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.