That 1 PainterA fresh perspective on the painting business.

Welcome to Franchise Roundtable. I'm Alex. And I'm Jordan. So picture this for a second. You are walking back into your living room and it has just been painted. Oh, I love that feeling. Right. It is the exact same room you have lived in for years.

You know, it has the same windows letting in that exact same afternoon light. It has the same furniture. Even that one specific, I don't know, slightly battered chair in the corner that you keep promising yourself you are going to replace is still sitting right there.

Yeah, we all have that chair. Exactly. Exactly. But somehow, the entire space just feels completely different. It is brighter, it's cleaner. It finally feels like the exact place you imagined it would be when you first signed the lease or bought the house. Well, yeah, because it is the power of instant visual gratification.

I mean, when you fundamentally change your physical environment, it immediately changes how you feel inside that environment. That is so true. You're brain registers a fresh coat of paint not just as like a maintenance update, but actually as a psychological reset And then of course the chain reaction hits Oh, yeah every time because you stand in your beautiful perfectly crisp new living room And then you look over at your hallway and you think well now the hallway is really letting the side down Right, it looks terrible by comparison.

It really does Home projects just always seem to have a way of formally introducing themselves to other home projects That exact moment when somebody sees a finished space and immediately starts thinking about the next transformation is really the perfect place to start our deep dive today.

Absolutely. We are looking at a business called That 1 Painter. They focus on residential and commercial painting, as well as cosmetic repairs. But our mission today is not to debate the merits of eggshell versus semi-gloss finishes. No, thankfully not. Right. We are dissecting the ownership story.

We want to understand the actual organizational machinery that brings these tangible, real-world before and after transformations to life, and we are exploring this specifically for someone who might be sitting there right now, imagining their own next professional chapter. And what stands out immediately when you analyze this business model is how it operates on something just deeply fundamental, yet honestly increasingly rare today.

How do you mean? Well, we live in a world where so much of our daily output is entirely digital, right? We generate emails, we update spreadsheets, we sit in virtual meetings all day long. Oh, don't remind me. I know, I know. But at the end of the week, it can be really hard to point to what we actually created.

But this business, it is about altering physical spaces in real time. Yeah, I want to pull on that thread a bit because the appeal of a physically tangible result seems massive for someone looking to step out of the corporate grind. It really is.

You can literally drive down a street in your community, point to a home, or a storefront, and say, hey, we did that. But obviously, behind every single one of those before and after photographs, it's a pretty complex operational structure. Oh, undeniably. It involves managing customers, coordinating project logistics, leading people.

So where does the architecture of this particular franchise actually begin? So, the company's origins actually take us back to a very human localized starting point. It begins with the founder, Stephen Montgomery, and his father was a professional painter. So, Stephen learned the trade organically, just helping his dad out after school.

He absorbed those technical skills really early on. Right, getting that hands-on experience. Exactly. And later, he took that knowledge, borrowed some equipment, and started painting homes for his mother's clients. His mother was in the industry, too? Yeah, his mother was a realtor.

And she and her colleagues desperately needed reliable people to get homes ready for the market. Okay, if you think about it, painting for real estate agents is essentially the ultimate stress test for a young business. A 100%? Because real estate agents are notoriously demanding.

Their entire income depends on closing a sale, which obviously depends on a property looking absolutely flawless to potential buyers. They do not have time for delays. Right. They need things done on time, on budget, without any excuses. So it's Stephen learned to operate under that kind of pressure.

He had to build really robust systems early on. He had to, yeah. So he has this localized family trade background. He founded That 1 Painter in 2011, initially just working alongside a few hired friends. But looking at the timeline, the franchise offering didn't actually begin until 2021.

That's right. Wait, a 10-year gap between founding and franchising. I mean, in today's fast-paced market, that sounds like a massive missed opportunity. Did they wait too long and just seed market share to competitors, or was that slow burn actually like an intentional strategy?

It is a totally fair question, especially when we constantly see startups trying to scale overnight. You know, a company gets a tiny bit of traction, they slap a logo on a fleet of vans, and suddenly they are trying to franchise across the country in six months.

Yeah, you see it all the time. But a decade-long, local incubation period is highly significant for the long-term health of a franchise. During those ten years, the founder wasn't just painting walls, he was building operational muscle. Figuring out the friction points.

Exactly. You need time to figure out what happens when the supply chain breaks down, or how to hire effectively in a tight labor market, and how to weather different economic cycles. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, that ten-year gap means they took the time to systematize the work so that it isn't just some local mom-and-pop service but a thoroughly replicable business model.

It ensures the framework they eventually handed over to franchisees was grounded in absolute reality and not just, you know, optimistic projections. That context completely changes how you view the brand and actually speaking of the brand, I want to look at the name itself, That 1 Painter.

it's a great name it really is it sounds exactly like the beginning of a casual neighborly conversation you can easily picture someone standing on their sidewalk looking at a neighbor's freshly painted exterior and asking hey who did the work on your house and the neighbor just says oh we use That 1 Painter yes it is designed to remove all the friction from the referral process it does and it also points to a much deeper insight about the home services industry as a whole you see the painting industry is historically fragmented and honestly plagued by the flaky contractor stereotype.

Oh absolutely, everyone has a bad contractor story. Right, consumers are incredibly wary of hiring a crew that might not show up on Tuesday, might leave a giant mess on Wednesday, and then might change the price on Thursday. It is a nightmare when that happens.

It really is. So when you analyze what That 1 Painter is actually doing, they aren't necessarily innovating the chemical composition of paint. They are innovating reliability. Reliability. I like that. Innovating reliability. Yeah. From an ownership perspective, the true product you are delivering to the market is showing up on time, communicating clearly, and doing exactly what you promised.

Let's connect that reliability to what the customer is actually purchasing. Because the service menu outlined in our sources covers a pretty wide footprint. It does. We are looking at interior and exterior painting, cabinet painting, and cosmetic repairs. Pairs. And this applies to both residential homes, like maybe a family wanting to modernize their kitchen cabinets and commercial spaces, like a local business needing to refresh their reception area to attract more foot traffic.

And, you know, the setting changes, but the core human need remains exactly the same. A small business owner wants their space to reflect the quality of their services, and a homeowner wants their living space to feel comfortable and updated. Right, it's about the feeling of the space.

Exactly. The work serves a highly practical purpose, like protecting exterior siding from harsh weather elements, but it fundamentally changes how someone feels when they walk through the door. But the customer isn't just buying a bucket of paint in a brush, are they? No, not at all.

Because from what I see in the process documentation, this journey always starts with a project manager who arranges a dedicated on-site walkthrough. And rather than just throwing out a rough number on the spot, they provide a highly itemized estimate. And we really need to explore why that specific process, the walkthrough and the itemization matter so much to the success of the business.

Walk through it. Well, a customer usually starts this process with a vague, often highly anxious idea. They know they want to change, but they don't know exactly what it entails. They don't know the difference in prep work required for different services. They don't know how long it will take, and they are usually terrified of hidden costs ballooning out of control.

The fear of the unknown is huge. It is. So, the project manager's job is to translate that vague anxiety into a concrete, actionable plan. An itemized estimate eliminates the fear of the unknown. It establishes the exact scope of work and organizes the logistics completely transparently.

And I mean, I love how easy this business is to actually understand from the outside. You know, you don't need some complex whiteboard diagram to explain it to someone. Though honestly, I would definitely still draw a house with a huge roof and two suspiciously identical windows, if you gave me a marker.

I think we all draw that exact same house. Right. But seriously, so when a customer signs on the dotted line, they are really buying project management and peace of mind. They are buying the assurance that the team doing the work will stay completely aligned with the original vision without cutting corners or suddenly changing the terms.

Precisely. The before and after photo you see on social media, that is just the headline. Line. The experience of getting there, the transparency, the daily updates, the respect for the customer's property is the actual story underneath it. And as an owner, delivering that specific experience is your primary objective.

Let's flip the perspective then. Let's put you, the listener, firmly in the owner's shoes. What does a day in the life actually look like behind the paint? Okay, let's get into it. Because I have to admit, my first thought when I hear the phrase painting franchise is that I am going to be the one spending eight hours a day balanced precariously on top of an extension ladder, trying my absolute hardest not to spill primer all over someone's rose bush.

That is such a common misconception for anyone looking at home service franchises, but it is not the reality of this model at all. Provides us the day-to-day operations, though it is worth noting there are provisions if you want to use an approved formally trained manager, but the core of the role is absolutely not holding a paintbrush.

So what are you doing day-to-day? The documented daily activities involve reviewing upcoming projects, analyzing estimates with your team, coordinating with the crews who are handling the actual physical labor, and consistently following up with customers to ensure their expectations are being met.

Okay, so you aren't the one swinging the brush. You are essentially the air traffic controller. Your job is making sure the paint, the crew, and the customer's expectations all land on the same runway at the exact same time. That is a highly accurate way to frame it.

You are assembling and directing the team behind the transformation. And to that end, the franchise outlines two distinct documented ways you can choose to organize this business. Okay, what are they? The first is the subcontractor model, where you utilize independent subcontractors to execute the painting and cosmetic repairs.

The second is the employee model, where you hire direct in-house employees to provide those services. So looking at these two models, employee versus subcontractor, it really feels like a choice fundamentally about higher control versus lower overhead. Yes, exactly. Like if I hire direct employees, I have total control over their schedule, They're training their uniform, but I have fixed payroll costs regardless of how many jobs we actually booked that week Right.

You were paying them either way, but if I use subcontractors I don't have to pay them when it rains or when the schedule is incredibly light, which protects my cash flow But then I might be competing with other local companies for their time Is that the primary trade-off we are looking at here?

You have identified the core operational tension perfectly higher control versus variable overhead And the reason the franchise offers both paths is because every local market and honestly, every individual owner is different. That makes sense. Different cities, different labor pools. Exactly. Some markets have a massive pool of highly skilled, reliable subcontractors who prefer to work independently.

Other markets require building a dedicated in-house team just to guarantee availability. But this is also about the owner's background. How so? Well, if you have a background in managing people, selling services, coordinating large projects, or building long-term customer relationships, you already possess the most relevant skills for this business.

So you aren't starting from scratch? Right. During the company's management discovery process, you have a very specific, strategic conversation about which of these two models best fits your personal organizational preferences and your local market conditions. You're looking at a new business, yes, but you are bringing your own hard-earned corporate or leadership experience right along with you.

You are adapting your existing leadership skills into a brand new framework, but obviously stepping into a new industry even as a seasoned leader requires a serious road map. Definitely. And the training regimen they have set up is incredibly robust. Our sources indicate 70 hours of virtual training combined with 40 hours of in-person classroom training.

That combination of virtual and classroom time is very deliberate, and we should look at why they dedicate 110 hours to this. Yeah, that is a lot of hours. It is, but think about the entire lifecycle of a single project. Someone makes an inquiry.

You have to understand the requested work, calculate the square footage, account for the condition of the services, prepare an accurate estimate, coordinate the personnel, and manage the back office business around it all. Right. There's a lot of moving parts. So the training curriculum maps directly to those activities.

It covers estimating in sales, project management, managing the business overall, human resources, sources, the specific products and services, and of course, marketing. I noticed they dedicate a massive chunk of those hours just to estimating in sales. And it makes perfect sense when you think about the mechanics of the business.

Oh, absolutely. Because in this industry, if your estimate is off by 10 or 15%, because you didn't account for, say, how long it takes to prep some intricate trim work. You aren't just losing your profit margin. Margin, you might actually be paying for the privilege of painting someone's house.

Exactly. The training isn't just about learning which software to use, it is about mitigating risk and ensuring profitability. That is crucial. And it is also about navigating the psychological shift from being a corporate employee or middle manager to being a local small business owner.

Managing human resources in a blue collar trade environment requires a totally different touch than managing a corporate marketing team. The training is designed to bridge that specific gap. You know, it reminds me of architectural blueprints. The franchise is handing you the established framework.

They are giving you the plans. They are showing you exactly where the load bearing walls go. And they are providing you with operating manuals, equipment, and supplier specifications, the marketing artwork, and a localized website listing. They give you the tools. Right. They even offer individualized assistance, subject to their stated limits and personnel availability.

But you still have to be the one to build the house. Yeah, the blueprint doesn't swing the hammer. Exactly. The blueprint doesn't swing the hammer. You have to take that framework and populate it with real, authentic, community relationships and actual customer interactions. That is the defining factor that elevates this from simply saying, here is a painting company to saying here is a living, breathing, local organization.

A successful franchise is populated by real people. The customers whose spaces you are physically transforming, the teams delivering the service on the ground, and the relationships you cultivate as the local owner overseeing it all. What we have talked a lot about the emotional payoff of transforming a physical space and the operational blueprint for managing the teams doing it.

But blueprints and good community vibes do not keep the lights on. No, they do not. So let's look at the actual capital required to buy into this system and what the historical performance looks like. I am going to step completely out of the way here and let you walk us through the precise numbers and the context around them.

So we have the exact financial picture on the table. Let's address the financial details clearly based on the May 2025 disclosure. These estimates assume a home office setup. Under the subcontractor model, the estimated initial investment for one territory is between $113,000 and $142,000.

Under the employee model, The estimated initial investment for one territory is between $139,750 and $189,000. These totals include the $59,000 initial franchise fee and an allowance for three months of additional operating funds. It is important to note that these additional funds exclude owner compensation and debt service.

Regarding revenue, we look to the 2024 reported results from 36 responding franchisees operating a total of 88 territories. The disclosure divides these businesses into three groups ranked by revenue with 12 franchisees in each group. In the top third, the group averaged about $1.09 million in gross revenue per franchisee across a group operating 44 territories.

Six of the 12 franchisees in this group met or exceeded this average. In the middle third, the group averaged about $589,000 per franchisee across a group operating 22 territories. Three of the 12 franchisees met or exceeded this average. In the bottom third, the group averaged about $320,000 per franchisee, also operating across 22 territories.

Six of the 12 franchisees in this group met or exceeded this average. The essential context here is that these are historical franchisee totals across all their respective territories, not revenue per single territory. These figures are before expenses and owner compensation, and they are historical results from reporting businesses, not a forecast of what a new owner will make.

Thank you for laying out that entire financial passage so clearly it really provides the concrete structural reality to the operational theories we were discussing earlier. You can take those numbers alongside those two distinct operating models and use them as a foundation for a very real targeted discussion with the franchise management team.

Right to see how or if this specific vehicle fits into your own life and financial goals. Exactly. You know Consider this provocative final thought. We spend so much time today talking about the digital economy. We worry about algorithms, automation, and artificial intelligence replacing cognitive tasks and screen-based jobs.

It is everywhere in the news. Right. But as AI swallows up more and more of the digital landscape, businesses anchored firmly in the physical world, businesses that require transforming actual brick, wood, and drywall and localized communities might just be the ultimate future-proof career path.

You simply cannot code a freshly painted kitchen, and you cannot outsource the physical repair of a storefront to a server farm. That is such a powerful perspective. We opened this deep dive talking about a room feeling completely different after a fresh coat of paint.

That tangible before and after moment. But the bigger question here is about your own professional before and after. What could a completely different chapter look like for you? Because stepping into a business like this goes far beyond just transforming local spaces. It is about transforming yourself.

It is about moving from being an employee, executing someone else's corporate vision, to becoming a visible, tangible community leader who actively builds a team and shapes how people feel in their daily environments. If you can picture yourself building a local business around those tangible before and after moments, visit FranchiseBrokers.com.

That is FranchiseBrokers, plural, dot com. Tell them That 1 Painter caught your attention and explore how the opportunity fits your experience, your goals, and the next chapter you want to build. Franchise Roundtable is sponsored by FranchiseBrokers.com. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, thanks for listening.