An Interview with Dave Bell
The Painters Hub, based in the Wellington Region, is a residential decorating company passionate about transforming homes to meet the evolving needs of their clients.
Specialising in both interior and exterior painting, roof painting, and house washing, their skilled team is committed to detailed preparation and precise execution, ensuring each project is beautiful, functional, and enduring.
Owner, Dave Bell (pictured above), talks to us a bit about how Digital Marketing has played a role in his business.
What inspired you to start your own business?
My Dad. He had always been an entrepreneur owning multiple businesses. Previous to an earlier decorating business, which I owned with two others, I had always worked for others. It was a wonderful learning journey where I was enabled to learn through my mistakes. In taking some time to reflect on those times I guess I realised how well positioned I was to start The Painters Hub.
Can you share some effective marketing strategies that have helped your business attract customers?
We haven’t relied on any one thing in this space. In building this brand it’s been important to build market awareness through multiple channels like social media, BNI (face to face networking), Google AdWords/Advertising, customer referral incentives and leaning into our personal networks. The reality is that some of these approaches are more of a long-game approach and others bear fruit much sooner. We must be doing both at the same time. Whilst we need sales conversions now, we also need brand recognition in years to come, which takes years to build into significance.
How do you differentiate your business?
We agree with our Google reviews on this – our communication along with the quality workmanship that we put out. We work with a lot of excellent tradies who are brilliant at their trades, but not so good on the communication side of things. We have customers who invest a lot of money in us, and we think it’s incredibly important to not just provide them a quality finished product, but to provide them comfort and confidence throughout the project with communication.
What activity do you do to raise brand awareness?
Again, we don’t do just the one, we do multiple activities a week to raise brand awareness. From the guys wearing well branded work gear, to branded vehicles, to our social media activities and much more. But perhaps our favourite is when we can use the brand to give back to our community. A recent example is getting behind ‘Nourish at Home’, a charity that supports less fortunate families at Christmas time and ensures that they’re well fed during the festive period. We feel that the brand needs to be associated with helping others.
What tips do you have for making a great impression at a networking event?
Be well presented in branded gear and be interested in others. Ask questions that best enable them to tell you, their story. Where have they come from, what was the hardest part of their journey, and what was the most rewarding are some good lines of questioning to follow. Networking events for us are an opportunity to build trust and create a good first impression that proves we’re just that little bit different.
What advice would you give to start-ups or businesses looking to grow?
Be brave, you’re going to make mistakes and the critical part of that is the lessons that come from those mistakes. For us here at The Painters Hub, our evolution and constant improvement comes from our daily lessons. We’re not perfect, we make mistakes, and we make sure that we not only learn from those mistakes, but we also share the lessons with our rivals in the decorating space.
