The Journal - Northern Virginia Business - May 5, 1993
Franchises Offer Students Experience, Finances
By Kristin Patterson
Journal Staff Writer
When swarms of college students return home this month looking for summer work, many will land jobs as sales clerks in department stores or as waiters and waitresses.
But for some students, the job search hasn’t been a last-ditch effort. They’ve been planning for months.
They've also been planning for the future. Instead of working for someone else, these students will get a trial run at operating their own businesses – as franchisees with area house-painting companies.
As franchise managers, they are in charge of everything from hiring painting crews to advertising to handling payroll. They often supervise three or four crews, or 10 to 15 people.
“They do just about all the aspects of running a business,” said Joshua Jablon the 25-year-old owner of University Painters Inc., based in Alexandria. “For a college student who might be interested in running a business, this is a good way to learn about it.”
University Painters and College Pro Painters Inc., an international company with regional headquarters in College Park, MD., teach the students everything they need to know.
Josh Jablon started University Painters three years ago, worked for College Pro while he attended Temple University in Philadelphia.
Both companies are set up for students who don’t have much money for franchise start-up costs.
Student managers are given credit accounts with paint companies to buy supplies and are billed after they have earned money.
If, for some reason, they are not earning enough to cover costs, University Painters pays their bills. College Pro, on the other hand, does not.
They both train students rigorously before sending them out to do business. During their spring semester, students spend three months traveling to Alexandria and College Park to attend sessions on marketing, managing business records, making estimates and – last but not least – painting houses.
When training is complete, they still have to set up jobs for the summer.
University of Virginia freshman Brian Young, who lives in Fairfax City, has made 10 trips home from Charlottesville for the training and to make estimates on jobs for University Painters.
Some of their business comes word-of-mouth. To find other customers, the students advertise – sending out fliers, going door-to-door, and putting signs on front doors.
“I’ve got to be ready to go when I get out of school,” said Young, who still has more estimates to make for appointments he’s arranged.
Michael Scarborough, a University of Virginia senior who lives in Fairfax City, also has been coming back to the area to make estimates on jobs for University Painters. He said he offers lower prices than some competitors because the students make less than average contractors.
“Sometimes my estimates will be about $1,000 [lower],” Scarborough said. “I think, ‘Did I miss a whole side of the house?’”
But customers say the students are not giving up quality in order to offer low prices. Judy Cain, a Vienna resident whose house was painted by University Painters last summer, said she’d recommend them to other people. “Everything was done that they said they would do,” Cain said. “Everything looks real good this year. I felt like they took pride in the work that they did.”
This is no job for summer slackers. For one thing, “there’s so much responsibility,” Scarborough said. “I worry about a person [on my crew] screwing up. You can’t help but be a little bit apprehensive.”
For another, managers put in any where from 40-80 hours per week.
Matthew Perry, a William and Mary junior and veteran College Pro franchise manager who lives in Arlington, said he averaged about 60 hours per week for about 12 weeks last summer.
Perry said he started out working 80 hours per week but, “things really mellowed out as the summer went on” because the work typically drops off toward the end of the summer.
But the long hours pay off. Perry earned about $6,800 – that’s about $9.40 per hour. When David Zier, who is now a general manager of University Painters, worked as a franchise manager, he earned $8,000 for about 70 hours per week - $11.42 an hour.
“It definitely pays a lot higher” than other jobs because the franchise managers put in long weeks, Perry said. “You’re never going to find a job where they let you work 80 hours per week.”
But if money is part of the attraction students say they benefit most from the experience of running a business. “I think the best way to get business experience is to do it,” said Perry a biology major interested in finding a way to combine his interest in business and medicine.
“It’s a change to see if you can make it,” Zier said. “It’s a way of testing yourself in the business world.”
