Brave Taking This Step

Dear Potential Franchisee,

So, you’re interested in running your own business with the help of Student Works I want to start off by saying that you are brave for wanting to take a step like this, and smart for choosing SWP to help you start out your entrepreneurial career.

I have worked with Student Works for 3 years now, and it has been an incredible experience, good and bad. In that time I have loved my job and hated it, but with the support of my fellow franchisees, and more importantly, my District Manager, I have always come out at the end smiling. I remember the first time Cory, my District Manager, came to Powell River to do an estimate with me in my first year. It was February, there was slushy snow on the ground, the rain was coming down hard, and it was a miserable day. We did 5 estimates that day, and booked 2 or 3, but it was my very first one that I remember oh so clearly. Despite the cold and the wet, Cory was in a great mood, and he got me excited, which very quickly changed my mood into being great also. He talked to me about how some days were going to suck like this, and that exuding a positive attitude will not only help me be happy while working, but my clients (or potential clients) would sense it as well. I booked that job on the spot, and went from being scared about running a business, to ecstatic and confident that I could do it.

Three years later, and I am a very different person from the young man that stepped onto a property on Maple Street to do my first estimate in the cold and rain, and Student Works has played a significant part in that change. I learned an unthinkable amount about business, relationships, marketing, recruiting employees, management, you name it, but the learning wasn’t just business related. I learned about myself, who I am as a person, what I want to do when I get older, how I want to conduct myself in the world, both professional and personal, and in my opinion one of the most important lessons: how to push through the tough, rainy, cold days. See, running your own business is a lot of fun, and it’s an incredible challenge, but it isn’t all good all the time. hings will get tough, but one of the most important traits that successful business people have is perseverance.

It’s hard to summarize the ups and downs any experience like this one into just one letter, because there is so much to say about it. I have been to Cabo San Lucas twice, met some of the most incredible, and inspiring young people in my life, and gained new family, people who I know would (and have) gone great lengths to see me succeed. Oh, I almost forgot, I also made some good money along the way too.

If I can give you just one piece of advice to take away at the end of this letter, it is to jump in head first and go hard. If running a business, being your own boss, is something you can see for yourself later in life, start now. Take a chance on yourself and join Student Works Painting, and throw yourself into it. It’s worth it.