The Sherwin-Williams paint company just celebrated 150 years in business last year, and like any successful business, they are constantly looking for new opportunities to sell their products.
Founders, Henry Sherwin and Edward William would be proud of one of the latest ventures that comes, of all places, through the collegeworks.com program.
This program, which began in 1993, operates in over 35 states hiring over 2000 college students every year; they are rated A plus with the Better Business Bureau with the highest customer satisfaction rating in the industry.
What do they do?
Paint houses. That’s right, highly qualified and trained college students spend their summers painting houses using Sherwin-Williams quality paints. They’ll even scrape, power wash, and sand before they begin painting.
Local Shell Lake sophomore at Steven’s Point University, Zach Melton, is one of those young men serving as an apprentice/branch manager this year for the paint company earning money for college. His goal is to be a Social Studies teacher, influenced by his own SS teacher, Joe Johnson at Shell Lake High School.
“Mr. Johnson was not only my teacher, but he was also my football coach and he taught me many of valuable life lessons.” He wants to follow in his footsteps.
During his high school years, Zach excelled in every sport, baseball, basketball, and football, being the quarterback or captain of each team due not only to his ability but his natural leadership, being a motivator and encouraging the team to remember to have fun.
Now he’s in the College Works program, putting his leadership skills into yet another program, being the head of his own summer crews, making sure each painting project meets the high company standards.
These students aren’t just handed a brush and let loose, they have field training with a district manager, learning how to paint a house properly and how to deal with lead paint that’s still on many older homes. They get strong and structured mentorship and supervised learning. They learn important management techniques and how to run their own part of the company. There’s a company-wide meeting every two weeks to turn in customer checks and paperwork and a two-hour training session led by the Vice President and by successful interns.
His plan is to be a successful intern. As a son of Mark and Nancy Melton in rural Shell Lake, he grew up realizing that everyone either knows you or your family, so there’s nowhere to hide if he does a poor job.
This young man already drives home from college, a 400 round trip, every weekend to find perspective clients. Painting will begin in June and end in August, so time is limited and he’s already signed up 13 houses, so space is also limited.
The College Works program takes checks and charge cards and offers a guarantee that is equal to the paint package purchased. They also offer financing with ten percent down and extended warranties are available.
Zach had already purchased his crew paint package which consists of a ladder, drop cloths, window masking tape, brushes, rollers and a paint sprayer. It set him back $1,500, which is incentive enough to get started, not to mention the large amounts of cash spent each time he travels home and back to school.
His goal is to become a district manager as soon as next year and with his record of success in life and so far, there’s little doubt that he’ll make it.
These students are fully licensed and insured and estimates are free by calling Zach on his cell phone at 715-645-0101 or text cwpjob.com/79074.
If you mention you heard about him on DrydenWire, you’ll receive ten percent off the entire job.
It’s a win for the program, a win for the paint company and certainly a win for Zach Melton, a young man on the move.
Last Update: Apr 25, 2017 8:10 am CDT
