For more than 30 years, PPC magazine has been on job sites throughout the U.S. and Canada asking residential and commercial paint pros to share their stories. In our Pro to Pro column, we recap some of the best advice contractors have received and passed on over the last three decades.
THIS TIME: Paul Gallo, Magic Brush Painting, Rutland, Vermont:
“I was always told to face all adversity and those tough customer calls.
“You cannot avoid the calls of customers with problems. As difficult as a customer is, right or wrong, you must address them and put the fire out. This exercise builds maturity and character, both personally and from a business standpoint.”
–from the Spring 2009 issue of PPC magazine
About the painter
Based in Rutland, the third-largest city in the state of Vermont, Magic Brush Painting handles a wide variety of painting projects including residential, commercial and institutional properties. The company also does restoration work and can scale up to 35 crew members to cover commercial projects as large as 250,000 square feet, says owner Paul Gallo.
“I come from a family with a long history of artistic qualities,” he told PPC in 2009. “My brother is a well-known canvas artist with shows around the world. So picking up a brush to paint houses came naturally to me.”
Upon starting Magic Brush in 1981, Gallo has pursued a slow growth model, adding one to three employees to his staff when the time is right.
“So many contractors try to grow too fast with the showy trucks and equipment and think big when the sun is shining on these beautiful summer days,” he said. “We grew to protect ourselves on those rainy days and six months of cold weather in Vermont.”
Story and photography by Mike Starling, PPC Editor. ©2009, 2021 Northbrook Publishing. Read more of what pro painters have discovered on the job in the PPC What I’ve Learned archive.