BC Business
BCBusiness Innovators 2012, Wow-1day! Painting Inc. | BCBusinessBack: 2012 BCBusiness Guide to Innovation
Congratulations to Wow-1day! Painting Inc., #11 in 2012's Most Innovative Companies in B.C.
Until recently, there wasn’t much new under the sun when it came to house-painting: you did your research, hired the cheapest bidder, then waited for a crew with tarps and paint cans to show up and occupy your house for days or weeks. As Jim Bodden, founder of Wow-1day! Painting Inc., explains, the old method was just as tiresome for contractors as for customers: “I had been doing the same kind of painting for so long. I was tired of competing on a level playing field, and wanted to differentiate myself.”
The result not only introduced a new product to the market, but overturned the prevailing model that left clients at the mercy of contractors who determine when and for how long they’ll render your house a disaster zone.
Bodden began by promising one customer he could complete a small job in one day and when that worked it was just a question of figuring out how to make the efficiency scalable. “It’s all math,” he explains. “Instead of having two painters do a place in six days, you’re just putting 12 painters in it for one day.”
Bodden then teamed up with franchise guru Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOTJUNK? fame and the rest, as they say, is history. Wow-1day! Painting recently signed up its ninth franchise, in Kansas City, Missouri, and according to Bodden is on track to meet its impressive goal of 40 franchises across North America by the end of 2012.