You’re good on the tools. You’ve thought about going out on your own. We’ve removed what stops most painters.
A guaranteed salary from day one.
Real equity you earn as the business grows.
A business already built, waiting for its painter.
Exit Forward is a WA business. Real people, happy to meet face to face. We’ve built and scaled a multi-million dollar business ourselves, and we back tradespeople who want to build something real.
It’s not a wage job. It’s not a franchise. It’s a partnership.
We’re backing one hands-on painter to lead a new painting company we’ve already built. The brand, the business model, the pricing, the website, the systems. Done. What’s missing is the painter.
You bring quality workmanship and the drive to build something serious. We bring capital, marketing, and the back office. Real equity you earn as the business grows.
Win win. Or we walk away.
“I’m qualified. I can run a job. I want my own crew, but I’m not about to gamble my family’s livelihood on a hope and pray start-up. I might be subcontracting now. I want to build something real, with a partner who has capital, brand, and the systems to back it.”
Most painters who go solo spend a year and a small fortune working this out the hard way. It’s done. Here’s what’s waiting for the right operator.
A premium brand built for a specific, ownable position in the market. Named, designed and ready to trade.
The business model is reverse-engineered from real market demand, not a guess. We found where the money is before we built a thing.
A site engineered to rank in search and to be the answer AI assistants recommend when locals go looking for a painter.
The lead engine is built and waiting. When we turn it on, the enquiries come to you.
Quoting, scheduling and job tracking, wired together so you’re on the tools, not lost in a spreadsheet at 9pm.
Accounts, bookkeeping and financial systems set up and running from day one. The paperwork that sinks most solo painters is handled.
Every search someone makes has a volume and a level of competition behind it. We mapped thousands of them across the WA market to find the work that’s actually being searched for, and where the competition isn’t. This is a redacted slice. The real thing is far bigger.
| Search term | Searches / mo | Cost per click | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6,600 | $5.80 | Low | |
| 1,300 | $3.07 | Med | |
| 1,000 | $8.03 | Med | |
| 1,600 | $— | Near zero | |
| 890 | $2.15 | Low | |
| 640 | $12.25 | Low | |
| 320 | $4.40 | Med |
Structured so every service and every suburb has a page working to bring in the right customer. Here’s the shape of it, with the brand and niche blurred out.
Behind Exit Forward sits one of Western Australia’s most established full-service agencies, built over more than a decade, still running at scale. Creative, performance, strategy, and technology capability brought to bear on every business we partner with.
Started Dilate in 2012 and built it into one of Western Australia’s most respected digital marketing agencies over 14 years, navigating six equity transactions along the way. Founder rapport, narrative clarity, and a sensitivity to succession that only comes from having lived it.
The integrator. Financial discipline, structural rigour, and the ability to scale what’s been proven. Together, Bodie and Tom have acquired and integrated three businesses since stepping back from the Dilate day-to-day.
If this reads like you, put your hand up. No money up front. No pressure. Everything on the table before you commit to anything.
Attach your resume, and anything else that helps us understand your work. Photos of jobs, references, certificates. We reply to every application.