The Pathway to $5M
Every painting company climbs the same six stages, from the owner painting houses to a team that runs it without them. Each stage has a wall, and getting over it means handing one more seat to someone else. 58 checkpoints, start to finish.
Find your stage
Slide to roughly what you did in the last 12 months. Each stage up is a bigger company and one more seat handed to someone else.
Not sure of your numbers? Find my stage
Stage 1 of 6 · Under $100K
You are the Painter
You knock the doors, write the estimate that night, and paint it on Saturday.
Every seat runs through you. The day you stop, the money stops.
Production. A crew lead runs the job without you, and that’s the day you stop being the painter.
16 checkpoints at this stage, all of them tracked in the Den
Stage 2 of 6 · $100K–500K
You are the Manager
You’re off the ladder with a couple of crews. Your days are estimates, phone calls and driving between jobs.
You’re the only one who can sell, and the crews call you before anyone else. The company can’t grow faster than your calendar.
Admin. Someone else answers the phone, books the jobs and chases the money, and your evenings come back.
15 checkpoints at this stage, all of them tracked in the Den
Stage 3 of 6 · $500K–1M
You are the Leader
You’re out of the trucks, and the business is big enough to need real leaders.
Every job still runs through you, and the profit doesn’t show up where it should. Try taking a week off.
An office manager takes Admin and a production manager takes Production. For the first time, someone else owns a whole department.
10 checkpoints at this stage, all of them tracked in the Den
Stage 4 of 6 · $1M–2M
You are the Leader
Production and the office run without you, and the company is past a million.
You’re still the closer and the marketer, and the company stops growing at your ceiling. Try two weeks off.
A sales leader takes Sales and a marketing leader takes Marketing. Four leaders run four departments, and your job is leading them.
8 checkpoints at this stage, all of them tracked in the Den
Stage 5 of 6 · $2M–5M
You are the CEO
Your leaders run their departments, and for the first time in years your week has room in it.
The day-to-day still lands on your desk, nobody’s named to take over, and the books aren’t built for a buyer.
A controller takes Finance and a general manager takes the middle. You still own it. Someone else runs it now.
7 checkpoints at this stage, all of them tracked in the Den
Stage 6 of 6 · $5M+
You are the Investor
You own the company, and a team you built runs it.
The questions get bigger: what it’s worth, who carries it forward, and what you’ll do with the time.
Your GM becomes the integrator, and you take the one seat that’s left: the vision.
2 checkpoints at this stage, all of them tracked in the Den
Find your fix
Every fix comes from Mike’s playbook and 10,000+ coaching calls with painting company owners. It takes 30 seconds.
Step 1 of 3
The last 12 months, roughly. It tells us which stage you’re at.
Free coaching call
Book a free call with a Painter Growth coach. You leave with:
The Painter Growth coachesOne of them runs your call.
