Southern Charm Painting
Photo by Ashlee Glen
When Brittany Williams started the Huddleston-based Southern Charm Painting in 2017, her main goal was to focus on quality over quantity. Now, four years into owning her own painting business, she feels confident that is exactly what she delivers—not to mention her business won Gold for Best Paint Company in our Best Of Lynchburg Awards. Writer Ellowyn Steele spoke with Williams to learn more about her business and why she chose this industry.
Ellowyn Steele: First off, how did Southern Charm Painting come to be?
Brittany Williams: It took me several weeks to pick that name. It was very much a ground up process. My brother actually bought me my first spray pump as a gift to help me kick off my business. I had a lot of support from friends and family to help get it going, but it was definitely me on my own at first. For the first six months, I would work my property management job Monday through Friday. Then in the nights and evenings, I would paint. On the weekends, I would paint. I literally didn’t take a day off for months to get it going.
ES: Do you have more help now?
BW: I do. I have two to three people that work with me throughout the year.
ES: What specific services does Southern Charm Painting offer?
BW: People laugh when I say this. If it can be painted, we’ll paint it. That’s pretty much my motto. There’s not much I can’t paint or won’t paint if the price is right, and the time is there. We mostly do residential work. I like residential because that’s where our quality shows.
ES: On your website, it says that you do work that your customers are proud of. What measures and methods do you take to ensure that happens?
BW: We go the extra mile to make sure that the customer understands what it is they’re asking for, which is what I think sets us apart from other businesses. We take the extra time to ask questions to make sure that they are getting what they really wanted.
ES: Have you faced any challenges while running your business?
BW: There’s been a lot of hard work. A lot of hours of having to prove myself, especially since the construction industry is a predominantly male field. You have to be able to not wear your emotions on your sleeve and you have to be able to brush shoulders with mostly men in this line of work. You have to have tough, thick skin.
ES: What is your favorite part about what you do?
BW: The end result. I always challenge myself with everything I do to make this one better than the last if at all possible, in some way. Seeing the end result and then seeing the customer happy with what we’ve done makes it worth it.
