For the first 20 years of his professional life, Oliver Guminski built a solid career working in New York City\u2019s financial industry.\u00a0\u201cI was a stock and bond trader covering institutional clients in Europe,\u201d explained Guminski, 54, a native of Germany who came to the U.S. in 1991 and moved to Colts Neck with his wife and two children in 2005.<\/p>\n
But as the industry began consolidating, the conditions of Guminski\u2019s job \u2013 and life \u2013 soon changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to commute to London and had a small apartment there,\u201d he said of the transatlantic \u201ccommute\u201d he endured from October 2010 to May 2015, during which time he returned to New Jersey every four to five weeks for two to seven days at a time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile it was a good opportunity,\u201d he acknowledged, \u201cI didn\u2019t want to live there permanently or move my family there and ultimately told my wife that I needed to come home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once back in Colts Neck, Guminski began looking for jobs in his field but found that the opportunities remained in Europe, \u201cso I considered buying a business instead and met with a franchise consultant,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition to helping me understand how franchises worked, the consultant suggested different businesses that would be ideal for my background and personality and CertaPro Painters kept coming up as a top opportunity,\u201d Guminski said of the 25-year-old franchise which specializes in interior and exterior painting of residential and commercial properties as well as related services such as power washing, light carpentry, kitchen cabinet painting, and sheet rock repairs.<\/p>\n
Building strong relationships<\/strong><\/p>\n After researching CertaPro Painters and meeting\u00a0with its representatives in the fall of 2015 \u2013 \u201ceveryone I met there was very professional with a strong work ethic and other franchisees that I spoke to were very complimentary of the corporation,\u201d he said \u2013 Guminski purchased an existing CertaPro Painters franchise in Hightstown that covered Mercer County and parts of Monmouth and Burlington counties.<\/p>\n The following October, having grown territory revenues by 55 percent over the prior year, Guminski expanded by purchasing a second CertaPro Painters franchise in Freehold (covering Freehold, Colts Neck, Marlboro, Englishtown, Manalapan\u00a0and Farmingdale) from an owner who wanted to sell.<\/p>\n In all, \u201cwe now have a total of five crews, with each crew averaging three to four\u00a0painters, and we\u2019re recruiting as we come into the spring\/summer season,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While his orientation necessarily involved in-depth training in the painting arena, \u201cfrom my own background, I already knew how to build strong customer relationships, service often-demanding clients, and keep them happy, satisfied\u00a0and coming back,\u201d Guminski said.<\/p>\n At the same time, he noted that CertaPro Painters\u2019 business model,\u00a0training and support helped ease that process. \u201cCertaPro Painters\u2019 commitment to delivering an extraordinary customer experience by being on-time, clean\u00a0and respectful helps reduce customer anxiety and offset the often-negative perceptions people have of contractors,\u201d he said, \u201cand we coach all of our recruits to embody our core values.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw a CertaPro advertisement last summer and hired Oliver and his team to paint some of the common areas in our house, including our foyer, family room, and hallways,\u201d said Millstone resident and office equipment business owner Billy Hanson of the positive customer experience he had.\u00a0\u201cI liked that Oliver came out himself to meet us and prepare the estimate; he was also very accommodating and easy to communicate and work with,\u201d Hanson said.<\/p>\n Of the several-day paint job completed, \u201cthe quality was very good and the team was trustworthy, quick, clean\u00a0and courteous and even came back to do a touch-up that we requested and didn\u2019t charge us,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re a very professionally-run company and they were great to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n Happy customers, repeat customers<\/strong><\/p>\n Among trends in the painting industry, Guminski noted that gray tones have become extremely popular for home interiors and that paint formulas have evolved such that paints dry faster and emit less of an odor than ever before. \u201cRegulations have also gotten stricter in terms of the use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in paints and manufacturers are increasingly complying with growing customer demands for low or no-VOC paint,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While Guminski acknowledged that the seasonality of the painting business in this area can be challenging, especially in winter months \u2013 \u201cI stress about keeping our crews working all year long because they\u2019re family,\u201d he said \u2013 he\u2019s currently addressing that concern.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m hoping to expand into more commercial work such as offices and hospitals to reduce the seasonality a little bit,\u201d he said, adding that recruiting the right associates at the right time is also key to his growth strategy. \u201cIn the beginning, I did all of the sales, marketing\u00a0and production management myself, but I recently hired an office assistant and a residential sales associate, both of whom will enable me to focus on other areas, such as developing our commercial business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Looking ahead, \u201cI hope to build a large painting business with a lot of happy, repeat customers and employees who love to come to work \u2013 maybe even a business my children will get involved with someday because it\u2019s a great environment,\u201d said Guminski, a self-described \u2018risk-averse\u2019 individual who\u2019s happy to have been presented with this unexpected career opportunity.<\/p>\n \u201cI love being in control of operations and being able to adjust things in the best interests of the business, and I also really enjoy dealing with customers, especially face-to-face,\u201d he said. \u201cA great paint job can transform a house or business and I always love to see the finished product and how happy it makes our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n While he works so much these days, Guminski is also relishing the opportunity to be back where he belongs, spending quality time with his family. \u00a0\u201cAfter years of transatlantic trips,\u201d he said, \u201cI love being home.\u201d<\/p>\n Written by Susan Bloom, Correspondent<\/strong><\/p>\n For the first 20 years of his professional life, Oliver Guminski built a solid career working in New York City\u2019s financial industry.\u00a0\u201cI was a stock and bond trader covering institutional clients in Europe,\u201d explained Guminski, 54, a native of Germany who came to the U.S. in 1991 and moved to Colts Neck with his wifeRead the full article <\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-868","community","type-community","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/certapro.com\/freehold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/community\/868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/certapro.com\/freehold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/community"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/certapro.com\/freehold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/community"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/certapro.com\/freehold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/certapro.com\/freehold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/certapro.com\/freehold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/community\/868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/certapro.com\/freehold\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/certapro.com\/freehold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/certapro.com\/freehold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/certapro.com\/freehold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Click Here to Read The Full Article On on App.com<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"