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Vignocchi excels as internship nears its end

Rebecca Gomolka
Correspondent

As summer is nearing its end, Katie Vignocchi is beginning to wrap up her internship with College Works Painting.

Although she'll be heading back to the University of Illinois in a few weeks, where she is double majoring in Urban and Regional Planning and Sociology, this is not the end of her work with College Works Painting.

Vignocchi, a 2009 alum of Coal City High School, began interning with College Works at the beginning of the summer after being recruited at college by past interns of the company. College Works recruited over 7,000 students, but only 200 of those individuals were chosen to work in the Great Lakes Division.

"My current boss interviewed over 500 students," Vignocchi said, "but he only chose 20 for his group." The number of interns is even smaller now, having only nine people under his supervision.

"Some students were fired for not being able to do the job that well, but the interns that I work with now are the most competitive group of people I've ever been around."

It took Vignocchi four different interviews to land the College Works internship, but the process certainly paid off. She is one of three girls in her division among hundreds of men. If that isn't impressive enough, she is one of the top girls for the house painting company. She now oversees interns and gives free estimates to potential customers.

"In the beginning of the summer, I was working 80 hours a week. It's calmed down since then because I now focus more on the production and completion of the houses, getting more into the sales side of the business," she said

Thus far Vignocchi's team has painted the exteriors of 19 different houses, and although she's heading back to the University of Illinois in a matter of weeks, she hopes to bump that number up to 25.

The internship has been an incredible learning experience for Vignocchi. Her communication and time management skills have improved immensely, but Vignocchi finds the most important lesson to be priorities.

"I realized having this job and putting it first was so important. I'm doing what I need to do now to get to where I want to be later in life."

Her hard work with the company has already gotten her a spot with College Works for 2012. "I am going to try and expand the work for the rest of the summer, hoping to have even a few jobs in Champaign," Vignocchi said. "But most of the work is in the summer. I've been asked to remain with the company and move forward."

Vignocchi believes this to be the most life changing experience she has ever had. "I've grown so much as a person. This internship showed me my true potential."

Vignocchi adds that a College Works Painting internship is a great one to be a part of because it "gives students the opportunity to put themselves above the curve. It's hands-on experience rather than just an academic resume builder."

Because of the great work Vignocchi has done, she now has multiple reference letters to help her in her future endeavors. "I will be able to transfer the skills I've learned with College Works for any job I may have in the future."

Vignocchi's ultimate goal is to be in ownership of a large scale company within the next five to 10 years. Whatever career path she chooses, this bright, young girl will excel because of this life-changing summer with College Works Painting.

Students painting a career path this summer

by Tony A. Solano
tsolano@pioneerlocal.com

University of Illinois students Steven Farag and Andrew Cardona are operating a house painting business in the Barrington area this summer, but it’s far from a typical summer job.

The two students are branch managers for College Works Painting, a company that provides hands-on leadership and internship experiences for college students by challenging them to run their own painting business. The two were interviewed and hired by College Works and tasked with assembling a crew of painters, marketing their services, consulting with potential clients, purchasing supplies, payroll, scheduling jobs and dividing up tasks among their crews.

“We’re painting houses and it’s fun, but at the end of the day we’re getting management experience and the experience of being the CEO of a company,” Farag said.

To the average person, Cardona and Farag look like typical college students, casually sporting University of Illinois T-shirts and shorts. But when asked about their schedules or to retrieve a phone number or an email, they immediately consult their Blackberries, much like many business professional would.

Farag is a Barrington High School graduate who is going into his sophomore year at University of Illinois. Cardona, of Arlington Heights, is spending his second summer working for College Works. In 2010 he managed a painting crew in Northbrook that had 30 jobs and earned $65,000.

“(Representatives of College Works) are mentoring us extremely closely, but they’re giving us the freedom to run our own business,” Farag said.

College Works services include exterior painting, including window trims, siding, fences, decks and porches, as well as garage interior painting. Cardona and Farag cover South Barrington, Inverness, Barrington, North Barrington, Tower Lakes, Kildeer and Deer Park.

“It’s all centered around college students having this big business, but a small business at the same time,” Farag said.

The two students drove back home from University of Illinois nearly every weekend this spring to prepare for what they hope will be a busy and lucrative summer. They each assembled marketing teams and executed several marketing strategies to get the word out, including creating fliers, making door-to-door visits and advertising on Craigslist.

“Relationships are everything,” Cardona said. “You build relationships at the door. You show them who you are, what you’re doing there and let them know you’re going to do a good job.”

Cardona said many jobs come from referrals. He added that having the College Works name instead of creating their own painting company connotes that it is an established business that guarantees high quality work.

For Cardona, an advertising and communications major going into his senior year at Illinois, the process of building rapport with clients and being charged with advertising and managing crew members and finances has been extremely valuable.

“I think the coolest part is being able to do interviews and hire people,” he said.

Cardona expects to have between four and six painters in his crew this summer. He interviewed the candidates himself and said the key is to have a mix of painters with professional experience and college students who are looking for a summer job. He said this way the professional painters can provide guidance to the more inexperienced crew members.

“When we mesh them both together we get a little bit of fire from the college student who wants to make some money as well as the experience of professionals who do this for a living,” Farag said.

Farag is an engineering major at Illinois. He said the College Works experience has sharpened his leadership skills and he believes it will give him an edge once he graduates.

Cardona said the profit gleaned from the summer endeavor depends on how much effort the branch managers put into it and their management of time and finances. He said it is typically about 22 percent of the total amount of money earned for the summer.

To set up an appointment for a free estimate, call Farag at (847) 387-0518 or Cardona at (847) 894-4293.

Summer painting business opens

Freeport, Ill. —

Coty Salazar is using the summer to manage a painting business through College Works Painting student internships.

Salazar will be a sophomore in the fall at University of Illinois in Champaign majoring in business administration. He heard about College Works after the company gave a presentation in during one of his classes. After an application and interview process, Salazar was set to begin planning.

“It will be something nice to put on my resume – running my own business my freshman year not a lot of kids are doing that,” Salazar said. “It’s a lot of hours putting in the work. I do all the marketing, scheduling and estimates."

Currently, he is conducting interviews and plans to hire four to eight people. Salazar said he is licensed, bonded and insured through the College Works program. He is able to do exterior work, which includes fences and staining decks and will use Sherwin-Williams paint products.

Next week, he plans to start taking free estimates and begin production. His goal is to book 17 to 25 clients this summer. He will take clients from Freeport and the surrounding area up to Rockford. Salazar has painted houses before including two houses he painted for training.

“I’m starting to fill up not quite that far yet,” he said. “I think this has taught me more in the few months that I’ve been doing it than all of my school year,” he said.

For more information, or to schedule an estimate call (815) 990-0609.

Congratulations to Illinois for being division of the year!

At the January District Manager training in Park City, Utah, the 2010 Division of the Year honors where awarded to the Great Lakes Division. Co-VPs Taylor Duncan and Tom Ackmann accepted the award on behalf of the division, both clearly acknowledging the award was a team effort by all of their interns and DMs. This marks the third win for Illinois and the Great Lakes division since its inception.

A brush with real life

Do you sit in your cubicle and fantasize about running your own business? Do you wonder if you have what it takes to start a company, hire its employees, oversee their work, market their services and take responsibility for their ultimate success or failure? Do you wish all those finance and marketing courses you took in college had been less abut corporate strategy and organizational behavior and more about how to strike out on your own. As a parent, if you ever do take the plunge into entrepreneurship, you might have only trial and error to depend on. But your college-age son or daughter has another option; an internship. Naperville resident Brian Fencl, 23, a student at Northern Illinois University, recently began a rather unique, paid internship with College Works Painting. This summer, he will participate in the company’s Management Adventure program, which is designed to teach real-world skills by having interns run all aspects of a small business. College Works generates revenue by taking a portion of the payment for each home painted by its interns. In turn, the interns gain the kind of hands-on experience they can’t get in the classroom. “I’m doin to to learn,” Fencl said. “I’m going to learn if I like running my own business.” Fencl learned about College Works when its representatives visited one of his college business classes. He was impressed by the program because it goes “beyond the spread sheet” and right into the nitty gritty of being a small business owner. After being accepted, he went through three consecutive weekends of intensive training classes in which he learned how to overcome objections, estimate costs, close a sale, recruit and train employees and manage a budget. Before school let out, Fencl spent evenings and weekends prospecting for customers and giving estimates on painting jobs. Next, he hired a crew of experienced painters for the jobs he lined up. College works gives its interns an initial line of credit at paint and supply stores to get them started, which they are expected to pay back at the end of summer. Fencl’s earnings will be contingent on the number of painting jobs he sells and completes before he heads back into school in the fall. For Fencl, a finance major who will be a senior at Northern next year, hard work is nothing new. Ever since he was a student at Naperville Central High School, he has held down a job. “(My parents) always told me to earn my own money….to stand on my own two feet,” he said. “I’m kind of glad that they’re (like that) because I think I have a very good work ethic.” Students like Fencl are exactly who College Works are geared toward. “(Our programs) is basically designed for the classic overachiever – people who want to go out there and conquer the world,” said 24-year-old- Sean Miller, Fencl’s district manager. “People come out of the program with tremendous work experience.” Miller was a college works intern himself when he was a student. “It changed everything for me,” he said. “I had high ambitions and lofty goals but I didn’t know what it would take to achieve those goals. The biggest thing (I learned) is, life is what you put into it.” “It really makes you be proactive. You plan for the worst and hope it never happens, he said. For example, Fencl plans to pay his crew $10 to $15 per hour. His own salary comes out of the profit margin added into the estimates he gives his customers. Though he will be acting as an on-site manager for the crew he hires, he might have to pitch in on a job if one of his painters calls in sick or decides to quit. And he will have to figure out how to stay within his budget if rain forces him to cancel work for a day or two. He will be like a real-life Tom Sawyer – except instead of recruiting his friends to paint a fence for Aunt Polly, he will be recruiting skilled laborers to paint several Naperville houses. And it is solely up to him t keep bringing in more work Fencl has marketed his business by passing out fliers, going door to door in his neighborhood, putting up signs on the lawns of people who have already contracted with him, and just spreading the word. ”He dropped some fliers off in my office,” said Naperville Realtor Scott Gerami, who asked Fencl to give him an estimate on his own house after reading one of his fliers. “He walked around (my house) and after a half hour, he gave me a quote. He said he would call me in a week and he did. I was really impressed because a lot of people say they’re going to call back and they never do.” Gerami said at first he was concerned because College Works’ parent company, the National Services Group is based in California. But finding out Fencl is from Naperville put his mind at ease, so he hired him. “It’s good to know I’m not dealing with someone whizzing through town,” Gerami said.