5 Reasons to Buy Fresh Coat Franchise in 2023

Fresh Coat Painters, the residential and commercial painting franchise, is riding a wave of impressive momentum. In 2022, the franchise grew its commercial business system-wide by 34% year-over-year, welcomed several new franchise owners across the country and saw a whopping 170% increase in national accounts. Now, the Fresh Coat team is looking for franchisee prospects across the country to encourage future growth as it inches closer towards the 200-unit mark. 

Here are the top five reasons to invest in Fresh Coat Painters in 2023. 

A Recession-Resistant Business

With experts predicting a recession looming on the horizon, entrepreneurs are increasingly looking for businesses that can withstand an economic downturn. The painting industry, and home services in general, is a popular choice.

“Even when the market is constricted, home services continue to grow,” said Fresh Coat VP of Sales Leo Haley. “Just like when people were at home during COVID, right now people are tightening their belts because of inflation. That means they’re not going on vacation or they are not traveling. They are sitting at home. After a while, they start to think: ‘Wow, I haven't painted my office or my living room in a while. Let's freshen things up here.’ We’ve seen a lot of sales growth through that path.” 

Additionally, Haley says Fresh Coat is able to satisfy a wide array of homeowners’ needs, which makes the concept even more recession-resistant. “Internal, external, ceilings, fences, decks — there are additional services beyond just painting the walls,” he said. “That helps us keep sales strong.”

Multiple Revenue Streams

Unlike other painting franchises that may just service one group of customers, Fresh Coat franchisees can tap into three revenue streams — residential (interior and exterior), commercial (retail stores, restaurants, offices, apartments and more) and government projects.

Fresh Coat’s dedicated HQ marketing teams not only drive residential leads, but also provide access to National Accounts that are already signed, sealed and delivered. Franchisees simply provide the painters. The team will also vet commercial projects in a franchisee’s local area to help them bid and win lucrative painting jobs for stores, restaurants, businesses and medical offices.

“We have an entire commercial division that works on partnering with our franchisees on commercial business,” said Haley. “You get two franchises for the price of one. There's no extra fee and you don't have to secure it on your own. We have a team that will go through all of those leads, find ones that are within your target, help with the markup, build relationships with accounts, etc. If one of our national accounts has 500 locations that they need to refresh across the United States, we can handle all those locations.”

The Winner’s Circle

With start-up costs coming in at just $53,850 to $76,750, including an initial franchise fee of $44,900, Fresh Coat bills itself as the most affordable franchise in the painting industry. 

But it's Fresh Coat’s innovative Winner’s Circle Program that truly makes it unlike anything else in the painting industry, Haley says. The program allows franchise owners to earn back their franchise fee in full as they achieve certain milestones.

“All of our franchisees in the first five years have the ability to earn back their entire franchise fee as they scale their business, which allows them to invest in themselves, invest in the company or pocket the money if they want to,” said Haley. “No other painting franchise offers an incentive model along those lines.” 

An Expert Leadership Team

By joining Fresh Coat, entrepreneurs have the chance to leverage the backing of an expert leadership team that has helped grow the brand to nearly 200 locations. And that leadership team continues to expand, Haley says, as the brand finds ways to build upon its established infrastructure. 

For example, the Fresh Coat brand recently brought on a new COO, Wayne Scherger, who brings in-depth experience in the franchising space.

“As he's come in, we're really updating our model this year to focus more on owner-executives,” said Haley. “These are people who are more interested in scaling and leading their organization, rather than being an owner-operator. Wayne is bringing the tools behind it, such as a new leadership accelerator program we’re rolling out or adding new territory managers. We are continuing to bring new people onto the team so we can optimize the journey for our franchise owners and help them achieve their goals.”

In-Depth Support Infrastructure

When it comes to resources and support, the Fresh Coat team provides training, business coaches, digital marketing, PR, estimating/quoting technology, painter-recruitment systems, regional/national conferences, online seminars, peer-to-peer educational programs, national supplier/vendor alliances and more. 

As part of this support infrastructure, Fresh Coat aims to be a marketing company first and a painting company second. “We bring that marketing company mentality by helping deliver quality leads, optimize SEO, etc.,” said Haley. “Everything we do helps our franchise owners create their localized marketing strategies. They spend money via the national branding fund with us, but at the end of the day, what really makes them successful is the money they spend locally. To get the most out of those funds, we can sit down with franchisees and say: ‘Here’s what we can do to get you from A to B, and then B to C.’ That is really important.”

Why Now Is the Time to Invest

Most remodels occur right around the 17-20 year mark of home ownership, and Haley says recent studies show that more homes than ever are set to fall into that window this year, which is why the time has never been better to enter the painting industry in 2023. Now, the Fresh Coat team is looking to help more passionate and qualified entrepreneurs to achieve their goals while expanding the brand’s footprint across the country. 

“At the end of the day, our goal is to bring in the right people that fit within our system,” said Haley. “They want to be an owner executive. They want to be successful. They want to get out of the corporate world. They want to steer their own ship and achieve their goals. If we find 30 franchisees like that this year, fantastic. If we find 60, even better. Overall, we just want to work with our franchise owners to ensure they are as successful as possible and to showcase that we are not just another painting franchise concept.” 

For more information, visit: https://freshcoatfranchise.com/