Upon accepting my job offer as a manager for Young Entrepreneurs Across America back in December, I was very excited. Also, I had no idea what I was in for.
All throughout the spring semester I attended trainings, but none of them would fully prepare me for the summer I was about to endure. All I knew was that I would be a branch manager for the Lebanon division of Student Painters.
Student Painters is a house painting company that employs college students nationwide.
As the semester continued, I was making trips home every weekend or so to do house painting estimates and employee interviews. In time, I had a staff of eight in marketing and painting positions. I also had 20,000 dollars in sales by the end of the semester.
It was very stressful in addition to school and included several phone calls, a good amount of paperwork and constantly preparing for the weekend during the school week. Finally, it was time for the long-awaited summer.
On my first day home from DePauw, I conducted two home estimates. I had about a week and a half until my official business launch and although I was constantly stressed about scheduling and homeowners, I was about to meet a whole new beast that is production season.
My previous experience with painting had only been in the form of my bedroom and Habitat for Humanity. In other words, I had no idea what I was doing.
The first two days of production season began at a 45-foot tall home. When I had done the estimate I had not even given thought to an obvious necessity: a 40-foot ladder.
Our first job ended up going far over budget, but my crew ended up trained and they were ready for just about anything. One week later, the other half of the crew graduated high school and geared up for training.
We completed over 10,000 dollars worth of work in June and faced many challenges along the way. This experience has taught me an incredible amount about both business and training.
I think that it is an experience that I will be grateful to have no matter the profession I choose. Managing a team, dealing with customers, and selling a product are valuable skills to have.
Although every business model is slightly different, these skills will propel me above the competition because I already know how to overcome challenges.
I would never recommend this internship to someone who was not committed. It is tiring, defeating and most days you will feel like you want to quit. But you have to persevere and keep your eyes on the finish line. In the end, you’ll be very proud of your accomplishments.