u/NugsGotMeZooted

Im a painter, I own my LLC, i have good experience and my craftsmanship and end product is exceptional- but I am facing a disconnect in what to do to get a potential customer.
In the past I used Angi’s, a total slime dump of a company who stole thousands and left me broke after not delivering what I paid for. Ive been working for a painting company to pay the bills, its been good in the sense that ive learned a lot and have gotten better, but the money is terrible. They will charge a customer $3000 for a job, and all they do is send me out to do it and Ill get paid maybe $250. Im the product theyre selling.
Sorry i got sidetracked there, just rubs me wrong.
Now i have been struck with an opportunity to get back into my own company because my job has not have work for me in weeks but I struggle to know what to do exactly to get customers. I have no budget for advertisement. There are some things I know is very important to get but I cant afford them yet, like car decal magnets and a T shirt with my company details on it, and business cards.
So, im a young man in Florida with a truck and everything I need, what should I do to get potential customers? I think going door to door or cold calling is just grimy and I want to avoid that if possible.
If im asking the wrong question or going about this wrong please let me know, i just want to be successful here. A single job provides for my family more than my employed job does in weeks where I work overtime.

I see a lot of business promotion posts in various facebook groups, and most of them seem to just disappear into the void.
As someone who grew up in St Pete and is trying to build a local business from the ground up, I’m curious what actually works when you have a $0 advertising budget. I’m trying to keep this post about getting advice rather than promoting myself, but for context I am in the blue collar field.
Ive tried lead generating companies like Angi’s before but they gave me fake leads and told me to pound sand.
I know getting those first few jobs and building a word of mouth reputation is probably the hardest part. For those of you who have been through it, what would you recommend? I’d rather build my business the right way than become the guy spamming every St Pete facebook group with my LLC and getting zero engagement.