May is a perfect time to start thinking about what projects to complete on your home’s exterior, and a big decision some homeowners face is whether or not to paint.  If no major structural work is needed on your home’s exterior, home painting is the most cost-effective approach to changing the appearance of a home, and home painting is one of the few projects you can complete that will actually increase your home’s value.  Choosing the right exterior paint colors will also go a long way to renewing your home’s exterior, enhancing curb appeal, and can even make you feel better every time you walk through your front door!

There are a couple of important things to consider when choosing the right exterior paint colors, and the experts at College Pro Painters have provided the below tips when choosing exterior home painting colors.

Consider your environment:  When choosing exterior house paint color, you must consider everything around your home, including your neighbor’s homes, your landscaping, and the impact of the sun on your home.  It is very important to choose colors that will not clash with the neighbor’s home exterior colors, but that will blend with the neighborhood or stand out in a subtle, unobtrusive manner.  Your landscaping and the level of sun your home receives are also important factors to consider as you do not want the paint to fade due to overexposure to the sun, and you do not want the paint to blend too much with your current landscaping.  These elements play an important part in selecting the right exterior paint colors, and, in your color selection process, experts like College Pro Painters will walk around the home with you to call attention to these important details.

Consider structural elements on your home:  The elements of your home that serve very important purposes on the home may not be the most attractive, like your roof, gutters and downspouts.  Your roof color is not something that will change, so you must choose exterior colors that will work with this color.  Additionally, it is important to choose colors that will understate the less attractive, functional elements of your home, like the gutters, downspouts.

Landscape features like stone accents or walls, bricks or slate are also important features to consider.  Often times, stonework provides a multitude of color flecks, one of which can certainly be found on a color swatch to be used on your home’s exterior.  This will allow you to choose complimenting colors to enhance your current home’s exterior structural elements.

Choosing the right exterior house paint colors can be a daunting task, but working with experts like College Pro Painters can make all the difference.  Contact College Pro Painters at www.collegepro.com or 1-800-32-PAINT to get a free estimate on your exterior house painting needs.

Why keep your house maintained and painted?  Well, to many, the answer can be obvious.  According to Yahoo®, Painting the exterior of your home can, Increase Real Estate Value of Your Home, Enhance Curb Appeal, Protect Exterior Surfaces, Provide High Value Make Over and Create Positive Energy and Improved Homeowner Outlook.  So, with the understanding of the importance of a great paint job, the next question is which painting contractor to choose…

College Pro Painters has been in the residential painting market for over 40 years with a proven track record to handle any job, large or small.  Whether your need is for a painting contractor or window cleaner, your experience with College Pro will provide the planning and care required for a job of such importance. College Pro will treat your home as the prized possession it is, and College Pro’s painters and window cleaners will work hard to deliver the service and value you deserve.  Their teams of painters and window cleaners have been trained extensively to handle everything in a professional and safe way.  Affordability and quality come standard with College Pro’s house painting and window cleaning services.

College Pro’s core purpose is “together, realizing potentials.”  Unlike many other painting or window cleaning contractors, they see the company as the coming together of potentials: the potential of the home which houses their customers’ most cherished things – the people they love and the treasures and memories of their lives.  They invest in and believe in the potential of their young entrepreneurs, empowering them to run their own businesses in local communities and to become tomorrow’s leaders. We all want our communities to look great and see the potential of our homes. The energetic men and women of College Pro who work on your home are eager, dedicated individuals, who want to contribute to their communities and realize their individual potentials.  Let College Pro Painters and College Pro Window Cleaning be the painting and window cleaning contractors who will deliver a great service and hit the mark by beautifying your home.  Visit http://www.collegepro.com for more information!

Are you hoping to become a business owner?  Do you want to be innovative, make executive decisions?  Get the opportunity to delegate to others, be the one that calls the shots?

This was everything I wanted and why I got my degree in Entrepreneurship from University of Illinois in Chicago.  I also found a company by the name of College Pro Painters.  College Pro Painters selects interns to run their own franchise and they give the coaching and financial backing to make something that seems far-fetched become a reality.  I now am a Vice President with this organization, providing 70 – 80 students across the Midwest region a chance to run their own franchise and see what it takes to run a business.

A few tips I can offer in wanting to become an entrepreneur:

1.  Get a Coach

2.  Get excited about failing

3.  Start right away

Having a Coach:  This is a very important part.  I really enjoyed my franchise with College Pro Painters because I had an individual coach.  When wanting a run a business, having a coach who looks at the facts and the business from a different perspective helps you go a long way.  It helps you get through the learning curve faster, pushes you to think on both sides of a problem, and allows you to bounce ideas off of someone allowing you to take more calculated risks.  I would never think of being a business owner without a business owner network that meets regularly or a coach who is a network of yours who does it to just help, or if you work with a paid consultant to help you run our business.  Whichever option you choose, I recommend you have something like this!

Failing Forward:  Ensure you are open to failing.  Many people give up way too early on their quest of running a business.  You have to be ready and expecting to screw a lot of things up.  I have always said I am really good at making a lot of messes and cleaning them up well.  I take that lesson of cleaning up the messes I have made and ensure I learn from that experience so, when faced again, I do it right.  I get excited when I fall down as I know that I am learning to make the right decision the next time.  So, take risks and be level-headed that you are going to try to make it go as well as possible but it could go badly.  The bad side of things can sometimes be the best things to happen when learning to run the business for the first time.

Start Right Away:  I often hear that I am going to wait 15 to 20 years before running a business.  I have always wondered why people say that.  If you talk to a business owner who has done it before, they will mostly say that they wish they would have started earlier.  The learning curve can be long, and if you are someone who will persevere through obstacles and look at things objectively and always take responsibility for outcomes, you can be ready to start your business.  Solving financial backing can be an issue for some, but, once you figure that out, get started!  It will only lead to a more healthy business and a smarter situation come 10 to 15 years rather than risking it all and starting the learning curve then in your lifetime.  So I encourage you to get started now.

I asked some questions above around what you are hoping to get to do as a business owner.  All of those things happen, but not immediately.  You have to be willing to push through the tough times, being every employee for the business at the start, having to do the things you may not want to do, ensuring you are involved in extensive training, and being ready to work a ton of hours most likely.  In the end, if you do those things and you continue on the learning curve, you will find yourself getting to be overly innovative, getting to delegate to others after building your business.

As I said above, I jumped on my business-owning opportunities by working with College Pro Painters as I wanted to get to run my own franchise and have a coach who would push me.  It taught me how to take ownership, fail forward, and, mostly, how to clean up a lot of messes, teaching me the right decisions when running a business.  So, what are you waiting for?  Get started on your business, find your coach, and be open to the learning curve.  It is one hell of a ride, but the rewards are bitter sweet – just be patient and remember your end goal!

If you were once a College student who worked to pay for school, a new business owner looking to achieve success, a homeowner who needed quality work done on their home, a parent who encouraged their child to try new and challenging opportunities, or a coach who helped to develop those around them – then you can relate to College Pro at some level.

Founded over 40 years ago in 1971, College Pro Painters is the original student-based painting company in North America.  At its core the company is about providing exceptional leadership and management training to young entrepreneurs through real-world business experiences.  The opportunity for student entrepreneurs is often likened to a real-world MBA.

College Pro Painters and College Pro Window Cleaning employ over 700 student entrepreneurs across North America annually to provide services to home owners in 10 provinces and 30 states.  The opportunity for most is one of great challenge and great reward.  Each student entrepreneur operates their own franchise in their local community employing other students and doing work for anywhere from 50-500 local home owners in a summer (depending on the service and size of business).  Over the course of running these franchises the student entrepreneurs are trained in all aspects of business operation including marketing, sales, financial management, time management, leadership, and payroll.  The skills developed and lessons learned come largely out of the accountability demanded of student entrepreneurs to achieve success.

Each student entrepreneur sets their own goals and creates their own culture – but all businesses share in common the reliance on local homeowners to support student entrepreneurs by having their homes painted or windows cleaned by College Pro.  The ultimate goal is to provide a service that will be recommended to others, and a service that will be used again in subsequent years.

The core purpose is: together, realizing potentials, and that involves every level of the business from the painters and techs who complete the work, the College Pro staff who were all student entrepreneurs formerly, the student entrepreneurs who’ve taken on the greatest challenge & opportunity of their youth, and the customers who value both maintaining their homes and supporting student entrepreneurs.

College Pro Painters is an amazing opportunity to build your resume.  While completing my geography degree I was looking for some solid work experience.  I had done summer jobs like dishwashing, server, lawn cutting but I had a strong desire to get some real work experience that would separate me from my friends and other students.  I also had a really strong desire to challenge myself and do something bigger than I had done before.  College Pro Painters was the best decision I made to build my resume and get real life experience.

The College Pro training program is, bar none, one of the best training programs I have ever encountered.  The General Managers have a laid out program for teaching sales, marketing, interviewing and how to paint a house. The way they train you is great – they don’t teach it all once.  You learn stuff as you go along, and at the right time.  They teach you in a classroom and then there is a lot of in the field training and weekly meetings to keep you focused.

As the summer progresses, you get so much more than a summer job.  Instead of doing customer service or sales or general labor, the franchisee manager role incorporates everything, and then some, and that is why it is a great resume builder and a great summer job.

Two of the biggest learning and transferable skills I learned were: interviewing and selling.  I hired over 12 employees (only kept 6!) but these skills will be very valuable in the future if I start my own business or if I work for a company.  I also booked over $100,000 dollars in sales, which was about 40 jobs.  You can’t learn how to sell at school, and often I booked jobs over $4,000…now that’s a summer job!

With College Pro, no other job gives you this much responsibility this fast.  If you are a hard worker and want to learn, I highly recommend this as a summer job!

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College Pro Painters what an experience. I personally am an engineering student and have faced a lot of challenges and College Pro Painters was definitely one of the big ones. I find that, when I’m challenged, that’s when I learned the most, and College Pro Painters definitely delivered on knowledge. I was looking into internship opportunities and stumbled upon College Pro. It only seemed relevant to business students at first, but after learning more about College Pro Painters and their methods of training, I realized that the hands-on business skills you learn were very applicable to what I needed to make it in the real world. So, I decided to take the chance with College Pro; basically a few months later I was running my own company – who would have thought?

I was trained well and was sent out to build a team of painters of my very own. I hired six employees and learned what it’s like to really take responsibility and be in a true leadership role. This was a life changing experience, people depended on me. My actions had real consequences whether they were good or bad. It was a completely different world then what I was used to in university. It wasn’t just about my needs, it was about the customers, it was about the painters, and it was about building strong relationships.

Honestly, I think I grew as a person, it really felt like going from high school to university all over again. Everything was a bit different and much more challenging but you learn way more. After doing this program I learned so much about leadership and keeping organized and working well with others. I think that the engineering programs should allow Leadership-based Internships opportunities. I truly believe that I learned more about Life and skills that will stick with me forever in the last six months with College Pro Painters then I could in four years of schooling.

If you’re a student in any faculty or major and are looking for an Internship opportunity I would strongly recommend the College Pro Program. The trainers are extremely skilled and truly know how to run a team. To sum up, my experience with College Pro Painters have been a blast, and I can’t wait to work with them again.

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Ask the typical 19-22 year old what he/she wants to be doing 10 years down the road and the answer you usually get is something along the lines of:  “I want to be running my own (insert the type) business and I want to very successful”.   While this is just a dream for most, it will become a reality for 1% of those out there with the guts and drive to set themselves up to make it happen.

For those “forward thinkers” out there, a place exists where you can get yourself moving down that path… quickly.  That place is College Pro Painters – a North American student painting and window-cleaning company that specializes in hiring hundreds of college-aged students to run their own business over the spring and summer.

College Pro Painters has been in business since 1971 and is on a mission to develop leadership and management skills in young entrepreneurs. They train their young business owners on all aspects of running a successful small business and they support them each step of the way.  Students sign up for the College Pro program to gain valuable skill and experience, to build their resumes, and to make money over the summer.  It is not uncommon to find ex-College Pro managers in high-level positions in all industries.  Many of them go on to work at one of College Pro’s sister companies or start their own business with the skills they developed during their time at College Pro Painters.

As the typical “successful adult” knows, pushing yourself when you are young to do interesting and challenging jobs will often help indicate what you’ll be in 10 years.  Each piece of experience (whether it be school or job) is a building block for where you’ll be down the road.  At College Pro Painters, students are gaining an edge on their peers and are vaulting themselves towards an amazing future.  They are building their tomorrow, today.

For those with the guts to follow through on their dreams, College Pro Painters is a great place to start. Contact the company at www.collegepro.com for more information about management opportunities for yourself or someone you know.

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James Dale, former College Pro Painters franchisee, says, “In my two years as a franchisee I learned many lessons.  It was both painful at times and exhilarating at times but overall it was one of the greatest work experiences I have ever had.”  College Pro is an amazing opportunity for young people who aspire to be leaders, experience management, and who want to taste business success for the first or maybe second time.  In College Pro you learn so much about yourself and others in such a short time it is like a business degree compressed into one summer.

It is hard work!  Let no one tell you it easy, or, if you hear some people say it’s hard – they are right – they may not have been the right person because running a business is not for everyone!  But you have a lot of support and a proven system that works.  James continues with, “I believe my success came from working hard and listening to my General Manager in two key areas: hiring and selling.”

James worked very hard, especially in his second year, in hiring the right people so that he would have success.  In his first year he made some mistakes in hiring – particularly in hiring individuals who were not hard working or were not very honest people.  In his second year he spent a lot of time interviewing potential candidates on their previous work experiences and how they handled tough jobs.  He also had a lot of success in hiring people who had a track record of taking pride in their work and being honest.  The key was to look at their past performances to predict future success.  James’ painters made really good money and they had fun.

James also became really good at finding a customer’s needs when booking jobs and then making sure he hit those needs when actually producing the job.  James worked hard at connecting with customers and this really helped his success ratio in booking jobs.  James says that “as I became more and more skilled I was able to book big jobs and some customers trusted me with jobs over $5000.”

“I would recommend the College Pro experience if you are a hard worker and have a preference to lead people and have responsibility on your shoulders. “

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What are employers really looking for? What do students need to land that perfect job? These are the timeless questions that stalk every student in University.

Great marks? Let’s be honest, no one can compete with Chinese and Indian super students (let’s remember there are more people learning English in China today than in North America). Reza Satchu, outspoken business professor at the University of Toronto, says it best when he urges students to take risks at a young age, while in school I would add, and to deliberately put themselves in situations that will cause discomfort to maximize learning. Satchu is right; discomfort provides an extremely fertile environment for expedited self-development.

What does this all mean? Employers are looking for candidates who have taken steps to place themselves in tough, demanding and even overwhelming environments. Environments that place great sums of responsibility on them, more than they are prepared for, qualified for or even capable of – at first that is, the right candidates will rise to the challenge, grow and maybe even succeed.

The baby boomers are sticking around (bummer, I know), and a strong economy hid shopping carts full of bad managers, so in a world with fewer top spots, and a much greater timidity amongst employers to ‘take a chance’ on a under-experienced candidate, employers need candidates who can prove that they can perform starting day one. The successful candidates will be those who can point to seasons of discomfort that they voluntarily subscribed themselves to and took away real-life skills with real-life results. Success in these ventures is not critical (it helps, but it’s not critical), rather, the candidate needs to demonstrate that in the face of true adversity, they pressed on into the face of challenge, far past their own personal capabilities and delivered on the objective.

College Pro Painters, I would argue, is one of the finest ‘discomfort learning environments’ available to select students. The opportunity to operate every aspect of a real, “you own, you build it” business is extremely unique, and a perfect example of the type of experience that cautious employers are looking for their candidates to have – the kind of experience that tells an employer that this candidate can deliver even when in the ‘belly of the beast’ so to speak.

Employers are looking for candidates with a proven track record that they can deliver when the question or the problem is not clear. The business environment today has never been faster, more competitive and more exciting. For a hopeful candidate, a career opportunity in the exciting world of business requires experiences like those offered by College Pro Painters. Academics will always have a valuable place, hard to get anywhere without an undergrad degree these days, but my advice ultimately to students is, “challenge  yourself while  in  school  and  that  dream  job  after  school  could  be  yours!”

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Aside from helping college students realize their true potential through entrepreneurship, College Pro Painters also values reaching out to community members to offer a helping hand. The company’s core purpose of ‘together, realizing potentials’ takes on new meaning when applied to the good of the community as a whole. Student managers and full-time staff members understand the importance of using their skills to better the lives of those around them.

One way College Pro Painters gives back each year is through alternative spring breaks. Instead of heading to the usual spring break hot spots for a week’s worth of partying, College Pro students band together to paint the homes of people who otherwise would not be able to afford it. On one trip to a neighborhood outside of Tampa, 35 franchisees selected six houses to paint over their time away from school. Most of the homes hadn’t been painted in more than 40 years and were in very poor condition. Students are happy to do it.

“It’s a very different culture here, and for me personally, that’s really exciting to be painting and doing work in and around something you’re not used to,” said Jordan Driediger, a College Pro Painters general manager. “It’s a very different income level here, but there’s a lot of community. People are extremely friendly; I don’t think we could have had a better time with the community that we were in, and I definitely want to come back to this exact place.”

The spirits of homeowners were high and full of gratitude as they saw their newly painted homes, courtesy of College Pro Painters. Some had been waiting for years to see the transformations.

“Oh gosh, I can’t begin to say how happy I am because I’ve been waiting on it for a long time. I’ve been trying to save up the money to get it done for a long time, and I never did,” said one homeowner. “I wasn’t even concerned about Christmas I just wanted the 28^th to come. And they did an excellent job on my house. I would put them up on any house, any day.”

Another homeowner, an elderly woman, peacefully reflects on the work students did on her home.

“It’s a blessing to me. Thank you. Thank the program and thank you all for what you’re doing,” she says with a smile.

The College Pro Painters alternative spring break program gives students an opportunity to show that they care about doing a quality painting job, regardless of the money. The company makes sure everyone has a great experience—that includes the franchisees, general managers who are coaching, and the homeowners. College Pro Painters shows how a fresh coat of paint can bring young people and communities in need together.