It’s true, one summer can change your life forever; perhaps as profoundly as this first statement sounds, and maybe just as littler ripples throughout your future career.

The College Pro Painters Program is like the competitive sport of business as far as summer jobs are concerned.  Take what you know about athletics:  discipline, goals, training, coaching, leadership, team, and focus.  Now, roll this into a short-term, high yield summer job opportunity in business, and you have some characteristics of the College Pro Painters program.  It is a forum for young entrepreneurs to get into real business and see what they’re built for.

Real life, right now. That’s a bold, challenging statement. But that’s what College Pro is all about, boldly challenging people to start living a meaningful life, right the heck now. My name is Chris O’Keeffe, and I’d like to tell you about my College Pro experience. It’s definitely been the biggest challenge of my entire life, but it’s also been the engine for the biggest positive change I’ve ever seen in myself.

It can be tough nowadays to find student opportunities that really benefit your future.  Not only is the student job market really tough in general, but it is even harder to find a job where you can really gain experience.

As a 19 year old sophomore at the University of Washington, I could hardly imagine myself owning a business that employed 12 other students during the summer and serviced over 40 homeowners.  But when I took on the entrepreneur opportunity of College Pro Painters, that’s exactly where I found myself.

Running a College Pro business was one of the best decisions I made in my young adult life.  Now, looking back in my early thirties, it has allowed me to bypass a lot of mistakes that other young executives my age make, and it has allowed me to get ahead financially.  My College Pro success allowed me to learn some invaluable lessons, travel the world, get out of student loan debt, and make some life-long connections that I still use today.

Waking up at 6:30 a.m., accepting 20 phone calls a day, and lifting ladders onto my Dodge Caravan, are my prominent memories of running my own business with College Pro Painters. That’s right folks; I could lift a 40ft ladder over my head and onto my van like nobody’s business. Stepping out of my shell, hiring a crew of eight painters, I became an exterior painting expert in my community of Meadowvale, Mississauga. Beating out the competition with strong word of mouth, I owned the joint. I was 19 and at the top of my game.

Are you looking for a great summer college student opportunity?  If the answer is yes, then College Pro Painters is ready to provide you with the tools needed to be a successful entrepreneur.  Since 1971, College Pro has been helping business students and entrepreneurs realize their potentials by offering an exciting, challenging, and rewarding summer experience.  Your experience can be filled with learning, development, and growth that the classroom alone cannot provide.

I’m on the inside looking out now, after nearly a decade with College Pro Painters, and if there’s any advice I could offer to Young Entrepreneurs – after coaching and working alongside several hundred, it would be get hands-on experience.  Learning the theory while in school certainly has value, but getting your hands dirty brings a whole new reality to what it means to be an Entrepreneur.  Recently I spoke with a former franchisee named Katie Stead, whom I had the pleasure of coaching for several years while she was in college, and she spoke to her experience as follows:

College Pro Painters prides itself on the support they provide to college students. Year after year, the forty-year-old painting company offers young people a unique opportunity to own and operate their own painting business; and although helping to build the futures these students is a main purpose for College Pro Painters, so is providing quality paint jobs to the customers who trust them.

From the time they are freshmen, and even earlier, the importance of completing an internship is drilled into college students. For some, that means performing the minimal tasks required in order to slap a title onto their resumes; but other, more driven students want more. They want a company that will help them grow and prepare them to succeed in their future careers. College Pro offers students guidance through their College Pro franchise manager role. Students will gain skills that will attract potential employers and transfer into their positions in the working world.

Work Ethic