Former Customer Service Representative Opens Painting Company in Madison and Oshkosh

Nicholas Kaczmarek has spent 15 years of his life in Corporate America, working in various field service and customer service roles. Andria Kaczmarek has spent 20 years in the medical industry serving the local community. They have decided to work for themselves in an effort to build relationships with the local community, establish a business that they can build a legacy through and spend more time with family. Kaczmarek’s have grown to truly care for the local area after living there for 10 years and want to get to know the community’s needs better and give back.

Andria and Nick opened 360 painting, the professional painting service, in Madison on March 6 and will be opening a second location in Oshkosh as well. Kaczmarek has painted his own home as well as his friends and family, so he was familiar with painting and figured he could put that into a business perspective. 360 Painting is under the franchise umbrella of Premium Service Brands, which offers a variety of home services. Kaczmarek hopes to find what the community needs and expand further with different home services based on those needs.

1851 Franchise: Frame your personal story for us. What did you do before franchising, and how did you decide franchising made sense for you?

Kaczmarek: Both Andria and I have been in professional roles from field service and customer service roles our entire careers. We both value  building relationships with clients and being able to make a positive impact in their lives.. My wife and I started researching franchising about a year ago in hopes of continuing to build relationships within our community and also establish a business that we can build a legacy through. We have a 2-year-old son, and this franchise opportunity will help us not only give back to the community but also help us establish freedom to where we can have more family time. Nick has been in Corporate America for 15 years, where I have been able to apply best practices and lessons learned for running a business through various positions from Engineering, Project Management and Operations. However, I look forward to giving it a more small-town feeling and access to the community we’ve lived in now for 10 years. We chose 360 Painting because of the Premium Service Brands franchise. Their flexibility and number of businesses in the home service industry was most appealing. Painting is something we were most familiar and passionate about. We have painted our own homes and some friends' homes in the past, so we could apply that to this industry. As we see what the needs are for the community, we may expand into other home services industries that Premium Service Brands offer as well. 

1851: What was your perception of franchising prior to becoming a franchisee, and what do you want people to know about franchising now that you are in it?

Kaczmarek: We didn’t really have much of a perception on franchising before getting into it. With all of the technology, there’s a lot of information out there. There’s a lot of firms that do business consulting. We worked with Horizon Consulting, who stepped us through the entire process gradually but very thoroughly. If I were to recommend anything to a friend regarding franchising, I’d just say to be informed. There are so many different opportunities and probably more growing everyday. It’s important to use the tools accessible to you to be able to evaluate businesses. Technology has only made it easier to gain access to all the information out there. 

1851: What made you pick this brand? What excites you most about this company?

Kaczmarek: What excited us most about the brand was the tools they use. The franchise has invested significantly in the technology they provide to each franchisee. The tools they are using to manage customer relationships and to do home service estimating are top notch. The CRM tools they use are industry-leading softwares that are made accessible to a franchisee which most bigger industrial companies don’t even invest in or use, this was really impressive.

1851: What do you hope to achieve with your business? What are your plans for growth? 

Kaczmarek: Right now, I am just focusing on company growth. We want the company to be involved in the community, but there’s no specific plans for that yet. We are still in the beginning stages. It’s just my wife and I right now, but we are looking to hire one sales representative, and we will be hiring a general manager in the future as well.

1851: What advice do you have for other people thinking about becoming a franchise owner?

Kaczmarek: Be well-informed, and do your research. Ask a lot of questions.