Monday, September 26, 2011

Business Owner

1. How did you decide on the business that you started?
2. What is most challenging about owning your own business? What is most rewarding?
3. How do you manage dealing with difficult employees?
4. What education and/or training did you find helpful to have when starting your own business?

6 comments:

  1. Hello,

    My name is Jay DeVincenzo. I am a former franchise owner of College Pro Painters ('00-'04), and created Any Season Painting in 2005.

    1. I decided to start my business because I had done some painting as a job during my freshman year at UNH. I soon decided I wanted to work for myself and naturally, I chose something that I had prior experience in and was a low initial investment, since I was still a student.

    2. I think the most challenging thing about owning your own business is managing your time, and holding yourself accountable to your business. If you have ideas of sleeping in and magically having money, this is not for you.

    The rewards are exactly what you might imagine them to be: You decide your quality of life, how much money you make, and how your time will be spent.

    3. Dealing with difficult employees is something I still haven't perfected. What I have done is try to develop skills with interviewing people. I find that if you prepare for interviews, you will ask the necessary questions that usually reveal whether someone could be a potential problem.

    If you nip it at the start, then these problem employees never become employees, much less a cancer to the rest of your workforce and general moral.

    4. I can't pinpoint any one specific training or education experience that helped me start my business. I can encourage you to take advantage of any opportunities where you can converse with people and network.

    I also would urge that if there is something you feel passionate about doing as a career, there is no reason you can't. That includes money. Work another job and acquire the pieces you need one by one if you have to. I bartended, and I can remember being excited about making enough one weekend to finally get my website up and running.

    As far as education; obviously you'll need some kind of formal education for some fields, others maybe not. The best advice I can give is, beyond whatever formal schooling you may or may not need, to educate yourself on the supplies you use, how they are made, etc etc, and always keep trying to improve your finished product. If you do this, you will have the confidence that you are the most knowledgable and qualified person for the job, and this will show to potential customers, making for greater success in your business.

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  2. How many employees do you have?Does it still require you to paint yourself?

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  3. How long did it take you to start your business?

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  4. When you went to UNH, what classes were helpful for you to start running your own buisness?

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  5. How do you manage your time to be a successful business owner?

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  6. Is it hard to manage your business?

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