Faux Painting for Profit

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Your are the Boss and the Employee! 

In order to get yourself to thinking straight on this fundamental matter, it is a good idea to regard your business as a firm or corporation and yourself as its employee… its hired manager. Even if your business does not become a corporation… this still can be a useful technique.

Supposing your business should grow to many times its present size, and, needing capitol, supposing you should sell forty per  cent of the stock to outsiders. You certainly would then insist on paying yourself a salary as manager before you allowed the stock holders who put in no time or effort towards building the business… to share in the proceeds. 

The principle is the same if you happen to own all the stock. You, as manager, should receive your salary before you, as stockholder, get your dividends.

Then there is the competition side of it… competition for your services… and for your money. As president and general manager, you certainly should expect your own corporation to pay you just as large a salary as you can make by working for somebody else, and as stock holder in your company, you expect the corporation to pay you interest on the money you have invested. 

No Other Faux Painting Business Could Hire You Without Paying You A Salary 

If your business as it now stands is not able to pay you the salary that you could get from another job, and if it isn't sufficiently profitable to pay you a satisfactory return on the money you have invested, the certainly there is something wrong and you could make more money by actually working for somebody else and investing your money in other ways. 

No Other Painting Business Could Rent Your Storage Space and Office For Nothing 

Read the rest of this article: Your Not In The Faux Painting Business Just For Fun 

Hi Debra,

I am an artist and have recently been asked to bid on painting a mural on the wall of an elementary school cafeteria.

As I have not yet charged for a mural (have done them for family), I'm not sure how to charge. Can you help me?

Thanks so much, great site! Nancy

Hi Nancy… 

What a great question… but I won't have a clear answer for you.

Murals can very from several hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars… and more. It depends on the time, the materials, the wall condition and your talent. It also depends on the area you live.

First you will feel uncomfortable charging for something that seems like fun to you.

And… you will never charge enough for a mural. Trust me… all new muralists never charge enough.

But… you have to keep in mind that you are presenting yourself as a professional and should charge accordingly.  Often times new mural painters will not take into account the costs associated with the mural. Like gas, day care, paint supplies etc. And then we need to charge for our time… to make a profit.

I like to look at a space and judge some things first.

Are the walls high? Will I need extra equipment to reach places that my ladder wont go? And is the area safe?  And… in your case are you going to have to work around children or are you going to have to work at odd hours to accommodate the school schedule? 

All expenses need to be thought out before the work starts and added to your contract price.  

Now… how do you charge for your time. When I first started painting murals… I thought it was great if I could make $100 a day… including supplies. Now this is rediculous. After expending time to draw up plans and a proposal and the time I took to drive every day both ways… etc…. I was making just over minimum wage.

You must remind yourself that you have a special gift and talent… one that very few will put on the line by charging money for this talent.  

So figure out how many days you are projecting the project to complete. Then add an extra day… because stuff always goes wrong and this will give you a bit of a buffer.

Now… how many hours per day will you work. I got to the point where I only painted about 5 hours per day. I am a fast painter, but it was wearing me out to work more than that per day if I was on a big job. Your creativity will suffer if you get burnt out.  Plus… each day had drive, set up and clean up time… so I was actually working about 8 hours a day.

Now if you want to make $15 an hour… which is dirt cheap, but it's a start… and you are working 8 hours a day… then you must charge at least $120 per day. Plus you must add in extra to cover materials.  

I hope this is helpful.  Have Fun, Debra :)