today’s market, where people are constantly remodeling and redecorating their homes and businesses, the painting industry continues to grow. Instead of moving into newer or bigger homes, people are improving the homes they are already in. Still, regardless of the state of the market, there is always a need for reliable, top-quality painting services. With a 360° Painting franchise, owners can tap into this growing industry and curate lasting customer relationships.

To create these relationships, 360° Painting has set itself apart in the fragmented painting industry by taking a consumer-focused approach to turn each homeowner’s vision into a reality. The brand delivers dazzling results on projects of any size and any scope, through a professional’s touch from the planning stage to the end product. With an approach founded on quality, responsiveness and customer service, 360º Painting prides itself on being the perfect choice for any painting project, including residential homes, commercial properties, shopping centers, universities, schools, offices, restaurants, hospitals, municipal buildings and more.

Thus, franchisees have access to multiple streams of revenue thanks to this wide range of services, including residential interior and exterior painting, commercial painting, deck painting and staining, fence painting and staining, concrete staining and drywall repair.

“Our franchise partners have completed tens of thousands of projects over the years, and have received nearly 100-percent positive feedback from our customers,” said Gotshall. “At 360° Painting, we have developed the comprehensive, unique “360 Painting Process” and in-home consultation method to increase our customer satisfaction. It is our attention to detail, unparalleled professionalism and relentless commitment to customer service that ensures that franchisees establish a trusting relationship with the customer and create a solid reputation in their community.”

According to Gotshall, experience in the home improvement or painting industry isn’t mandatory to own a 360º Painting franchise.

“First-and-foremost, ideal franchise partners need the drive and the will to succeed,” he said. “We are looking for individuals with corporate or business experience who want to be the leaders of an industry that is experiencing enormous growth.”

For example, Naperville, Illinois franchisee Brian Conrad joined the 360° Painting team in January 2018 with a mission to diversify his family’s business portfolio. “Coming from a corporate background, I am certainly not a painter, but I was drawn to 360º Painting’s scalable business model and low initial investment,” he said. “After discussing the opportunity with the corporate team, it was clear that none of the competitors offered the brand’s level of consistency for the consumer and we knew it was the perfect opportunity to become a frontrunner in the lucrative painting industry.”

As a 360° Painting franchisee, owners have an immediate advantage over independent contractors, with access to systems, software, technology, training and the support of an experienced staff along with vendor partnerships and products sourced from PPG Architectural Coatings and Sherwin-Williams, the world’s largest paint company.

Once a prospective franchisee signs on with the brand, 360º Painting offers the most comprehensive franchisee training program in the home-services industry, which consists of an initial, month long program to educate franchisees on creating a marketing plan, completing estimates and finding the best sub-contracted painters. 360º Painting has invested in an expert Operations Team to help coach and lead franchise owners to grow, and the brand’s support staff is also available for 1-1 on-the-ground training to support each new opening and provide assistance with estimating software, business management, the franchisee resource center, recruiting and managing employees and subcontractors, marketing, sales and technology.

“Opening a business presents franchisees with many new challenges,” said Gotshall. “As franchisees implement the 360° Painting systems and grow their business, we provide access to support from PSB’s corporate staff who have years of experience in both franchising and the painting industry. Our franchisee-to-support-staff ratio is the best in the business and we offer additional training programs throughout the year.”

When opening new franchise operations, each 360º Painting franchisee owns an exclusive territory with a flexible minimum of 30,000 households with incomes over $75,000 per year and at least 300,000 in population. The PSB family is dedicated to supporting these local communities, and through Kids-Lift, franchise owners and corporate staff pledge to partner with schools, organizations and groups that serve at-risk children and their families by running specific, targeted in-kind donation campaigns. The company prides itself on connecting those who want to give with those who need the most.

In 2019, 360º Painting signed 48 franchisees and opened 46 new locations in markets including Charlotte, Atlanta, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Portland, Chicago, Seattle, Austin and Indianapolis. Looking ahead to 2020, 360° Painting plans to focus its attention on multi-unit expansion, and Flick expects as many as 30 new franchisees to join the brand by the end of the year, and he’s set a system-wide growth goal of 67 percent.

“In the fractured home-improvement market, working with an established and recognized franchise like 360° Painting gives small business owners the power to outpace their competition,” said Gotshall. “We are excited to continue partnering with qualified franchisees to provide industry-leading painting services all over the country.”