Crafting Your Team: The Art of Building a Crew You Can Trust

“Hire slow, fire fast” sounds great, until you’re the one doing it all. You’re painting, pricing jobs, chasing invoices, and just hoping someone shows up on Monday.

If you’ve ever stood on a job site wondering if the guy holding the brush even knows what a cut line is, you’re not alone. Every painting business owner, whether they’ve been around two years or twenty, eventually runs into the same wall. It’s made of frustration, bad hires, and lessons learned the hard way.

But it doesn’t have to stay that way.

Let me tell you how I figured that out, one painful hire at a time.

The Day I Hired the Wrong “Pro”

A few years back, I hired a painter who said he had thirty years of experience. Perfect, I thought. Then I handed him a Festool sander and watched him look at it like it had just landed from Mars. Turns out, he’d never used one before.

That moment hit me hard. Experience doesn’t always mean effectiveness. “Good on paper” doesn’t mean “good on your team.”

I realized I’d been hiring for resumes when I should have been hiring for alignment, people who fit our system, our standards, and our pace. I needed teammates who were teachable, reliable, and invested, not just technically skilled. That’s when I stopped filling seats and started crafting a hiring process.

If your team feels like a constant cycle of new faces who vanish after payday, or can’t take direction without drama, it’s time to stop blaming the labor pool.

You don’t need more people, you need the right people.

When hiring is reactive, your business is stuck in survival mode. But when you start hiring intentionally, you create a business that grows beyond you.

What It Really Means to Craft a Team

Building a team isn’t about plugging people into empty spots. It’s about creating a culture where everyone knows their role, pulls their weight, and takes pride in the outcome.

Start with clarity. Most owners hire whoever’s available because they just need help right now. But when you define what the role actually is, whether it’s a prep tech, finisher, or future crew leader, you stop hiring warm bodies and start hiring the right fits.

Then add structure. You wouldn’t hire a musician without hearing them play. The same goes for your crew. Use simple skill tests, a few well-crafted interview questions, and some way to gauge personality fit. You’ll know quickly who’s coachable and who’s just talking a big game.

Finally, train with intention. Onboarding isn’t just handing someone a brush and hoping for the best. It’s introducing them to your standards, your systems, and your expectations. When you create a simple, repeatable way to train, every new hire adds value instead of chaos.

The Real Cost of Getting It Wrong

Hiring the wrong person doesn’t just hit your bank account; it drains your energy, time, and morale.

Imagine paying a $200-a-day painter who’s slow, careless, and resistant to feedback. In two weeks, you’ve lost $2,000 plus your own sanity cleaning up after them. Meanwhile, your crew watches and wonders why you keep tolerating it. That’s not just expensive, it’s corrosive.

It’s the reason so many owners say things like, “There are no good guys out there anymore,” or “I might as well do it myself.”

But that story can change. I’ve seen it change. When owners start using a real system for finding, developing, and keeping the right people, the whole business turns around.

From Warm Bodies to A-Team Players

Take Brian, one of my Painting Profit clients. He was stuck in the same cycle: hire fast, get burned, repeat. Once he built a clear profile of the kind of foreman he actually needed, things shifted fast.

Within six weeks, he had three solid interviews and made one game-changing hire. Six months later, Brian isn’t on the job site every day anymore. His crew leader runs production, and Brian focuses on growth instead of survival. The difference wasn’t luck; it was process.

When your team is aligned, everything changes. You stop babysitting and start leading. Jobs finish smoother, clients notice the difference, and your business finally feels like it’s working for you instead of the other way around.

Most importantly, you get your time and energy back.

Ready to Build Your Dream Team?

If you’ve been hiring on hope and crossing your fingers, it’s time for a better plan. My course, Painting Profit – Mastering the Business Behind the Brush, walks you through the entire process. From defining roles and smart screening to building training systems that actually work.

You don’t have to guess anymore. You just need a framework that makes sense.

Want to see the first step? My Hiring Playbook will show you how to match the right people to the right roles so your crew works together like a well-oiled machine.

It’s free, practical, and built for painting contractors who want to hire smarter and lead stronger.

Get Your Free Copy of the Hiring Playbook

Every hire either adds to your vision or takes away from it. It’s time to stop chasing unicorns and start building a crew you can trust.

You’re not just running jobs, you’re building something bigger. Let’s build it right, together.