CICERO — Daniel Murphy brushed off a layoff notice from a bank late last year and is starting his own painting franchise. He became a franchisee of CertaPro Painters Ltd., a professional painting contracting firm, in June and opened for business July 23. His franchise, which serves the greater–Syracuse area, will handle residential and commercial […]
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CICERO — Daniel Murphy brushed off a layoff notice from a bank late last year and is starting his own painting franchise.
He became a franchisee of CertaPro Painters Ltd., a professional painting contracting firm, in June and opened for business July 23. His franchise, which serves the greater–Syracuse area, will handle residential and commercial painting projects.
Murphy describes himself as a “do-it-yourselfer,” but he hasn’t worked as a professional painter in the past. He spent more than 30 years in financial services and operations management in the banking industry, working for firms including the Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM). He was laid off from a senior site manager position in December when the Bank of New York Mellon consolidated Central New York and Dallas operations in Syracuse, Murphy says.
For several months, Murphy interviewed for jobs at other banks. Then a recruiter contacted him about running a CertaPro franchise, and it sounded like a surprisingly good fit, he says.
“Instead of targeting somebody who could make a couple of bucks and be happy with that, they’re looking for somebody that has a good business background,” Murphy says. “They’re especially looking for somebody who has a business operations background. They know how to manage. They know how to perform marketing. They know how to create business plans.”
Murphy will not be painting himself — his franchise will hire subcontractors for that work. Instead, he will be responsible for managing the franchise, performing estimates, reviewing completed jobs, and marketing the business.
For the time being, Murphy is the franchise’s only employee, and he is running the business from his Cicero home. Eventually, he would like to expand into a commercial space and hire additional staff members, but he has no timeline for doing so yet.
“I wouldn’t think we would need storefront space like retail, but I would definitely need some commercial office space,” Murphy says. “Generally, what the franchise owners do is hire an office assistant who can be involved in ordering the paint, doing some of the bookkeeping. You could then also hire a sales associate to take some of the load of going out and performing estimates.”
Those direct employees would be in addition to contractors the CertaPro franchise regularly hires. For the time being, Murphy wants to develop relationships with two primary paint crews consisting of two to three workers each. He would also like to be familiar with a third paint crew he could call if business booms.
Murphy aims to bring in $100,000 in revenue by the end of 2012. He has yet to develop 2013 projections for his franchise, but says other CertaPro franchise owners typically generate between $260,000 and $600,000 in revenue in their first full year of operation.
As the business launches, Murphy will focus on residential work and commercial jobs up to $15,000, such as a legal offices, medical practices, or multiunit residential structures, he says. He does not plan to tackle larger commercial jobs until after he has six months of experience running the business.
Murphy estimates he will spend about $150,000 over the course of a year starting the CertaPro franchise. That cost estimate includes a franchise fee, advertising, insurance, and travel for training.
CertaPro charges a franchise fee of $52,500 and offers a 10-year renewable term, according to Entrepreneur.com. The company charges an ongoing royalty fee of 5 percent, the website says.
Murphy plans to fund the franchise’s startup costs using personal savings and by rolling some funds over from his 401(k), he says.
Before breaking out the paint with his CertaPro franchise, Murphy had to go through several weeks of training, he says. Training included multiple weeks of computer-based lessons and a week of onsite instruction at CertaPro’s headquarters in Oaks, Pa., near Philadelphia, he says.
“Even though I’m not going to be painting myself, I need to be educated enough to know if my crews are doing an appropriate job,” Murphy says.