Friends, there’s my family business of Painting Contracts. We are Painting contractors of Industries, Residential Places or any wall wanting to get groomed in a new colour. We provide full range of painting services like applying Distemper Paints, Plastic Paints, Royale Paints and many more. My Dad has been in this business for over 36 years and my Brother too has been for somewhat 4-5 years. (I’m not sure whether the Painting line can be termed as business but still it feels good to term it as business here). Initially when my Dad started, he made a very good fortune and become a prominent figure in this painting line. The key to his success has been his hard work, hunger for more & more work, working very late and quality oriented but we also need to thank the monopoly he had in those days when he started.
There were very few Painting contractors in the city when he started which helped him to amass good affluence in a very short time. At that time he had a strong team of 80-100 skilled painters. He never faced the shortage of laborers as men from our native place always kept pouring in asking for any available job. They would come here and learn the skill of painting job and become a skilled laborer in 2-3 months and get a decent pay. But gradually something went wrong. There came a year 2005 when more and more people started entering this line of Painting contractors and the monopoly which we had was lost in a very short span of time.
In his golden period he didn’t had to go out to search work. Customers themselves came searching for us and were also ready to pay a premium to get their job done by us. But gradually everything changed and my dad didn’t realized the fast changing world around him. To cut a story short, our market share from 90% came to as low as 10%. Such catastrophic was the hit.
Having completed my MBA, I started to analyze this segment of Painting Business more from the managerial point of view. In my opinion this line has significant potential. I think this because:
- This line is more unorganized, the painting contractors are mostly uneducated (With all due respect) and aren’t much organized in their approach. They are still using the orthodox means of doing business. I think, I can introduce many changes which will expedite the process and lure more customers because of our ability to complete the projects on the promised date and to their satisfaction.
- I see constant development and construction in the regions of Vapi, Daman & Silvassa. (Vapi is the place where I reside.) All this 3 regions have in total of more than 9000 Industries which require the painting job from time to time basis especially the Pharmaceutical industries.
- I have also prepared the strategy of targeting the Bungalows in these regions. I have planned special offers for the Bungalow owners. There are more than 1000 big bungalows in Vapi Itself which adds to my craving to enter this Painting line and redefine its terms of business.
- I want to become the No.1 Painting contractor in India. That is my vision, to become the best in the industry because no one is yet to achieve that feat and with the support of my Dad’s experience in this line, I think I can make it through.
At the moment I’m doing an On-field marketing job for a fastener mfg. company in the regions of Vapi, Daman & Silvassa. But lately, I’ve been thinking to jump in this Painting line which is full of opportunities.
Now the actually problem why I wrote this article is here, I would highly appreciate your valuable feedback to help me take a decision. So here it begins:-
Few days back I expressed my interest of joining this painting line to my Dad and my Brother. I spoke to both of them on separate occasions. I expressed them my plans & my strategies. I revealed many bright side of the business & the untapped market at the disposal and the changes we could bring to this industry. But to my surprise, I received advice cum warnings to stay away from this line. They said they have been in this painting line for quite a while now and they don’t want me to join this business because of the following reasons:
- Firstly, this business isn’t meant for the whole year. During the rainy season, the business is completely down for around 4 months. So it’s more like having business for just 2/3rd of the year.
- The problem of labourers is the most critical one. The labourers go to their natives during the summer season for harvesting or just to meet their families and return only after the month of August.
- My brother also gave examples of others painters who have exited this line and opted for some other profession just because of the above mentioned 2 reasons. He kept stressing on the problems of labourers.
- He told, since we have lost our monopoly and reduced market share, we are uncertain of getting business regularly, so we also can’t keep labourers on salary basis to avoid the problem of labourers, as it is risky, we may either get business or not and currently we face the financial crunch to take a risk in this matter.
- In the absence of the labourers when any business comes to us, we have to go & pick up labourers from “naaka”. Mostly the naaka workers aren’t skilled and still they dare to ask you for a wage which is equivalent to the skilled labourers and some of them have the courage and to ask a wage even more than a skilled labourer. They say, “Sahab, yeh hi market rate hai”. So when we take them to work, they don’t give output as per their pay which leads to a very thin margin.
So my questions are as below:-
What innovative I can do in this painting line to regain our lost monopoly?
What to do in those empty 4 months of monsoon season? ( Please don’t say, “Change your line”)
And the most crucial question, how can I solve this problem of labourers (Painters)?
I would be really thankful to any of your valuable advice on the above subject matter. Please don’t hate my average English.
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