CertaPro Painters: Q&A Transcript from DenCo Gridiron Show

Our team of professional painters specializes in quality home and commercial painting services in the Denton area. We took the time to answer the common painting questions and how we able to solve them for our customers. Some of the most common questions ranging from our painting services, customer service and financing.

[Transcript]

Host John Piper:
Hey everybody. John Piper host of the DenCo Gridiron show and its football season. And I’m pleased to be joined by Aaron Hardy, Jr. How are you doing?

Aaron Hardy Jr.:
I’m doing good.

Host John Piper:
Well, Hey, I got to know Aaron you know, part of our mission to shop local new business here in the Denton community. Aaron is located right off the town square in Denton, Texas. And I got to know him here in the last couple of months and actually had him paint my studio and it turned out great. We started talking and I’m like, Hey, why don’t you come on the show and just talk a little bit about your business. Aaron is a 24 year retired veteran from the U S army. So, Hey, we salute your service and now you and your family are here in the Denton County community, and I know you’re excited about it and just launched it in March right before COVID. So what can you tell us about launching CertaPro Painters and you know, I know you’re taking great care of customers. You’re located just adjacent from my studio right here. What’s it been like starting your own business?

Aaron Hardy Jr.:
It’s been a roller coaster, you know, from excitement when we first opened officially and then COVID hit. And so that might’ve been that the good part about that is it allowed me to take a more deliberate approach, not to get overcome too quickly. So I kind of slowly grew into it as unfortunate too, because I went slower than I wanted, but it still allowed me to take a more deliberate approach and take care and focus on my craft a little.

Host John Piper:
And I know things are really starting to happen. You know, like we talked about it’s no secret people are working from home, so they’re wanting to enhance their home office, just like I did here in my office and maybe paint. You know, paint a kitchen, a media room. I’ve seen some of your work and you know, some people think, well, Hey, if I’m going to redo my house, maybe I should tackle it all at once, but you’ve got some other suggestions, maybe taking little bites at a time.

Aaron Hardy Jr.:
Yeah. So when I, when I call a customer, I typically ask them do they have a budget for this project? And the typical response I get is, “well, we don’t know how much it’s going to cost”. And so that’s fine, but that’s not really what I’m trying to get at. It’s kind of how much money do you have or are you set aside? It’s kinda like when you’re buying a car, I know how much money I want to spend for a car. So I will stay within that budget. Well, painting is the same way. Maybe if it’s a $10,000 job for the entire house, maybe I can do maybe the downstairs and at one time, they’d come a few months later and do the upstairs. So there are some options that we have based on the budget that a particular customer has.

Host John Piper:
Speaking of budget, you know to do a big project, especially a commercial project, finances might be a little tight, especially with the uncertainty of, of COVID and the business that’s going on. You have some financing options as well.

Aaron Hardy Jr.:
Yeah. So for our customers on a residential painting, we partnered with the bank. It’s not through us it’s with a bank we partner with a bank; 12 months, 0% financing, same as cash, no penalties for early payment. That’s just another option for customers with those larger jobs that might be questioning whether they want to pay all that money upfront. So we have several options for our customers.

Host John Piper:
Now you mentioned residential. You also do commercial work. Talk about your service area. Like you said, you covered Denton County definitely for residential. And, and talk about some of the communities that you serve.

Aaron Hardy Jr.:
Yes. Even though we’re a locally owned and operated CertaPro is a franchise. So for residential, I have a territory. So for the 35 corridor on the Corinth side, I go Corinth and North, and then on the other corridor on the Fort Worth side, I’d go just in the North all the way up to Valley View.

Host John Piper:
Yes, Valley View is not that far just about 20 miles North of Denton.

Aaron Hardy Jr.:
Yes right after Sanger

Host John Piper:
Big coverage area. You know, you can check him at certapro.com/denton/. Right here. You got the number right here 1- 800-GO- CERTA to get in touch with Aaron. One of the specials, let’s see if I can bring up your website. Aaron, let’s take a look around there real quick,

Aaron Hardy Jr.:
While you’re pulling that up. I just want to add that for commercial projects I am not tied to any area. For commercial projects, we can go anywhere. We are not tied to any area for commercial projects.

Host John Piper:
We’ve got the website up now. You know, one of the advantages of working with CertaPro, even though it’s locally owned and operated is you’ve got a big presence, a great website. You’ve got the Facebook page and come down here at the bottom and click on the Facebook page. We’ll bring that up here in a second. But you mentioned some of the advantages of working with CertaPro versus an independent contractor. So if you could share with a potential painting client, you know, going with CertaPro versus an independent contractor you know such as, “St John Piper Painting” what are some of the advantages?

Aaron Hardy Jr.:
First and foremost one thing is that, you know, we consider painting personal. Especially now with everyone confined at their homes, working from home, or are confined to their homes, you know, so painting is personal now, more than ever. So we respect the customer’s time. We show up on time. We respect their, their property like it’s our own. One of the biggest things I get from customers is that I show up early, and they make a note of that. I’m still surprised at how many times I hear “we asked someone else to come out and you know, that they were late, or they had to change from a day later, or they’re waiting two or three days to get a proposal”, even for their project to get started. We show up on time. We get the proposal right back to them normally the same day, on the spot, I try to do it on the spot, depending on how many rough carpentry repairs or each situation’s a little different. So we also have insurance, a lot of that and no nothing against the other contractors, but there are a lot of good painters out there, but they don’t take the personal approach. We respect that, you know, again, like I said, painting is personal. We respect the person’s time, their schedules, they have pets or/and children. We try not to disrupt their lives. And I can tell you a short story here. Matter of fact, that kitchen in the background, that customer just bought that home and they hated the color on the walls.

Host John Piper:
There’s been a lot of that going on, a lot of real estate here in Denton County, which is great for your business.

Aaron Hardy Jr.:
Yeah. And so she sent me a text after we painted their kitchen, a new color, and she said she had tears in her eyes. She was so happy to see that it, it looked so good. It brought tears to her eyes.

Host John Piper:
Hey as a business owner. There’s nothing more satisfying than having satisfied customers. And that’s what leads to referrals. And one of the things I want to mention, if you do have a big project, I think if it’s over $2,000 or more, it could be residential or commercial. There’s $150 gift card now available through the end of August, it does expire at the end of August. So you can take advantage of that a hundred, $150 maybe to go towards maybe something else, a home appliance or maybe a new coffee maker or something like that for that new kitchen.

Aaron Hardy Jr.:
Yes, exactly. And we also offer a $200 off a $2,000 coupon and more for all our veterans’ active duty and retired first responders and our nurses. We wanna, you know, thank them for their service and that way as well. So we want to offer that as well for those well.

Host John Piper:
Aaron has been great to get to know you. I know you’re going to take great care of your customers again, appreciate your service to our country. And you can check them out at certapro.com/denton/. And I can personally vouch for him. He did a great job, and I think we’re going to talk next about coming out to my house and doing some additional work. So check him out. You won’t be disappointed. Thank you so much, Aaron.

Aaron Hardy Jr.:
Thank you for having me.