Terra Nova grads take on summer painting business

By Jean Bartlett, Correspondent

Submitted photo College student entrepreneurs Michael Harold and Bill Mullen.

Currently in the last quarter of his sophomore year at UC Santa Cruz, heading towards a degree in business management Economics, Pacifican Michael Harold is interning with College Works Painting. Founded in 1993, CWP teaches undergraduate students strong painting skill sets, organizational management, marketing skills and leadership, with a focus on satisfied customers.

Harold's professional painting business starts this summer. "We begin painting in mid-June and end in mid-September," Harold said.

Harold's project manager is UC Berkeley sophomore Bill Mullen. Also a Pacifican, Mullen is an integrative biology major with an English minor.

"As project manager, I will apply skills in paint tech to oversee the job that the workers will do at a specific house or other job site," Mullen said. "This will include knowing the dimensions of the house and how many coats it requires, as well as making sure the painters themselves folks from their late teens to middle age are working efficiently."

"Bill will visit work sites throughout the day and make sure everything is running smoothly," Harold said, "that we are hitting our time budget goals and addressing any concerns of the clients. I will be doing the same thing. Bill will make my life much easier."

The crews will generally consist of two people, with an average job's projected time of four days. Estimates are free.

"We take care of all exterior house painting needs," Harold said. "We repair failing stucco, caulk cracks, and scrap sand and prime localized paint failures. In terms of woodwork such as dry rot, if the client doesn't wish to spend their time looking for a carpenter, I will take over that responsibility and have one of our sub-contractors come out and estimate the job."

"There are a lot of factors that go into the price," Harold continued, "such as having many colors as opposed to one, as well as the amount of prep work needed. Prep is 60 percent of the job, which is why it is always better to maintain your house rather than let paint start to peel off." (Average price, one story home, moderate prep work ($3,200-$4,300.)

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Terra Nova grads take on summer painting business