Marketing, Painting contractor, business coach

Hello, Ron here live from a porta-potty, yes a porta-potty, I will tell you in a second why.

I am Ron Ramsden and I am a DYB coach, I’m also a painting contractor north of Boston in Massachusetts.

Why was I at a porta-potty?

Well, that’s what they have at this new construction house, not something I usually do, we don’t paint new construction; this isn’t our niche market.

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The story behind this story, was about a contractor that called me and told me that his friend was building a house and they were looking for a painting contractor.

This home here just happens to be a vocational school home, and they don’t have a painting or wallpaper division trainings in the school, so, they needed someone to come out and look at it and give them a price.

I should have passed it to someone who’s used to doing new construction, but I didn’t. And it all comes down to three (3) things we talk a lot about in DYB.

The “3 P’s of every job”: PROCESS, PROFIT and PEOPLE. Let’s touch based on those for a second.

People: The general contractor who referred me out, great guy, I work for him a lot, also just recently helped him do some renovations and painting on a 1.1 million dollar home.

So this is the vocational school, I assume they are great people, I actually recently interviewed one of the kids and hired him for the summer.

But the people buying the house, I’m not so sure. So, that one; is a maybe…

Profit: I have no idea what we are going to make on this job, because we are not geared for new construction re-paints.

Our level of work is on a different level than this; our typical job will be sending every piece of trim in between coats, priming two coats on most of the woodwork.

Here, right here, it’s spray guns, get in, get out.

We are also working alongside a lot of other trades.

I came in today and there is no water in the house, no electricity, because the trades have cut them off and they have a big hole in the back or upfront.

This is not what we are used to working with, my guys are kind of lost on this, although the job will get done right, this is not our niche.

We know that when we work on jobs, generally the home values is between $750,000 and $1.5 million.

We typically do the re-paints for interior on the higher end, but we are not used to a new construction.

We are not used to using very contractive grade paints on any of these, we are used to using the finer things.

So, it’s not like our nose is up in the air, this is just not our niche.

If you look at the 3 P’s once again:

PEOPLE; they seem to be nice people, but I don’t know who’s moving into this house.

PROFIT; I’m hoping to break even and I am really hoping to make some money, so, that’s an unknown.

PROCESS; the process is not here for us, we are going to lose on this process part.

So, the 3 P’s for this job just aren’t there. So, on every job, you should always be looking at the 3 P’s.

List your last 10 jobs, look at those 3 areas:

Process, how was it? Was it wallpaper removal and you hated it?

Don’t check it out. Was it a repaint, and you loved re-paints? Check that out.

Then look at the people, did you enjoy working for the people?

Were they A-Customers or B-Customers?

Were they watching you every moment when you were working or kind of aggravating you a little bit? Well, that wouldn’t be a check mark.

Were they out of town? Maybe it was a vacation home; that was great for you then because no one was around, that would be a check mark.

Then profit, look at your jobs, every aspect of that job to make sure you made money.

You might have made a little money, but if you did the things that you are really geared to and you could have made more money, that is your niche.

That is the People,  Profit, Process, that you should be looking for.

I am Ron Ramsden, and that’s the three 3 P’s; I help painters work on their business, so you don’t have to work in the business. Have a great day!

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About the Author

As many of you know, my journey has been one of grit, grace, and transformation. At 19, I was a high school dropout, single father, and struggling paint contractor in Michigan. I later moved to Florida, where I faced both personal and professional hardships. With nothing left to lose, I turned to prayer—and was blessed with a relentless hunger to learn. I devoured books, attended seminars, and discovered better ways to streamline and grow my business—even through the Great Recession (and yes, I did hit the wife lottery along the way!). In 2014, I published How To Double Your Business and later sold the painting business, launching a new chapter: coaching others to grow their businesses. For the past 10 years, I’ve dedicated myself to helping business owners scale through the DYB System, while also drawing from frameworks like EOS, Scaling Up, and The Four Disciplines of Execution. Yet something was still missing—something more adaptive, integrated, and complete. Then I found Pinnacle. After months of research and interviews with other Guides, I joined Pinnacle. Their tools and strategies have exceeded every expectation. Now, as a Pinnacle Business Guide, I help leadership teams implement a custom-tailored operating system that draws from the best in the industry—but flexes with your unique business. It’s a dynamic, proven approach to achieve clarity, momentum, and lasting growth. I’m no longer taking on any more 1:1 coaching clients… Instead, I now specialize in working with visionary business owners who are ready to get their leadership teams aligned—around a clear vision, a focused strategy, and an actionable execution plan. With the tools and process I now have as a Pinnacle Business Guide, I help turn alignment into momentum, and momentum into results. If your business is growing—but your leadership team isn’t fully rowing in the same direction—let’s talk.

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