Leads & Introductions
Members introduced themselves and announced leads and thank you's.  They also told us what pets they have.  In case you are interested (I have only including the living - not stuffed)...

24 Dogs
6 Cats
2 Fish
1 Turtle
1 94-year-old in-law
1 Roof Rat

Member Spotlight
This week's spotlight is Andrew Jensen.  Please keep this member top of mind this week for referrals. 

Membership Update
Jim Tilton visited our group today as a guest of Herb Stokes.  He is a CPA that may be interested in joining our group.  He has experience in business planning and marketing.

We had a good turnout at our guest event last week...but no applications.  Hmmm....

Meeting Schedule
Coming up...

• April 30 - Nutrition, Exercise, ‘Intro to Small Group’, Contest Rules, Testimonials on Success

There will NOT be meetings on the Friday's before Memorial Day or 4th of July.

Main Program:  All About Painting's Tim Green (with a little help from Brad)
The Green brothers are from Chicago, Ill.  Tim followed his girlfriend to Arizona where she had family.  In 1986 he started All About Painting with a partner.  They started out doing a lot of tract work.  Business grew fast.  They went from 2 employees to 100.  It was overwhelming for a two kids that simply knew how to paint to suddenly become successful businessmen. 

About 8 years ago Tim's partner decided to get out of the business.   His brother Brad had a cushy job back in Chicago but Time talked him into leaving it to come work with him in Arizona.

All About Painting got out of the tract work.  They also don't do faux painting (but they might if Tim can talk Brad into going to school to learn how to do it!).  But they do everything else, both residential and commercial.  They even do cabinet refinishing, but they don't necessarily enjoy it.

Their success has been from word-of-mouth.  They don't advertise in the phone book or anything else.  Only recently did they decide to put together a marketing packet (they handed them out to members).  Despite not doing any advertising, business has been doing really well.  One reason they do so well is because of their good relationship with builders.  They do a lot of work with large custom builders in the Valley.   

Q&A

What brands of paint do you use?
We usually use premium products from Dunns-Edwards, unless a job is spec'd with a different brand.  There is not much difference in paint between the major brands. 

What are the current popular colors?
There has been a big color change.  People moving away from pastels to darker earth tones.

When bidding, are your margins tight?
Very much so, prices are like they were back in the 80s.  We did have to cut wages to adjust.  But we are still in business and doing good.  Supplies and expenses are not going down.  Its an issue that everyone is having.  Everybody is getting beat up on their pricing and using cheaper products.  But when you do that it causes problems. 

Is any segment of the market improving more than others?
Fulton is doing pretty good.  But we don't do tract work anymore.  We have two builders we work with that are also doing well.  I've been bidding a lot of commercial (schools, fire stations, shopping centers, etc.) so that is going strong. 

What is your customer service philosophy?
We are not done until you are happy.  We don't have a lot of complaints.  We ask everyone to walk around and let us know if there is anything that needs fixed.   We are also trying to upgrade our employees versus hanging on to them.  They must pass the "idiot" test. 

How far out are you scheduled?
It depends on the work that needs to be dong.  We have work booked out to next summer but there is room in between jobs.   A repaint can easily be fit into the schedule.

Does the summer heat slow you down?
The summers don't bother us.  I think winter is worse than summer here because of the moisture. 

What are you looking for out of MABE? 
We always ran our company like a sleepy Mom & Pop shop, even at 100 employees.  MABE can help us with our business and maybe we can help you with yours.  I also like to meet people.  I'm a people person and like to stay involved.  Brad tags along :-)

MABE House Cleaning

Item 1:  Please bring a stack of business cards next week.  We have gotten out of the habit and members are asking for them.

Item 2:  We are discussing MABE finances next week.  The big discussion will be on expenses, particularly the brochures, and how we should proceed.  The board would like the group to consider a simple, generic format that does not require frequent updating.