#047 - You Can’t Outwork Bad Pricing (Here’s the Truth)

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Most painting businesses think they have a performance problem. In reality, they have a pricing problem they’re avoiding.

In this episode, Tas breaks down one of the most common frustrations across painting businesses: not hitting revenue, profit, or income targets despite staying busy.

After working with hundreds of painters, Tas explains that these issues almost always come down to three core areas: pricing, performance, and pipeline. While many business owners focus on improving team performance or generating more work, the real issue often sits in pricing.

Tas challenges the common belief that increasing prices will lead to losing work. Instead, he explains that if a small price increase causes you to lose jobs, the real issue is usually in your sales process, your ability to communicate value, or attracting the wrong type of clients.

The episode dives into how inflation, rising costs, and stagnant pricing quietly erode profit over time. If you haven’t adjusted your pricing in years, you are already behind, whether you realise it or not.

Tas walks through a simple and practical strategy: incremental pricing increases. Rather than making large, risky jumps, small consistent adjustments over time can realign your business with its true costs and restore profitability.

He also explains why working harder won’t fix a pricing problem. No matter how efficient your team becomes, you cannot outwork a business model that is fundamentally underpriced.

This episode ties everything together around a simple truth: if your pricing doesn’t match the reality of your business, you will always feel pressure, no matter how busy you are.

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Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Introduction: Why You’re Not Hitting Targets

00:00:34 - The 3 Core Problems: Pricing, Performance, Pipeline

00:01:17 - Why Pricing Is Usually the Issue

00:01:48 - Fear of Raising Prices

00:02:17 - Pricing vs Sales Problem

00:02:49 - Thinking Long-Term in Business

00:03:22 - The Hidden Cost of Not Raising Prices

00:04:09 - Incremental Price Increases Explained

00:05:05 - Why You’re Losing Jobs

00:05:43 - Small Changes Over Time

00:06:10 - The Real Risk of Staying Underpriced

00:07:04 - Why You Can’t Outwork Pricing

00:08:01 - The Profit Squeeze Explained

00:09:15 - Identifying If You Have a Pricing Problem

00:10:00 - Reviewing Your Numbers

00:10:46 - Final Thoughts: Fix Pricing First