At the close of the 2007-2008 school year, Holcomb came across Cold Spring Self Storage in Belchertown as he was looking to store some of his own personal items. Holcomb, Zetlin and Mann soon developed a relationship with the owner of the storage unit and began helping him with pick-ups at a few schools. In this unorganized small business, the three saw immense potential. They began to organize information, contact customers and complete pickups. They knew they had found an idea that they could develop into something great.
Over the summer, the boys began discussing different ways to improve their business with the Cold Spring facility owner. They decided to separate from Cold Spring Self Storage, thus creating Five College Storage.
They set off on their business plan right away. The boys devoted large amounts of time during the fall of 2008 developing a business model. Countless hours were spent creating a website and coming up with different marketing strategies. Their first clients were students going abroad in the spring of 2009 who needed a place to store their stuff during their months away.
Holcomb admits that when summer storage season rolled around, “We literally had no idea what we were in for — from making decisions on marketing, to hiring representatives, to scheduling labor, renting trucks, and being on call virtually 24/7 to answer the flood of questions from customers.” None of them had any prior experience running a business. They had to learn by doing, and they were able to take on each issue — such as determining prices, logos and policies — as it came up.
Orders poured in, and it was time to get organized. They had to schedule pick-ups from each of the five colleges, which involved determining how long they would take, how many workers they would need, when they would need trucks and how they would organize the storage space. And let’s not forget that they were also students in the midst of finals season. After their first real run at storing, the boys realized that they “had one of the most amazing learning experiences any of [them] had ever had,” Holcomb explained. They not only learned how to run a business, but they learned how to do so successfully.
Although business was good, they were not content — they wanted to find a way to expand their thriving company. After investigating different business models all over the country, the trio realized that they need not limit themselves to local service. Prep schools, they noticed, had similar demographics to their five-college model, so they promptly began taking steps to bring their service to prep schools. Over the summer, the boys met with prep school administrators throughout New England. As a result, the company will soon be operating as NEPrep Storage at select boarding schools. They also plan to expand to a few other colleges in Massachusetts and Connecticut under the name “All College Storage.”
As with any business, expansion brings on legal responsibilities and liabilities. They spoke to attorneys and chose to Incorporate. The boys worked tirelessly over the summer to draft articles of incorporation and write a shareholders agreement. Holcomb says, “We went from just business partners to shareholders and executives of Five College Storage, Incorporated.” By the end of summer, the boys had successfully gone through the incorporation process, obtained all necessary liability insurance, met with lawyers and accountants, purchased a truck, worked with a graphic designer on new logos and redesigned a website.
It is hard to imagine that these boys were going to stop there — they were far too ambitious to settle with a seasonal business and wanted something more. Enter: Five College Laundry.
As Holcomb put it, creating this business was a way to “provide students with free time and less stress. You only have so many hours in college, why waste any of them doing laundry?” This meant more business plans, marketing strategies and contacting customers. The business picks up laundry from Five College students who have signed up for a semester or yearlong plan and returns it washed, dried, folded and shrink-wrapped within 48 hours. Although Holcomb admits that their business model is still in development, it is off to a promising start as they are learning and making changes to improve their business and customer service.
Holcomb, Zetlin and Mann are far from done. Although they enjoy the excitement of the new challenges they face in terms of business development and education, they are eager for more. “The entire process,” Holcomb said, “has been more than anything an amazing educational experience. Perhaps the most important thing we found out is just how much we have to learn.”
And they are most certainly not done learning. Yes, besides managing their business, these college juniors do go to school. Just this fall they encountered the class “Entrepreneurship” at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass. Holcomb and Zetlin are now enrolled in the class — despite the fact that they are unable to receive Amherst course credits. They hope to gain so much more than class credits by taking the class, which has already taught them a lot about business, and Professor Theroux (who was a successful entrepreneur himself) has been an amazing contact with invaluable suggestions for Five College, Inc.
So what’s the secret? How did three Amherst students create such a thriving business plan? Hard work. “But it also takes a little serendipity as well,” Holcomb said. One thing is for sure, they may not know what the future holds in store for them now, but these boys are not done — as Holcomb explained, “This thing is our baby, and we spend every day thinking of ways to improve and grow this company.”