UPDATED
2016 March 28
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SENECA
COLLEGE, TORONTO
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BAM
101 (2016 Jan-Apr), Intro to Business
As taught by Prof. Tim
Richardson 416-491-5050 ext 77534
this page also may
be used by students of other BAM1011 professors
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Study
Tips for quizzes and tests witiger.com/tips.htm |
SPRAY-NET INC.
For many Canadians, a summer
of student painting is a rite of passage. For Carmelo Marsala it was the
pathway to a lucrative franchise business. Marsala, 28, President of Boucherville,
Quebec's Spray-Net Inc., says his summer job "taught me a lot about the
business through real hands-on experience. It gave me the opportunity to
find a new opportunity."
Marsala parlayed this on-the-job
business education into a successful exterior painting service that uses
proprietary products and techniques. Spray-Net now boasts 50 employees,
plus 10 franchisees covering all territories in Quebec, with its sights
set on the Maritimes and Ontario in the near future, and the U.S. market
down the road.
The company is more than
a simple painting service, however. Many paint jobs look like just that
- stopgap paint jobs to repair fading exteriors. But Spray-Net guarantees
a product that looks factory-new, will never peel, requires no maintenance,
and is applied within one day for most homes. The secret is two-fold: a
unique industrial-quality paint formulation and an exclusive spraying method
that minimizes overspray and fumes.
"We bring the factory to
the homeowner," explains Marsala. "They get a brand-new looking exterior
at a fraction of the cost of new siding, brick, doors or windows." This
value proposition is Spray-Net's key advantage. The service normally costs
about one percent of the value of a home. But attractive curb appeal can
increase its value by up to 10 percent. "That positive ROI is pretty much
immediate," adds Marsala.
So what advice does this
young, successful entrepreneur have for budding industrialists? First,
you can't delegate until you're an expert yourself. "When I started out,
I sprayed 300 homes myself," says Marsala. "But I wasn't just painting
it was like on-the-job R&D to find out what works and what doesn't
to improve the technique and make it teachable in order to franchise it."
Second, surround yourself
with the right people. "Your people truly are your most valuable asset.
No way I would've been able to get where we are now on my own," he says.
And finally: work with people you actually like. "Happiness brings success,
but success doesn't necessarily bring happiness."
Davenport, Kellie, and Vickie
Reichardt. “2015 SMALL BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENT
AWARDS”. Canadian
Business Mar. 2015: ProQuest. Web. 18 Feb. 2016
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