Shop guides
Guides for the business side of the booth
Quoting, color selection, and the workflow between a customer inquiry and an approved, deposited job. Written for applicators, not designers.
See Cerakote colors on your part before you spray
Every applicator has had the conversation: the customer says 'burnt bronze,' you spray burnt bronze, and at pickup they say it looked different in their head. A color visualizer ends that conversation — the customer approves a mockup of their actual part before you mix a single bottle.
Read the guideHow to quote Cerakote jobs (without underpricing your booth)
Most underpriced Cerakote jobs die at the quoting stage, not in the booth. The spray time was fine — the quote just forgot the disassembly, the second color, the stencil time, and the three phone calls describing what 'kind of a fade thing' means. Here's a framework that prices the whole job.
Read the guideCerakote color combos that sell, straight from real shop schedules
Ask ten shops for their most-ordered schemes and you'll hear the same handful of combinations. These are the combos that keep showing up on booking calendars — and the quickest way to sell one is to show it on the customer's own part next to the solid-color version.
Read the guideThe battleworn Cerakote look: how it's built and how to sell it
Battleworn is the finish that looks like a story — a dark topcoat worn back to bare metal tones on every edge and high spot, like the part has seen twenty years of honest holster time. It's also one of the highest-margin finishes you can spray, because the value is in judgment, not materials.
Read the guideH, Elite, C, or V? Cerakote series explained for job planning
Customers ask for a color; the series is your call. The four Cerakote product lines differ in cure method, temperature tolerance, film build, and wear characteristics, and picking the right one per part is part of what they're paying a professional for.
Read the guideSell more coating jobs: the visual proof workflow
Two shops spray identical quality. One sends a text that says 'FDE with black accents, $325.' The other sends a picture of the customer's own part wearing the scheme, next to the price, with an Approve button. The second shop closes faster, upsells more, and almost never hears 'that's not what I pictured' at pickup. The difference is workflow, not talent.
Read the guide