How to start a painting business step by step

Most people start a painting business in the wrong order. They buy a sprayer and a wrapped van first, then scramble for a license when a commercial job asks for proof of insurance. Do it the other way. The correct sequence is forced by paperwork, not preference: you cannot bind insurance without a registered entity, you cannot pull a contractor license in many states without proof of insurance, and no supplier or commercial client will give you an account without both. Follow the chain below and you will be legal, insured, and taking deposits inside a month, on a few thousand dollars, without owning a single tool you have not already paid for with a booked job.

Step 1: Form the entity and get your tax IDs

Start with an LLC, filed with your secretary of state for $50 to $500 depending on the state. It separates your house and savings from a dropped ladder that dents a client’s car, and it is what every downstream account is issued against. The moment the LLC is approved, apply for a free EIN on irs.gov; it takes ten minutes and unlocks the bank account, insurance, and supplier credit. If your painted-on-the-van name differs from the LLC name, file a DBA with your county.

Then open a real business checking account (Chase Business Complete, Bluevine, or Novo) and a separate business card before any money moves. Commingling paint receipts with your grocery card is how the LLC’s liability shield gets pierced the one time you need it.

Step 2: Sequence the license, insurance, and the money

Here the order gets specific and it varies by state, so run the slow parts in parallel. Insurance and the contractor license each gate the other in different states, so start both the same week.

File the license first because it is the long pole, then let insurance, banking, and supplier accounts fall in behind it while the board processes your application.

Step 3: Insure it like a painter, not a generic business

Two policies matter at launch. General liability ($1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate) runs $600 to $1,800 a year for a solo residential painter and covers the property-damage claims this trade actually generates. If you hire even one helper, workers comp becomes mandatory in nearly every state; painting class codes run about $8 to $16 per $100 of payroll, cheaper than roofing but a real four-figure line you must build into your price. Add commercial auto on the work van ($1,200 to $2,500) once you are driving to jobs daily.

Pick an agent who issues same-day certificates of insurance. Commercial and property-manager work runs on COIs, and an agent who takes two days to send one quietly costs you the job that needed proof this afternoon.

Step 4: Buy nothing you cannot pay for from job one

You do not need a sprayer, a rack of ladders, or a wrapped van to start. The lean kit is brushes, a 9-inch and a cut-in roller set, two extension poles, drop cloths, painter’s tape, a 6-foot and an extension ladder, a caulk gun, and a couple of five-in-one tools, well under $800 at Sherwin-Williams or a Benjamin Moore dealer. Rent the sprayer for the first spray job at $60 to $90 a day and buy your own only once you are spraying weekly. Open accounts at Sherwin-Williams and a Benjamin Moore store for contractor pricing (typically 20 to 40 percent off retail) and net-30 terms, so material floats on the supplier’s dime until the client pays.

The full working kit and the buy-versus-rent line is in buying equipment and supplies for a painting business, and if you are launching with almost nothing, start a painting business with no money shows how to bootstrap the gear.

Step 5: Price the work and turn on lead flow

Estimating is what separates a busy painter who is broke from a busy painter who is profitable. Price residential interior repaints by measuring wall square footage and applying a per-square-foot rate (commonly $2 to $6 depending on prep and coats), or price by the room, but always with a written scope that names prep, number of coats, and exclusions. Take a deposit (typically 25 to 35 percent) to fund materials, then progress or on-completion payments. Get the method right in setting the best prices and billing before you quote a stranger.

Then turn on leads. Claim your Google Business Profile, list on your local marketplace, and ask everyone you know for the first three jobs. The broader lead playbook is in how to get clients and customers for a painting business.

Getting found is the part that decides everything

Two steps are free and worth doing in week one: fully complete and verify your Google Business Profile with real before/after photos, and text every past client and neighbor a review link, because your first ten reviews book more first-time callers than any ad. Those cost nothing and start the phone ringing while your license clears.

The harder, higher-stakes part is turning searchers into booked estimates: a website that loads fast, ranks for “painter near me,” and puts a click-to-call button and your reviews above the fold. The gap between a site that converts and a pretty one that does nothing is invisible until you compare the lead numbers, and that build is the work we do. To have the site handled instead of guessed at, get a free video walkthrough. For ads, SEO, and paid social once you are booked out, see our services. If you have the painting business idea but not the plan yet, start at expntl.com.