Name: Dylan Downie
Current Position: General Manager
Location: British Columbia


When did you start working for College Pro and in what role?
I started with College Pro in 2007 as a franchisee.

What were your prior job experiences?
Prior to College Pro, I worked on a farm, at a farm dealership and in construction.

What is the most important lesson you have learned with College Pro?
Your life is in your own hands, you can go as far as you want as long as you willing to put in the time and energy.

What do you find most rewarding about your current role?
The people. I love the people within College Pro. Most of my free time is even spent with people from College Pro, and I consider most of my closest friends to be with the company.

What is a typical job day like for you?
I mainly spend my days just interacting with others either on the phone, internet or in person.

What skills are most necessary to succeed in your position?
Tenacity, problem solving, listening, being able to take direction and constructive criticism are all important.

Who or what inspires you?
The chance to share the College Pro experience is what inspires me. I consider College Pro to be one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me and I want to be able to give others that same experience I loved so much.

What advice would you give to someone hoping to work for College Pro?
Ask as many questions as possible. Know what it is you are getting yourself into. Also, go hard and fast right from the beginning, it makes life so much easier. Lastly, do what your coach says. If nothing else, just do what your coach says exactly and you will be successful.

What is your best story related to College Pro? For example, what is your funniest College Pro memory, greatest achievement on the job?
One of my favorite memories is going on a 10-day road trip, which included a success event, camping, canoeing, a trailer, caves, Canada Day and finishing off with Manager’s weekend.

In your opinion, why is College Pro a great place to work?
You will learn more in six months than you do in four years of university study. Also, if you want to go somewhere, College Pro will get you there whether it’s with them or with someone else.

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LinkedIn is a social networking site design with business professionals in mind.  Here are a few ways in which some of LinkedIn’s many features can help you grow your business:

1] Answers: This is a forum where you can post questions about your business and get fast, accurate responses from users in your network as well as worldwide experts.  You can also showcase your knowledge by answering other’s questions.

2] Groups:  With LinkedIn Groups you can stay up-to-date on what is going on in your industry.  It also allows you to follow the activity of successful, influential members whom you can emulate to help grow your own business.

3] Connection degrees: It’s kind of like 6 degrees of separation.  It lets you know how removed you are from another user. First degree connections are people whom you know and trust directly.  Second are the people whom the people in your network trust; this can be used to your advantage.  If you come across someone you want to be in business with that you may not know but a friend of yours does, it is the perfect opportunity for you to ask your friend for an introduction and broaden you network.

4] Network updates: Keep track of connections and what they are doing.  Are they implementing a new strategy you may also be able to use?  Is there a possibility for partnership if your end goals correlate?

5] Advanced search options: LinkedIn allows you to search through user profiles using very specific options.  Find your ideal employee by filtering through basic characteristics like name or narrow your search down by skill set or subject matter expertise. Also, use it to search for job references and previous business partners.

6] Recommendations: Allows you to praise people in your network who you’ve worked with before or have had as a client.  The benefit to doing this is that most likely someone you recommend will return the favor.  When users outside of your network see your profile and see all the positive things others have said about you, chances are they’ll feel more comfortable about doing business with you.

7] LinkedIn Share button: You can now include a LinkedIn button to your blogs or published articles.  Adding this button will direct people in your network to those pages, thus spreading the word on your work.

8]  Events: Let people know what you have coming up soon! Whether it is a special business promotion or a mixer event.

9] Company follow: Why reinvent the wheel?  Following a company will allow you to learn how industry leaders got to be at the top.  Take notes!

10] Polls: An excellent tool for market research.  The responses can be categorized by age, profession, gender, etc so you can analyze the data gathered and strategize how to approach your target market.

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Entrepreneurship to me is freedom

Entrepreneurship to me is freedom. Freedom is challenging and can be challenged by others who are not of the same beliefs. Some people work hard for freedom and will fight to gain it, and will inspire others to follow them on their quest for success. The Entrepreneur is a special type of person who is not afraid to blaze their own trail and go against conformity.

Kris Gabriele
Senior General Manager

The World’s Facebook Relationships Visualized [PIC]

According to a Facebook social graph, the world is lit up with Facebook relationships.  See for yourself how Facebook makes the world a much smaller place…

3 Lessons I Learned From Launching a Product

Sean Coleman discusses the trials and tribulations of starting a product based company. From first design to product launch to talking to your customers for feedback…

You’re Not an Entrepreneur

A prominent online blogger discusses what/who really IS an entrepreneur. It may not be who you think …

How Twitter Users Changed in 2010 [CHARTS]

Facts. Stats. Facts. Stats. This post discusses the shift in Twitter users from completing their bio’s to gaining more followers …

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What Business School forgets to teach us – Financing

I just graduated business school at the Monfort College of Business in Northern Colorado and to graduate I had to write a thesis paper on why Entrepreneurship fails in the market. The top three reasons I found for failure in Entrepreneurs was:

1. Lack of a business coach

2. Lack of financial knowledge

3. Not knowing your target market (or pushing the wrong product).

I also learned that typical Entrepreneurs (the 30-50 year old entrepreneur) fail at a rate of 60-80%. This means that 6-8 individuals in 10 will try to start a business and fail. This is astronomical, and the question should be posed why start a business?

To follow up on the original question: How do young people gain financing to startup a business? Well, that is a hard question to answer. There is not a lot of opportunity for young people to find money in today’s market, and if they happen to get it from an angel, a parent, or some ‘magic’ they often don’t know how to manage it or make it work for the business. I believe that our schooling is the reason why. We read a book and are expected to be able to go out in the world and run a business or start a business. But the truth is that this is not enough. It’s like trying to win a Super Bowl after going over ton’s and ton’s of X’s and O’s with your coach. No matter how well you know it on paper you will never be able to execute it efficiently and properly until you do it. This is why it is important for youth to get hands on experience at a young age, and to learn how to manage the money in order to have access to it.

“I ran a business and learned how to finance myself for the rest of my life.”

This leads in to the extra challenge and responsibility I took on while I was a sophomore in College. I ran a College Pro Painter’s franchise in Northern Colorado while I was attending school full time and working full time at Texas Roadhouse. I had no money as a Freshman or Sophomore, I was working two jobs just to pay for school and the mortgage on my home. I always wanted to run a business, but could not see any feasible way to get the “real” experience I would need to convince someone that I could turn their money into real profit. This is pivotal in order to get ahead in the competitive market I would be entering in a couple years. Thanks to a bit of luck and good faith College Pro fell into my lap and I got to fulfill my dream as a 20 year old College student living paycheck to paycheck trying to survive. I ran a business and learned how to finance myself for the rest of my life.

Now I can say it was not easy, in fact it was the most challenging thing that I have ever done, and I have always challenged myself. I went through the lowest of lows and the highest of highs, sometimes in the same week! I also learned that if you put your mind to it you can accomplish a lot more than you think. I learned how to lead people, manage finances, deal with customers, sell myself, manage my priorities, schedule my time, build a network, balance personal/work/school/family time appropriately. Most importantly I took control of my future, paid for school, invested in my home, invested in myself, and am on the path to retire by the time I am 35. I do not know how I will do this, I just know that through the hard work ethic and personal potentials I realized through College Pro I will be much closer to this goal than had a stayed on the bench and kept running X’s and O’s!

This post was contributed by a former College Pro Painters franchisee based out of Denver.

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Is it feasible for small businesses to go “Green”?

After the blockbuster hit “An Inconvenient Truth” hit the big screen, we all got a bit of a shock as to the current state of our environment.  With extensive media coverage and current advancements in technology covering issues around environmentalism, we are now more environmentally conscious. Many if not most companies have begun to capitalize on this Green Movement and guess what?  Consumers love it.  Consumers like buying “Green” because it makes them feel good about helping the environment in some way however small it may be. Businesses are continually trying to find new ways of doing their part in the fight for a better planet. When a company is looking to become “Green” they must first understand what being “Green” mean;  to actively strive for the improvement of humanity, the environment and the world as a whole. This may seem like an impossible task, but it is not, as long as everyone does as much as they can to help.

Going ‘Green’ is an affordable process that all businesses should adopt. It goes beyond corporate responsibility to encompass necessary steps to foster awareness and promote environmental change and sustainability.

Small businesses are helping by taking action on a very harmful habit of today’s society; exceeding waste.  These initiatives have taken the form of new and innovative ways of recycling, re-using and reducing the waste. Companies all across the world are finding ways to take a specific garbage item that fills our landfills and turning it into something useable. For instance, EvCo Research, in Atlanta, Georgia, specializes in finding uses for recycled PET products such as plastic bottles using them as adhesive, water repellent coating, binders and other products.

Ways small businesses are going “Green”:

1. Organic Products have been exploding into the market unlike any other.  There are organic products ranging from lipstick to beer totoiletries, and there is still room for more. All it takes is a little imagination to find a way to make a generally harmful product organic.
2. Recycling waste to make new useable products is a growing trend with eco-friendly companies.
3. Taking advantage of government grants and cash prizes offered by large companies; like GE and Chevrolet, to small businesses that are taking a “Green” initiative. Even banks are rushing to invest their money in these businesses.
4. Using environmentally friendly office equipment and switching their company cars for Hybrids. Tax benefits are a bonus for those companies that do their part for the environment.

So do you think that that it Is feasible for small businesses to go “Green”? Of course, the initial start up cost may seem steep but it more than pays for itself financially and environmentally. And really, turning the thermostat down a few degrees is a small price to pay for the longevity of our planet and it will save you a couple of bucks as well.

Once you have started this don’t be shy to talk about it and encourage other people and small businesses to follow suit.

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Not sure what to get that special entrepreneur in your life? Check out this gift guide from Inc.com for some great ideas!

2. Twitter Crushes Facebook for Marketing

Social Media Marketing is everywhere these days. Trying to figure out a strategy for your business can be tricky, but Entrepreneur Magazine suggests that Twitter is a better resource than Facebook. In fact, they say Twitter crushes Facebook!

3. Best Movies for Entrepreneurs

The Wall Street Journal picks the best scenes from films to inspire entrepreneurial startups; from Jerry Maguire to Dead Poet’s Society.

4. Google Searches Now Consider Good Customer Service

After a merchant in NYC decided any publicity is good publicity in terms of Google rankings, he purposely treated customers poorly so they’d talk about him on the Internet, and raise his Google stock. Well, that doesn’t work anymore according to the New York Times.

5. College Pro does “Cribs”

Our best link of the week is a new series of videos where College Pro Panters are showing off their “Cribs”

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There are new articles every day about how to make the most of this medium, but many of them boil down to the same few things.

1. Be Consistent – If you are blogging, tweeting, or updating your Facebook page, the same rule applies. Consistency is king when sending your messages, as most people aren’t able to read every Tweet, nor can they check your blog every day. So if they happen to stop in on your page and you haven’t had an update in weeks, they might get the feeling that you’re not really taking care of that relationship. Social media is social, and if you ignore your friends in real life, they’ll treat you like your online friends… they’ll start ignoring you too!!

2. Have a plan – Like anything in life, having a goal is a good way to make your direction through a particular project. Just starting to use social media doesn’t guarantee instant results. You need to know what you’re trying to accomplish. It should be more about getting your message out, not about collecting followers. Any plan that promises to find you thousands of followers in a short time is NOT going to develop useful relationships. You need to make a plan about who you want to reach, figure out how to reach them, and worry about interacting with THOSE people.

3. Interact – The biggest thing that makes social media is different is that it’s “social.” There are personal interactions that take place over Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. People make friends, have conversations, make comments. So if people have all these conversations, why shouldn’t your company be involved. People are likely talking about your service or product, you should be involved too. Addresss what they’re saying, ask for feedback, and address their criticism.

For more tips check out TopRankBlog.

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