After the recent acquisition of Student Painters, the North Carolina-based Tuition Painters company has become the largest student-run company in the eastern United States.
Tuition Painters bought Student Painters in early February because of Student Painter's financial difficulties.
The acquisition "was totally unexpected," Tuition Painter President Barry Lake said.
"We received an e-mail from the Student Painters mid-Atlantic division head, stating that he would like to sell his company. Upon further discussions, we learned that their parent company had delved into other businesses that had not proven profitable and that had constrained the finances of Student Painters," Lake said.
Founded four years ago by Lake and his partner Paul Flick, Tuition Painters is a company that hires college students to manage their own painting companies for the summer months.
Before the summer begins, Tuition Painters trains students on how to hire workers, get customers and do job estimates among other key business tools. Additionally, students must learn about paint technology, customer relations and salesmanship.
Tuition Painters already has a strong hold on the market in the South, but they can now reach into the northern states where Student Painters was centered.
Tuition Painters tends to take a lean approach on the expense aspect of the business, Lake said, explaining that Tuition Painters does not spend a lot of money on overhead such as office furniture. This business savvy allowed them to step in and take over the Student Painters managers in states such as Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey.
"More than likely, we will expand more north into the New England states - our biggest competitor, College Pro Painters, calls that territory home and we would like to make in-roads into that market," Lake said.
College Pro stands as an intimidating competitor. "College Pro is our major competitor on a national scale. Regionally, we have one or two small competitors in each state that we operate in but we haven't encountered another company that has the number of student-managers or the resources that we have in the states we presently operate in," he said.
Because this was an acquisition, and not merger, "Paul and I will remain at the helm," he added.
Lake himself was a student manager for Student Painters in his college days.
"Fear was a huge motivator for me: the fear of having to go to my buddies and tell them that they were out of summer jobs if I didn't perform in the manager' s role," he added. "After many 60-70 hour work-weeks that summer, my branch was able to produce over $90,000 in contracts and I earned over $30,000 in profit - as a 19-year-old."
Unlike other summer jobs that pay by the hour, students who manage for Tuition Painters earn money based on how many painting jobs they are able to receive and complete during the course of the summer.
"A TP internship would differ in more tangible ways such as: no hourly/weekly salary guarantee, no 'boss,' no set hours. But you certainly better show up since your painters are depending on you," Lake said.
The job is a challenging one, pushing students to put in 12 to 14 hour days.
"Students are expected to take on a huge amount of responsibility and then work hard and perform, with our help of course, to make their businesses succeed - it's a "real world" crash course in business," he said.
Student managers' work days can include activities such as going to job sites to make sure the painters are on schedule, going to houses to make estimates, buying supplies at a local paint store, making a finishing touch on a job and calculating painters' payrolls.
"This is not your ordinary summer job or internship," he added.
Not many jobs can offer the experience and skills that managers will obtain through this internship. Some Fortune 500 companies actively recruit students who have worked for Tuition Painters.
"Over the last two years, several Fortune 500 companies have contacted us and said 'Send us the graduates of the Tuition Painters program.' They obviously recognize the strong people skills that our student managers develop through running their own painting company," said Tuition Painters co-founder Paul Flick.
Lake has gone from being a Student Painter manager to real estate, and is now back to the student painting business.
"I get a great deal of satisfaction from taking a student whom has never taken on such a huge challenge and then seeing them successfully do what only a small percentage of Americans do: run their own successful business," said Lake.
In early March, student managers from Maryland and Virginia attended their first training session to gain skills to start implementing their marketing plans. Most students that they hire sacrifice their spring break in order to get painting jobs lined up for the summer.
Three students from the University have been hired, two of whom will work in Charlottesville this summer.
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