By Jordee Kalk
Murphy News Service
For most college students going to class and working a part time job is enough to keep busy. But some will always go above and beyond to prepare for life after their undergraduate careers.
That’s the case with six University of Minnesota-Twin Cities students who are running their own businesses in Osseo while taking full course loads this semester.
Each of the six has a business that runs through College Works Painting, an internship program where students run and manage their own small branch of the organization.
Students hire workers, have a marketing team and close deals with clients who need exterior painting done on their homes this summer. The students started their new businesses last month and have been working hard since.
“Right now we’re in the process of setting up estimates,” College Works Painting intern Aaron Kurti said. “I’ll be in charge of a marketing team and a couple painting teams.”
Kurti is a UMN freshman.
“My main job is just to organize and make sure people are where they need to be,” Kurti said.
Kurti chose to do the internship in Osseo because it is close to his home in Maple Grove. The same can be said for another intern, Brandy Vo, who just graduated from Osseo Senior High School last May.
“As brutal as the winters are, I love it here,” Vo said.
Vo is a U freshman. At this phase of the internship she is working on booking clients and setting up estimates. She said when the snow melts she will start the production part, or the hiring of workers and actual painting.
“I’m literally running the whole thing by myself,” Vo said. “It’s pretty much how I envisioned it.”
Vo said after graduation she would like to open her own wedding planning business one day.
Some previous students have had great success with College Works Paining in the past. That includes Jack Schmid, a U senior in his third year of interning for the company. He’s now a general manager for College Works.
“The reason why I stayed is my mentor gave me that opportunity and helped me reach my potential and I wanted to do that for other people,” Schmid said.
Schmid has 14 people on his team this year, including Vo and Kurti.
As a mentor Schmid shows his team every component of running a business: from doing financial analysis to hiring and firing employees.
Schmid said his main job is to help the students be successful.
“The big thing we focus on too is giving the student the best experience possible,” Schmid said.
The internship goes through summer until the end of August. The interns earn money just as real businesses do: through the profits made based off of how much revenue they bring in and how efficiently they run their businesses.
During Schmid’s first year of interning he ran a $100,000 business and made $25,000 in profits.
“They (the interns) are going to get out of it what they put into it,” Schmid said.
Jordee Kalk is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.