Commercial Painting Playbook: How to Build an Eight-Figure Empire

If you run a painting company, you’ve probably thought about commercial work…

And then immediately you talked yourself out of it.

What comes to mind when you think about commercial painting?

Here’s the thing: Matt Kuyper built a $10 million painting company in seven years.

He started as a side hustle.

He learned residential painting from YouTube videos.

And he used a relationship-first approach that most contractors have never even considered.

The commercial opportunity is real.

The global painting services market hit $63 billion in 2023.

It’ll reach $93 billion by 2031.

In the broader construction industry, 92% of firms report difficulty hiring qualified workers.

That’s a massive gap between opportunity and execution.

This playbook breaks down exactly how Kuyper did it.

There is no fluff, just the framework that took Harpeth Painting from zero to eight figures in Nashville.

Let’s get into it…

Residential painting follows predictable patterns.

Commercial work? It’s a different game entirely.

“That’s one thing I love about the commercial world,” Kuyper explains.

“It’s really not seasonal. It’s a little more economically dependent. When the economy is good, there’s more going on. When it’s bad, there’s less. But that helps us balance out our annual revenue cycles.”

Here’s where it gets interesting:

Not all commercial sectors are equal.

“Health care has been very good for us,” Kuyper confirms.

“Manufacturing and industrial has been very strong. And health care, it’s not going away. Everybody’s getting older.”

Most residential contractors who try commercial work do the same thing.

Wrong.

“On the new construction side, it’s definitely a slow-burn, long-play relationship-building process,” Kuyper explains. “You’re trying to figure out what type of project you want to go after first, figuring out who those contractors are, and networking with them.”

The numbers back this up.

Bain & Company research shows acquiring new clients costs 5-25x more than retaining existing ones.

In commercial painting, where one GC relationship might generate $2-3 million annually, the math gets dramatic fast.

Kuyper’s approach flips conventional pricing strategy upside down.

“Get in there and do a super competitive bid. Not saying give it away, but do it for a little bit less than you normally would to get in the door and show them what you can do. It’s kind of a cost of advertising almost.”

Think about it this way:

Residential contractors typically spend 5-15% of revenue on marketing.

Investing equivalent margin on a relationship-building commercial project? That can deliver way higher returns than any digital marketing campaign.

“They don’t know the first time they hire you. That’s why you got to get in the door with some of these smaller projects and they’re like, ‘Oh, the project manager was really responsive and didn’t nickel and dime us on punch list things.’ That’s how you do it.”

Two categories drive commercial painting revenue:

“Property managers are great because they’re easy to find, you know who they are, and they have budgets that they need to use. They have multiple properties a lot of times, so going to one person gets you a lot of opportunity.”

Here’s the catch:

Not all relationships are worth pursuing.

“It’s a pretty limited group of contractors that we actually want to work with in Nashville. I mean, it’s less than ten.”

Primary concerns?

Commercial payment cycles often extend 60-90 days.

Partner with the wrong GC and your cash flow gets crushed.

“Number one is price, and it’s not like being the cheapest. They want confidence that whoever they’re hiring is the right price because that reduces their risk.”

Read that again.

GCs aren’t looking for the lowest bidder.

They’re looking for validation that their selected partner priced the job correctly.

The professionalism bar is surprisingly low.

“It’s all the normal things that a lot of people just don’t have. Like, sending in a PDF instead of a Word document that’s still wide open. Just normal standard business practices go a long way in commercial work too.”

“We shoot for 35 to 40% gross profit on commercial because the overhead is typically lower. You don’t have those marketing costs. A project manager in commercial can manage a whole lot more volume. But we’re ending up in the same kind of 15% net profit area.”

Here’s the cash flow reality:

“The payment cycle in commercial projects is a lot longer. Ideally it’s going to be 30 days. It’s typically not. It’s typically 60, sometimes 90.”

His solution?

Use residential profitability to fund commercial expansion.

“The margins are so good in residential that ideally you’re making 20% net profit, which can help you get into the commercial world.”

“Our sweet spot is kind of the $70,000 to $300,000 project range. You’re doing them in a few months, you can see progress.”

Complexity = margin protection.

“We really do well if it’s a little more complex. Like event venues, churches, a lot of health care stuff. Something that’s more than just painting a bunch of offices, because that’s typically a race to the bottom.”

One myth busted: Commercial doesn’t require massive crews.

“You’re not going to have that much more manpower on a $300,000 job than you are on a $70,000 job. It’s just a longer duration. Most of these are not large crew sizes. It can be three to seven guys.”

If you’re considering commercial expansion, here’s the roadmap:

The commercial painting opportunity exists for painting contractors willing to play a different game.

One is measured in years rather than weeks.

Built on relationships rather than marketing funnels.

Matt Kuyper built an eight-figure empire using exactly this framework.

The path is proven. The question is whether you’re willing to walk it.

Connect with Harpeth Painting: Visit harpethpaintingllc.com to learn more about their approach to residential and commercial painting in the Nashville market.

Listen to the Full Episode: Hear Matt Kuyper’s complete conversation on the Base Coat Brainiac Podcast for additional insights on scaling painting businesses and breaking into commercial work.