Weekend Sun Shines on Frank Hepworth

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/04/2013 (4743 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I’ve seen the College Pro Signs around town for years, and I’ve always wondered where the name came from. Just college and university students summer-jobbing it up?

Yes. It was started 42 years ago, I believe in Thunder Bay, by a guy who hired his friends just for little jobs in the summer. He obviously built that up! Now we’re the biggest student painting company we’re one of North America’s largest painting companies — and we’re the most successful student painting company as well.

Are there lots of student painting companies?

Yes — there’s us, and in Brandon as well there’s Student Works — those are great guys, too. They don’t have quite as big a presence — they haven’t been around quite as long. In other provinces there’s University First Class Painting. And then when you get to the States, there’s Amas. But we were the first.

Why this venture for you? Obviously, if you’re a business student, you’re thinking of getting into business either on your own or in conjunction with someone else down the line.

Right. I’m looking to do international business, and going to Hong Kong in my third year — I’ll hopefully build some connections over there. But why college pro why am I doing this? People who do well in College Pro do well in general. There’s a lot of successful people in the business world who started off in college pro, because you’re running a company. They train us to run a company, and of course, as any franchise works, they get the benefit of me running a company. And because of that, they train us very thoroughly, and that makes us successful.

Since this is a franchise, did you have to buy in initially? Or do they just train you like you’re an extension of the painting company? How does it work?

I’m an extension. It’s not essentially a buy-in — it’s a contract, of course — but it just works, as in they get their share, but it’s not very much. So if I don’t do well personally, they don’t do well at all. Because they take such a small cut, they really depend on us doing well. If they were to take a large cut, we’d be overpriced. And we’re pretty competitive price-wise.

So because they take a small chunk, they have to train us very well. And it’s because of that training that we’re good, and that’s why it works.

Well, that’s fair. Now why did you want to do this?

Well, my dad’s a business owner, his dad was a business owner — I figured I’d better not break the trend! And I’m a business student — I figure running my own business in my first year would probably give me a bit of an advantage. And lots of the guys — lots of the alumni from College Pro — say they’ve learned more from college pro than they have from their full business degree. So it’s a move for the future.

That’s pretty neat. And do you anticipate doing this another year if this year goes well?

Yes. This year’s off to a strong start. So I do plan on doing this for at least a couple more years. And it’s nice working in Brandon.

Even with the big commute?

Yes. That’s OK. Growing up in Boissevain, you come to Brandon every weekend. And Brandon’s essentially my home. If Boissevain wasn’t, Brandon would be. My dad’s in here every day for work (at the company he co-owns, Hepson Equipment) — he makes the commute from Boissevain every day.

You talk about YOU being well-trained as the franchise manager, but it’s College Pro, which implies ‘professional.’ So how do they train the painters? Are they all trades students, are they all studying the painting trade? Are they people with experience?

That’s a common question: ‘Why should we trust university students to do the job of a professional?’ I could go into specifics about how we train them, how we make sure it works. But really, our customers are happy. Last year, in Brandon West, we had 100 per cent satisfaction. In East Brandon, we had 97 per cent, and that one guy who wasn’t happy, I’m fixing up for free this year. So it works.

I believe you. But I’m just curious about where they get the training. I mean, I’ve picked up a paintbrush occasionally, but I had somebody show me the ropes and make suggestions.

Well, the thing about painting — it’s not like you need a vast amount of knowledge. It’s not a super-skilled trade. It’s just a lot of work. And it’s not that it’s easy to find people to do this job, because it’s hard to find people who are willing to scrape and willing to paint and put in all those hours in the summer when you could be at the beach or at a far more relaxing desk job or something like that. But when we do find those people, they sure fund their tuition. Which is why they work — because they have to make their tuition. That’s what it’s all about for the students.

The painters have to go through a tremendous number of guidelines. They all have to be trained in safety, and with harnesses, with ladders — all that sort of stuff.

Do people come to you with painting expertise, though?

Of course we’ll hire people with experience, and most people do have experience — almost everyone’s painted that one side of their house or something like that. But the program is designed to take someone with no experience and make them completely safe, efficient and professional.

Do they have a chance to paint a fake house or paint a board and work on edging and that sort of thing?

Oh yes — for sure! Because we’ve been around for so long, we’ve got very close ties with General Paints and Dulux, and they put on workshops for us. They’ll bring in walls and they’ll put stucco on the walls, they’ll put on failing wood, and they’ll let our painters, and myself, just work on it.

And that’s another thing we like to do — we like to involve the paint company. So when I book a job, I like to bring out the paint company and I like to get them to look at the home and approve the paints that I’ve chosen. It’s not as if I don’t know what paints to choose — I just like that second level of assurance.

I’m sure the customer would, too! So you’ve been lining up business for this summer since when?

Since basically January. We still book work in the summer, of course, but definitely we try to get a lot of our estimates and our booking done in these months here.

So how do people get in touch with you?

I much prefer clients to contact me — my cell number is 204-305-0228. I like talking to them myself. If they want, they can call the national number — 1-800-32-PAINT — that’s obviously toll-free to book an estimate. The ladies there are very good, and they’ll definitely do that for you. But again, I’m available all the time for my clients.

The people who do the painting — do you look to hire local students from BU and ACC — that sort of thing?

Yes. Definitely. I also take a lot of interest in international students who have come over, because I’m international. I’ve been here for a lot of years, but still. But everyone is local — there’s no doubt about that.

And if students are interested in working for you?

Just give me a call.

What’s the most important thing about this to you?

Providing good customer service. We had great customer service last year, and I’m aiming to improve that this year. Because growing up, my mom had lots of home renovations done to our place, and some people just don’t communicate. And my mother sure didn’t like that. And sometimes she let them know that she didn’t like that. So I’m really going to strive to make sure that no one’s going to have that feeling of not being communicated with, and make sure that everyone’s happy.