Jacob Battaglia: Hard Lessons from a Painting Contractor Who Learned Fast

In this episode, Mark interviews Jacob Battaglia, owner of One Way Painting in Woodstock, Georgia, about building a quality-focused, faith-driven residential and commercial painting company. Jacob shares how he started in 2021 after remodeling work, shifted from handyman jobs into painting to stand out through reliability and communication, and grew from a solo operator to four W-2 employees with strong Google reviews. He describes early chaos, learning to structure sales and scheduling, and pushing himself in sales despite discomfort. Jacob’s toughest season came when heavy marketing spend produced little ROI, leaving the company slow and cash-strapped; he explains how tracking job costing, margins, overhead, and data-driven decisions - especially around hiring - became critical. In the last 20 minutes or so of the conversation, Mark shares some critical guidance for figuring out what to pay your people and stay profitable - and Jacob brings up one of his biggest “mistakes” with his first hire.Find out more about Mark, the podcast and our masterminds / training moduleshttps://www.paint4americamastermind.comFind out more about Jacob herehttp://onewayga.com/