Services Offered: Custom-Painted Wall Quotes
Posted by WallsNeedLove on 10/9/2011
To an untrained eye, wall decal quotes look eerily like a professionally-painted masterpiece. Armed with this knowledge (and motivated by a parasitic student loan), I placed a Craig’s List ad. I listed my service as a talented painter. I made it clear that I was not the right guy if you simply wanted some paint slapped on tired walls. I described how I specialized in custom designs including calligraphy-type painting of inspirational messages. I also mentioned that I would provide clients with over 100 wall quotes and numerous color choices from which to choose. I uploaded images of a few of my wall decal quotes (“custom design options” I called them) to the listing for good measure.
Within five hours of placing the ad, my phone rang. A young housewife was inquiring about having some wall quotes painted in her master bedroom. After asking a few questions about my specialty painting services, the woman asked if I could start the job the next day. “Of course,” I almost blurted out; however, I collected myself and said, “Let me check my schedule. Actually, I that day just opened up; a client had to reschedule. I can be there at 8 am.”
I was thrilled. The $200 I charged per wall quote didn’t seem to faze my first client. She raved about how perfect my sample work looked; she even liked two of the sample quotes I had on the posting and wanted those very same wall quotes painted on her walls. Later that day, I meticulously fulfilled the “order” for my new client’s wall decal quotes and gathered the necessary supplies for the upcoming job. Having never painted in my life, I wasn’t exactly sure what to bring. I threw some small paint brushes, paint cans, drop cloths (and mailing tube containing the vinyl wall decal quotes and application tool) in a cardboard box.
I showed up right at 8 am and knocked on the door with supply box in hand. After customary introductions and services and fees overview, I informed the friendly housewife that I needed the environment to be free of distractions so that I could focus entirely on the meticulous lettering I would be painting on the walls of her master suite for the next six hours. She said she completely understood, showed me to the room, and shut the door behind me. Within 20 minutes, I had applied all three wall decal quotes. I stepped back and admired my work: perfect! Had he not known the wall quotes were decals, Michelangelo himself would have been impressed by my skills. With over five hours to kill, I took a nap. Man, was that down mattress topper comfortable!
The housewife loved how perfect and freshly painted quotes turned out. After paying me my hard-earned $600, she asked if I could come back the following week to paint a custom quote in her son’s room. By custom, she was describing a quote not contained in my book of sample designs. I confessed that I was booked solid the coming week, and the next, and the next. I would call her when my schedule opened up, I said.
A very tiny smidgen of guilt overcame me for what I had just done. I tried to justify my actions. When you eat out you pay a huge premium to have someone else cook and serve a meal that could otherwise be fixed at home for a fraction of the cost, right? Surely that was not too much different than charging $500 to apply three $30 decals . . . err . . . I mean painting custom wall quotes. I pulled my custom painting Craig’s List ad. In its place, I listed some decals for sale. “Formerly $200 each: Custom Wall Decal Quotes Now $17.95-$34.95” the posting read.
