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The News and Information Source for Franchising  ·  September 29, 2007

Newcomers..

Decorating sense

Custom painters hoping for real success

By Staff
As published in: Franchise Times - September 2007

Before they opened their second location, Steve Hester’s home served as the family-run Hester Painting & Decorating downtown showroom. “My wife got tired of people tramping through her house,” Steve Hester says, grinning.

And while seeing the various faux painting treatments in a home setting was advantageous for selling jobs, the showroom does equally well. “Once we get clients in the showroom, 80 percent close,” Hester says.

Jeff and Steve Hester are franchising the family’s three-decade old painting and decorating business.

Faux finishes are wall treatments that imitate marble, rare stone, fine woods, textiles or old world European plasters. Often they are used to mimic distressed or natural aging of plaster. Because they’re done by hand, they require a painter who has both patience and technique.

The Hester family spent three decades building the business, and now Steve Hester and his brother, Jeff, are taking over the family business from their father, Tom, with plans to franchise it. Steve serves as president of the company, while Jeff is vice president of franchise development. They saw franchising as a perfect vehicle to grow their high-end custom painting business because out-of-town customers were already asking for their services. “People will fly our painters to other states and put them up in hotels,” Steve Hester says. And in an industry “filled with people who don’t call back,” Hester Painting can offer both skill and business acumen.

The company has decorated the homes of many of the movers and shakers of Chicago’s wealthier areas and was recently listed in House & Garden magazine’s Designers’ Best ‘07, as one of the “Best in the World for Decorative Painters and Wallpapering.”

The brothers spent two years researching franchising, before deciding on that route. “We’re a strong management team, but we didn’t want to expand ourselves.”

Jeff Hester is the brother with the painting expertise, while Steve, the one with the MBA from Kellogg School of Management, handles the business side of things.

They’ve taken their time rolling out the franchise program and hosted their first in a series of “Paint Your Future Meetings,” where they hold face-to-face UFOC disclosure briefings. Early leads have been from the fashion-forward San Francisco, New York and Florida communities, Steve Hester says.

Hester Painting & Decorating Headquarters: Skokie, Illinois Franchise fee: $50,000 Royalty: 6 percent Ad fee: up to 1 1/2 percent to national ad fund, and 2 to 4 percent designated for local marketing Web site:www.hesterdecorating.com

Jeff Hester believes the market for upscale painting treatments will continue because Home TV has created a market for upscale home decorating. And, even though stenciling, metal washes and linen finishes look easy to do, they require someone who’s trained in the techniques, Jeff Hester says. “We get called in to fix mistakes,” Jeff Hester says of jobs by both the professional and home owner.

Since most builders use white paint throughout a new track home, custom painting is extra. The trend is no longer to have one color flowing from room to room, but to use color to enhance the mood of a room,, Jeff Hester says. “Wallpapers are starting to come back,” he adds.

The price to paint a room depends on the market and the location, Jeff Hester says, therefore, they developed a proprietary estimating system to help future franchisees price out the jobs.

The prices for a franchise, however, aren’t market dependant. The franchise fee is $50,000 and includes training in both the techniques and the business. Hester is looking for business people to run the business, not actually do the work. They will help franchisees find and train the actual painters. The initial investment ranges between $164,600 and $202,100, excluding real estate lease costs. The terms of the agreement is five years, with three subsequent five-year renewal terms.

Initial training is nine days on business operations and 23 days on painting and faux finishing. In addition to the franchisee, at least two painters must also attend the training.

The founder of the company, Tom Hester, may be stepping down from his previous role, but he will still be important to the business as it evolves into a franchise. “Dad is still is the face of the company,” Steve Hester says about his gregarious father. “He’ll be at the grand openings. For Dad this is right up his alley, another party, another person to talk to.”