Topekan learns about owning business

By Angela Deines
The Capital-Journal

Work hard. Play hard. Have fun.

That is the simple motto Gabriel O'Shea, 20, said he uses to approach work and life.

The 2009 Hayden High School graduate, who will be a junior majoring in business finance at Kansas State University this fall, has started his own painting business with the help of College Works Painting, a nationally recognized company.

O'Shea said he went through rigorous training earlier this spring on how to manage his own painting business when representatives of the California-based company came to the Manhattan campus to recruit student interns.

Being a young entrepreneur, O'Shea said the College Works Painting business is a good one with which to start.

"The painting business works good for us college students because we're not in school during the summers," O'Shea said. "But I want to own my own business some day. I always want to keep expanding."

O'Shea said with a crew of four college students, they have painted 10 houses in Topeka since May. He said he is planning on hiring four more students in the next few days in order to finish the 25 additional houses he has orders for in the next several weeks.

On a recent afternoon with the temperature hovering around 100, O'Shea was supervising brothers Riley and Casey Bohannon, also Hayden graduates, as they worked on a house in the Potwin neighborhood. Both said although the working conditions were hot, they were enjoying their summer jobs.

"I think it's nice," said Riley Bohannon, 18. "It's good pay."

"It's hard work, but it's good," added Casey Bohannon. "You have to work hard, but it's worth it."

O'Shea said he knows the business world isn’t always fun, something he said his father has taught him.

"He says every day is a new challenge," he said. "If a painter gets sick, I have to go paint. You just have to go with it."

For more information about College Works Painting, go to www.collegeworks.com.