Faux Painting for Profit

Oh… the wows of owning your own faux painting business…  How much do I charge per square ft? This is a question I get so often… I wish I had the magic answer. The answer is… It depends. Here is the question I got most recently:

Message:    Thanks so much for your help.  I am desperate for an answer re: pricing. I love faux painting and have someone that needs me now.  I love the "bellagio" look along with other techniques.

• how much do I charge per sq ft?
• and do I charge per layer?
• How much do I charge for murials? 
• per sq ft or per job?
• or maybe by the hour ($35 - 45 an hour)?

I have some of these questions answered here:

How much should I charge per square foot 

Murals are a total different animal. :)  You must have lot's of experience under your belt before you will ever get mural pricing down.

My easy answer:

Never… ever charge the customer by the hour. You can estimate to yourself… how many hours it may take you to finish a mural or faux painting… and charge the customer accordingly. charging a customer a flat fee… will get you more jobs that just a guestimate at hours and a per hour charge. (don't you just hate plumbers?)

So… what's the real answer?  A mural price depends on size, materials and level of detail. And… are you going to have to work on the mural from a ladder or can you complete the mural while standing on the floor? This does make a difference in my pricing… ladder work just takes more time.

I can finish a nice 5'x8' landscape mural in about 8 hours total. The level of detail is considered medium. So… I would have charged (my desired hourly income) x 8 hours + materials and overhead costs.  Did you notice… I didn't charge per square foot?

What if it takes me longer than 8 hours??? My tough luck and I will need to do a better job when contemplating how much do I charge per square ft.  

Sonya took pictures of her most recent faux painting job and is asking how much she should charge per square foot for doing her faux painting for clients.

"Here's a job I did most recently. How much should a charge per square foot when a job consist of a lot of yardage. Those actual numbers scare people away. Sonya"

Wow… Sonya, this looks really nice.

This soft mocha colored faux finish looks great with all the white trim and wood flooring. Good choices.  

Hi, Sonya

Often faux painters… especially when we are just starting out faux painting business… under price because we are in fear of what the client will say about the prices.  

The first problem with underbidding  is that you could be working your fanny off and not making a living.

Clients don't often know the difference between a good professional faux painter or someone who is just doing this as a hobby business. They will look for the best price and then wonder why their walls don't look like a professional faux painter did the work.

So… basing your pricing on what customers feel is good pricing is always risky.

Now… you must present yourself and your portfolio and your working production in a professional manner. If you don't… well the clients won't feel that you are worth the prices you are charging.

So… I will get off my soapbox now and try to answer your question.

Faux painting prices are always based first on what your competition is pricing their work for. I don't mean you should underbid your competition… that just leads to pricing wars. Not good for you or your competition… nobody wins in pricing wars.

But… knowing what your area market is charging will help you with your own pricing strategies.

The great thing about the area I am in… I don't have any competition. It doesn't happen very often, but if you are in a small town… you can price on your talent alone.

It appears that the finish you did in these photos took a lot of taping and tall ladders etc. This always adds to the price.

It also looks like it was just a two color combination faux painting technique… which is pretty quick.

So… if we break this down into square footage increments:

For each square foot… it takes you 

1 minute to prep the materials. 1 minute to set up the work space. 1 minute to shop for the materials. 1 minute to tape of the areas that need it in that 1 foot square space and 10 minutes to paint it. Plus it takes 2 minutes to remove the tape and do touch ups.  Now you have 16 minutes just to produce that 1 square foot of faux painting.

If you want to make $25 an hour then you would charge about $6 per square foot. Plus… then you need to add in material costs. And…. you should be making enough to cover the cost of your vehicle and the time you spend doing book keeping and writing up customer proposals. Also… what about the time you spend shopping for supplies…. and the cost of your equipment?

If you add all those up and still think that charging $6 per foot is too much… then think about the fact that half your business time is not spent actually painting. So now your $25 an hour that you charge is actually paying you $12.50 and hour for painting and $12.50 an hour for all those other tasks that you perform or have to pay for out of pocket.

So if you work for a client 8 hours today… not including driving to and from the project and the time it took to load up all your gear… you would take home $200… but tomorrow when you are doing all your accounting, or looking for new clients, or writing up proposals, or shopping for supplies…. how much did anyone pay you?  Nothing?  Well then the money you made yesterday must be stretched into to paying you for the activities you are performing today.

That's why you do not want to under bid any faux painting… how much should I charge per square foot? You will never get rich in this business… but you can make a living if you charge what you are worth… not what the clients think you are worth.