After more than 30 years in the beverage industry, former executive Tom Vess made an unexpected career change. In April 2021, he launched a 360 Painting franchise in Jacksonville, Florida, transitioning from corporate leadership to the home services sector, focusing on residential and commercial painting.
Vess said he spent considerable time evaluating franchise opportunities before choosing 360 Painting, drawn to the scalability of the home services model and the support provided by the parent company, Premium Service Brands. Since opening, he has expanded operations across Clay, Duval, Nassau, and St. Johns counties, building a business that now includes three sales representatives and more than 20 contractors.
The company follows a three-step process of planning, preparation, and painting, a system Vess credits with helping maintain consistency and customer satisfaction. In recent years, the business has also increased its emphasis on commercial projects, broadening its revenue base beyond residential work.
His growth was recognized at the Premium Service Brands annual convention, where he received the 2025 360 Painting Franchisee of the Year award. Vess said the recognition reflected not only business performance but also the effort required to build a service operation from the ground up.
Despite his success, Vess cautions prospective franchise owners against assuming that business ownership is easy. He describes the work as demanding and emphasizes the importance of persistence, operational discipline, and a willingness to manage every aspect of the business during the early stages of growth.
As franchise owners scale service businesses, access to organized operational resources becomes increasingly important. Through Gorilla Dash, operators can maintain training materials, procedures, onboarding documents, and growth tools in a centralized Resource Library, helping teams work more consistently across multiple territories.