Richard Nelson President & Owner
One Man and A Brush
LLC
Serving North Metro Atlanta
since 2004
In the late 70’s and early
80’s my cousin, who had a paint contracting company in Augusta, GA, taught me the house painting
trade. We restored and painted the interior and exterior of many 3-story; 100-year-old homes in
downtown Augusta, that were to be used for pubs, restaurants and offices. It was extremely hard
work but very rewarding to see empty, abandoned homes brought back to life to maintain their
historical importance.
The work involved everything
from stripping layers of old paint from handrails and staining them to reveal the wonderful hand
carved craftsmanship and style of the era that you just don’t see anymore, to tying multiple
ladders together to reach and paint the old tin roofs. Being young, the danger did not concern
me, I can still recall stepping off a ladder over 30’ high in mid July onto a tin roof and it
being so hot the paint melted under my shoe.
I moved to Atlanta in the early 90’s, (married my beautiful wife of 18 years now and have 2
wonderful children, Aaron 16 and Rachel 14). I have worked in the music business, pawn industry, a
buyer of pro photographic equipment, and the Internet hosting business (I was the sales manager and
help build the company to 8-million a year) before the company was sold for 29 million after 4
years. This was just before the Internet bubble popped and the new company, from Europe, came in
and laid-off all the management to bring in their own people. After being hired again in the same
industry, I was laid off a year later due to downsizing.
Having a family to support, I felt I needed to get into a more stable, non-tech industry that would
allow me to highlight my management skills and commitment to providing superior customer service.
The light bulb went off as I fell back on my old skillset of house painting. I started working for
several larger painting contractors as an estimator and realized they were not calling customers
back when they had small painting projects. I asked if they would give me the leads and allow me to
do the jobs on the side to supplement my estimating income. After several months I realized I had
tapped an under served market.
The reality was the larger companies were not setup to handle small painting projects with 5 guys
in a van. So, after brainstorming and being inspired by the company “Two Men and A Truck” I started
“One Man and A Brush”, knowing I personally could bring a high level of customer service to the
painting industry. I started advertising to paint interior small projects and the rest is history.
After just 6-months I had to start hiring painters and never looked back. With the diversification
into offering handyman services, home repairs and home improvements we continue to grow on average
of 25% a year and I now have 12 painters, and 3 handyman/carpenters that understand and are
dedicated to my high standards and superior customer service.
We now do more larger house painting projects than we do smaller projects, but I have maintained
the structure of hiring individual painting craftsmen that allows me to send just one painter to
paint just one room or put two or more painters on larger painting projects, keeping us flexible to
meet any size painting need. My goal is to keep our growth at a level that allows me to continue
personally supervising all of my painting projects and maintaining the highest level of
craftsmanship and customer service in the Atlanta metro area.
I understand that choosing someone to work on your home is one of the most important decisions you
can make. I can promise that if you trust One Man and A Brush to paint your home, we will treat you
and your home with the utmost respect with the dedication of doing it right the first time as if we
were working on my own home.
|
