I have a large Facebook group of furniture painters, Furniture Painting Business Tips, and we address most of the topics and issues that furniture artisans face with their businesses. I am also a member of many other furniture painting groups and love having the interaction that being a member of these groups brings. One topic that often comes up for discussion is one I have a personal conflict with! It's phrased in many different ways: What do you paint? Do you paint what sells? What colors do you paint? Do you try different techniques? As a furniture "artisan" I love color! I love unusual t ..read more

We recently drove quite far to pick up a dresser from a furniture flipper we have purchased from in the past. When we arrived, even though it was priced very cheaply, we both knew immediately it wasn't the quality we like to purchase and it was in pretty rough shape. So, we told the seller it wasn't what we wanted and didn't purchase it. Yes, we wasted our morning but were glad we didn't bring it home, even though we need more pieces in our inventory. My husband, Frank and I both work our furniture painting business full time. All decisions are usually made in agreement with each other. It's ..read more

I had an interesting and eye-opening experience with my daughters recently. We were on a girls trip and stopped by some shops that sold painted furniture and home decor. After visiting these shops they began to make comments about not being very impressed with the painted pieces they saw. So, of course as a painter, I started to question them! What was it that didn't impress them? They all said they felt many of the pieces for sale looked like they were painted by amateurs. "I could have painted them myself." "Nothing unique about them." "Kind of sloppy painting." A couple of my girls have don ..read more

In my Facebook group, Furniture Painting Business Tips, we often discuss how to use your Facebook business page. It was brought up in a discussion that the "experts" or "guru's" on social media marketing are always telling us we need to build trust and establish a relationship with our customers on our Facebook business pages. Their suggestions are to post a ton of what I call "fluff" or personal posts so our customers "can get to know us" and then we have built a relationship with them. Maybe this works for some... I personally use our Facebook business page to sell our hand painted furnitur ..read more

There were so many wonderful highlights to our first Furniture Painting Business Tips Cruise. I truly felt like I was learning from every person in the room. We had 21 attendee's from all across the United States; Washington, North Dakota, Indiana, New York, Texas, Virginia, Utah, Montana, Nevada and Arizona! Such an amazing group of very talented furniture painting artisans in all aspects of the business. Shop owners, booth owners, and at home-business entrepreneurs. We all have our strengths and it was so good to hear different questions, advice, solutions, suggestions on just about every ..read more

Many furniture painters work from their homes. Painting, staging, selling, storage is all done in our home by many of us. Do you paint at home and sell from a shop? You still work from home. It's a great way to cut overhead costs! Knowing what you can deduct for your home-based business can save you a lot of money when paying your taxes. Here are the top ten tax deductions that most small businesses track: 1. Depreciating the office and work space actually used in the home for your business. 2. Expenses related to cleaning these areas. 3. Household furniture converted for use in your home off ..read more

Every interaction you have with others can be a great networking opportunity for your furniture painting business. You never know when a chance encounter could be a good break for your company. No one knows your business better than you. No one cares about your business better than you. If you don't speak up and tell others, you might miss great "free advertising" opportunities! Do you have a quick, solid reply if someone asks "What do you do?" This is called an "elevator speech" in network marketing. You need a short description of "what you do" that only takes about 30 to 60 seconds, the ti ..read more

Writing a great description for your hand painted furniture piece is important when selling on social media. But, we need to use caution when using certain words or phrases so we don't get our post "flagged" for being inappropriate. When a post is flagged they take it down or won't publish it. Always read the rules and guidelines of each site or group before posting. This will help avoid many common mistakes. Many sites will not allow you to reference your business website or Facebook page with links in the post or watermarks on the photos. Some sites require you to live in the area where you ..read more

Spring is here and every weekend will be filled with possibilities! Garage sales offer some great finds for furniture painters at rock bottom prices. Watch the buy/sale/trade sites for good deals as well. As people are spring cleaning and moving they practically give away nice furniture pieces. Before you go garage selling you need to pick up a receipt book! They are available in the stationary section at most stores. Any generic receipt book will work. The cheaper the better! When you purchase and pay cash for an item from a garage sale or buy/sale/trade site you need to track the basic inf ..read more

After you have painted a beautiful piece of furniture and staged and photographed it, you now need to list or create a posting to get it sold. There are usually no hard, fast rules for the descriptions on most sites. It's up to you to provide a description to sell your piece quickly. It's important to give your potential buyers the basics. BASICS of a DESCRIPTION Branded name or maker of the piece: Always use this if available on the piece. Many times this alone will sell a piece and often command a higher price if it is from a quality furniture maker. Take a picture of the brand (usually fou ..read more