Adam Torres and Mike Stone discuss CertaPro.
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify
Apply to be a guest on our podcast here
Show Notes:
CertaPro is a leader in the residential and commercial painting space. In this episode, Adam Torres and Michael Stone, President and CEO of CertaPro Painters, explore the CertaPro franchise opportunity and how it’s at the forefront of the painting market.
About Mike Stone
Mike Stone was appointed President in March 2015. Previously, Mr. Stone served as Vice President of Operations from January 2013 until his appointment as President. Mr. Stone also served as Regional Vice President from 2007 until 2013. Mr. Stone has been with CertaPro® since March 2003, first as a General Manager in Development and later as a General Manager in Operations. Prior to that, Mr. Stone was a Residential Sales Associate for a CertaPro Painters® franchisee for four years.
About CertaPro Painters
In 1992, CertaPro Painters®, Ltd. began with the vision of making residential and commercial painting services easier and more convenient for homeowners and business owners. From the beginning, their promise has been that of certainty, aiming to reassure customers of their quality and expertise. CertaPro Painters the largest residential painting contractor in North America, their locally owned and operated franchises take pride in bringing personalized service to customers in every region, allowing them to focus on what matters most.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, today’s guest is Michael Stone and he’s president and CEO of Serta Pro Painters.
Mike, welcome to the show. Thrilled to be here, Adam. Looking forward to our discussion. All right, Mike. So, I definitely want to learn more about CERTA Pro Painters and really the work that you’re doing there huge industry and also the opportunity, right, individuals to participate as franchisees otherwise.
But before we get into all that, we’d like to start this episode with what we call our Mission Matters Minute. So Mike, at Mission Matters, our aim and our goal is to amplify stories and to get them out there to the masses. That’s our mission. Mike, what mission matters to you? Well, my mission is about lifting up the painting industry and helping entrepreneurs build real jobs.
Equity and wealth by being , true advocates in their communities for a service that everyone needs to paint needs to paint their home or their business, take things that are dull and lifeless and make them beautiful again with a coat of paint. And if you do that in a really productive way and put smiling faces on people then you’re doing well by your community and the service that people need.
Love it. I’m a big fan of painting and the painting industry. I think whenever anybody asked me like, what is truly my first, first job ever, I think I must’ve been five years old when my dad put my first paint brush in my hand, he was my dad. And I think I was paying like a hallway or something like that.
And I think that’s when I earned my first. Check the one that didn’t have taxes on it. But you know, that might be my first one. So I’ve always just been a fan. I’ve always loved painting after that, man. you didn’t get any lollipops. You got cold, hard cash. Yeah. I wasn’t mad at that. And what did I buy as a five, six, seven year old pizza?
It was all good. So, uh, so obviously you, you have an affinity for paint that went into your professional career, , when did it start for you? Like when did like, whether it’s third or pro before just in general, , when did you fall in love with the industry?
Well I don’t know that anyone falls in love with painting. What you fall in love with is people, leadership, culture. Painting happens to be our widget or our vehicle to do that. So the first time I cut my teeth in painting, I, I think I was in high school, and my. Parents, good friends wanted their house painted and , I took a heat gun and a scraper and scraped all the paint off their house and took a brush and painted the, the entire sighting on their house.
Wow. Several weeks just by myself on a ladder. Pretty basic stuff. Yeah, with the rock, but certainly realized right then and there that. That’s the service that we need. And there’s a lot of wonderful people that do that. And a lot of people get paid pretty well to do it. So that was my first exposure to painting, but believe it or not what really got me excited about the industry is one of my college friends was running this summer painting business and I’m driving in a Honda Accord and bartending and having a great job and paying my way through college.
And, , in the mid nineties, he’s driving a Toyota Supra with big back of his car and pretty damn good quality of life. And he was running a summer painting business. Wow. In a painting, he just was hiring a bunch of college kids to do it. And then he. Buying a sort of pro painting franchise in 98 and he convinced me to come join him in San Diego.
And we became one of the largest franchises very quickly. And that’s when I saw the incredible opportunity in our. And the true fragmentation that really is going on. I mean, there’s thousands of people that do painting, but very few do it as an organized business and our business model really is suited to help people go into business for themselves, but not by themselves.
That’s the beauty of ranch. Yeah, and I want to go further into the franchise part, but let’s keep it kind of high level for a moment longer. When we say painting, I don’t want to assume that everybody knows. , are we talking residential only? For CertaPro specifically, residential, commercial, offices, all of the above.
Like, give us a flavor for just the general offerings before we get into the franchising side of things. Yeah, yeah, so we do residential interior painting, residential exterior painting, we do commercial painting, like retail settings, like, we paint a bunch of Walmarts or banks, we paint a bunch of associations, apartment communities, hallways, hospitality, government work, so, we focus primarily on the repaint, So mostly repainting.
We don’t do a lot of new construction painting and, and that’s where we have a ton of success and that’s our sweet spot. Yeah. Is there and when you say like fragmented and otherwise in thousands of, I mean, like I’ve read numbers and not holding you to this, but the painting industry is huge, right?
Like, like tens of billions of dollars, right? Like the huge industry. Yeah. So CertaPro will do. We’ll, we’ll satisfy about 125 to 130, 000 customers this year, north of 700 million in painting. Wow. That’s a lot of paint. Hold on. I want to let that sink in for a moment. That’s a lot of jobs, man.
That’s a lot of paint. That’s amazing. Yeah. It’s a lot of painting and we buy a lot of paint from our great strategic partner, Sherwin Williams. But Sherwin Williams is a 20 billion company. And the re The repaint space we’ve got it pegged just , the segments I was just talking to you about is around 60 billion annually in the, in the United States.
So we have less than percent market share that just to give you perspective, right? Less than 2 percent of the painting we own just shows you how much fragmentation because, because we’re significant. Larger than our next competitor, and it just speaks to the opportunity. You can really grow in and build a business as big as you want.
If you have great leadership skills, you follow a good business plan, you market, and you execute and you build a great management team. But what an incredible opportunity for wealth creation, equity and making impact, as I said, in your community. And that’s a, I mean, that’s a lot of jobs you’re talking about a lot, but that’s a lot of just, I mean, just jobs that that sort of pro is providing for, the painters, right?
Like that’s a huge amount of individuals. That’s correct. That’s correct. Yeah. I mean, that’s the beauty of it. , we help keep painters busy. They get a steady, they get treated with respect. It’s, it’s an awesome opportunity to partner with, with amazing human beings that take things that are dull and lifeless and they make them beautiful again with a coat of paint.
Right? I mean, how cool is that? And , what do you think part of the success is for CertaPro? Like, what do you think has, has kind of made it stick out and even be able to take, to chip off a couple of percent as , from that huge industry, what do you think the success is? Well first off you, you want to align with people , that support your core values.
So we really look for franchise owners, staff corporate support members that deliver on their promises, have pride in what they do respect the individual, practice continuous improvement, embrace the possibility. So we’re looking for that. can teach people about the painting industry. That’s not the hard part.
The hard part is finding people that want to lead and get great results through others. That’s easier said than done. Doing it in the construction industry That if that resonates, but I can tell you, man, there is nothing more gratifying , than seeing , the incredible craftsmanship of a home or a building that really looks awful.
And then , , you freshen it up with a coat of paint. It just really makes a difference. Speak from the, from the franchisor’s standpoint for, for a bit longer for the individuals that have maybe considered being in, owning a franchise in general, and maybe don’t have experience in painting or otherwise, or maybe even in construction, is that, are they still able to potentially, like, Come into the system as a franchisee, or are you looking for something different?
Like, give us a flavor for that. Just the type of person you feel is the right one to lean in with. Yeah, first off we are not looking for people who have got experience in the painting industry. We’re looking, like I said, people who maybe they, they’re a mid level manager at a fortune 500 company.
Their business has been consolidated. Maybe they got acquired by somebody else. They’ve been through 2 rounds of acquisitions and layoffs and, and they want to really be in control of their future. And, , a franchise business model where we’ll teach them everything they need to know about painting and they’re probably going to bring a wealth of experience of management and leadership and, and they get the beauty of 80, 80 plus support people supporting the 350 franchise owners.
They get a business coach, they get a state of the art software, they get a marketing coach, they get an in house ad agency, they get leverage buying power. They get just a wealth of tools and resources that are going to propel them to success. I mean, that’s why you buy a franchise. It’s a proven model and if they follow it and that if you talk to our franchise owners, when you do your validation calls, they say, just follow the program.
And you grow and run a big profitable business. And , that’s exciting to see, frankly I’ve been in a franchise. I’ve now had the great fortune to have almost every role working in the franchise or to support franchisees. I’m done being the CEO and, and we’ll likely be a multibillion dollar company in the next 10 years is I can see path going back to being a franchise because I, I still see it being just an incredible path towards making an impact, like I said, in your community, providing great jobs, providing great service, and you know, making a really nice income for you and your family, and then the beauty of a franchise is you, you buy it, so you can eventually sell it, right?
And That better than anyone else in our space. And so people do realize the equity they’ve built. Wow, that’s amazing. , and can hold that value too, right? Because if they’ve been and correct me if I’m wrong, but if they’ve been operating in that franchise system, then sometimes you’re some of the people that may be purchased and it might be other franchisees, right?
Like, so sometimes there’s a built in market for that. We have other franchisees that buy their neighbors. We have people that work in their business that buy the business from the outside people who want to buy an existing business that already have cashflow coming in and want to scale and grow it and make the money.
Their own wealth to make more money and we buy them from our franchise owners as a corporate entity and turn them into Corporate stores. So there’s lots of apps that have your business sold and be successful. So, I mean, I like that you bring that up that there’s other paths because sometimes, especially when when somebody’s entering a business and they’re not with the avatar that you mentioned, that’s maybe an executive or otherwise.
And they’re looking for a while. When’s my exit? Or what does that look like? It’s good to have options, right? To know that you can possibly realize that value down the line when you choose to. is a huge part of the equation. I want people to have clarity of vision and mission. And part of it is.
You start to know what is your end game in mind when you start your business, right? And you may not know what it is, but you do want a vision plan that does support that. And we obviously want to play a huge role in helping them have that success. to me about geographies. , like is this nationwide in certain states?
Are there certain opportunities available? Like, talk to me about geographies. Yeah, really good question. That’s one of the reasons why I’m on with you today is so. We’re operating around 500 territories in North America. So we have, you know, probably 25, 30 operations in Canada and then the remaining 470 or so in the U S open territory.
So you can start a franchise from scratch. We have some open territory in long Island, New York, Detroit, Michigan, some in Toronto. San Francisco, L. A. Those are some of the bigger markets where we still have some open territories. And then we have resales where member somebody’s built up a nice, healthy business in pretty much every major market because eventually, like I said, our franchise owners, they get closer to retirement.
They want to sell their businesses and there’s four different paths. At least right now where , they can do that, but those are some of the areas we’re looking to fill out and we have incredible opportunities in the markets. I just kind of informed you about. So, yeah, no, that’s great. Mike, so 1 of the things I like to do as we kind of round out towards the end of these interviews is I like to dream for a moment, you know, we’re a big entrepreneur, big executive audience.
What, what’s next? Like, what’s next for the company? Let’s dream below. Well we just added a core value called embrace the possibilities. And so we see our company probably tripling in size over the next 7 to 10 years. Amazing. A big piece of that is, remember, we have less than 2 percent market share, so there’s plenty of opportunity.
Oh, yeah. How people buy from us , the Gen Z, the millennial as they start buying residential paint jobs they’re going into the buying market when interest rates come down, look, and I’ve been through two recessions, a global pandemic, and now we’re a little economy and every time. We get through one of those periods.
We have massive growth on the other side. So , we’re pointing here that the feds in the U. S. is going to lower interest rates late this year, maybe early next year. And you’re going to see another swelth of, growth in the painting industry again. And it’s a great time to buy a franchise, but we’re investing a lot in tech.
We have the incredible mobile estimating apps, how we communicate with customers, people I, without even having us come out to their homes. There’s a lot of ways you can upload pictures out. There’s Google earth. We’re thinking and doing some things with painting robotics. I mean, there’s just so much to get excited about, to embrace the possibilities of how our brand will continue to evolve.
They and make , our make sort of propainers indispensable for our franchise owners, and it’ll continue to elevate the equity there. They’re building. Man, that’s amazing. And as you’re, saying these things, you’re kind of blowing my mind because if you think about a fragmented in this, an industry as old as painting number one in the United States, but also a fragmented industry like that.
Just your, when you think about aligning yourself with the brand, like CertaPro, which already is doing very well and it’s large, but there’s so much room for growth and the things that you’re talking about implementing technology, like smaller companies are not necessarily going to, , be able to like, Keep up.
Nobody’s going to have their own app. They’re not going to be doing all these other things. It’s going to be the kind of the same, , status quo that , you’re kind of getting a paint job estimated on like , 30 years ago. It’s the same thing today. So to have these other things like implemented and for buying preferences, like, That’s just going to make it so much easier and I’m excited, man.
I see it. I see it when you’re talking about these technologies and vision and the future of the company. I see it because that’s even cool to me. I’m like, like, I’ve always wondered about when that, , when these things were going to be brought to the industry , and based on what you’re telling me sounds like soon.
It’s soon and I can hear the, the excitement in your voice , and I hope your listeners Realize that this is such a unique opportunity. Rare of ever you get to be the largest player in your space, have 2 percent share and have a runway of growth that’s based on your aptitude, your energy, your investment, your risk tolerance, but it’s not because the opportunity isn’t there.
Right. So what an exciting time to be a part of CertaPro Painters. Like I said, I get jazzed just thinking about it, talking about it with you, with others. blessed every day to say that I get to work in this industry around amazing people that want to support our franchise owners and their team’s success.
We’re making a difference in the communities we serve by providing a service that’s absolutely necessary. Amazing. Mike, if somebody’s listening to this and they want to follow up and connect with your team at SurturPro, how do they do that? SurturPro. com, right? C E R T A P R O dot com. There’s a link on there that’ll take them to franchise opportunities.
But if nothing else type in your zip code and get a free estimate and see the experience in person. I mean, we’re doing estimates. iPhones and tablets and taking pictures and uploading them and showing people before and afters before they even do the painting by overlaying color to show them what it could look like.
So neat stuff coming and love your audience to participate and learn more about sort of dress. Perfect. And for everybody listening, just so you know, we’ll put all the links in the show notes so that you can just click on the link and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with mission matters and you haven’t done it yet, we encourage you hit that subscribe button or that follow button.
This is a daily show. So each and every day we’re bringing you. New entrepreneurs, new executives, new business owners, new opportunities, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along in your journey as well. Again, if that sounds interesting to you , hit that subscribe or follow button. And Mike, thank you so much again for coming on the show.
Really, really enjoyed learning more about CertiPro and connecting. Awesome. Thanks for your time, Adam.