welcome to the secrets of college planning i'm your host anthony yuva and today we're going to get some insight in entrepreneurial ship my guest today is mark yule he's the president of speed pro imaging of mercer county welcome to the show  for having me sure no problem so usually i start i guess where they went to college so if you go to school i went to penn state university great state college pennsylvania going so let's go back in time and find out back in high school when did you start thinking about going to college and starting this whole process was it freshman year was a senior year how did it all begin for you probably was around  junior year ok sounds hard to remember that far back but you know probably around my junior year i started thinking about it i was i was taking a p classes and i knew that i want to do something i just didn't know what i wanted to do i had a discussion with my parents they asked me what i wanted to do i told them that i wanted to go to school and i think at the time i wasn't exactly sure where i want to go  i want to do and so i put out there that i was looking to perhaps start with an associate's degree ok and so that's kind of where the discussion began in terms of you know how they were going to support me financially right so now was there a couple of different college two year colleges that you were looking at there or was it penn state right from the get go how did i well as as my thinking you know  progressed i started looking at schools where i could go from associates to a degree to a bachelor's degree penn state was at the top of my list i also looked at luck even state university know today where you know kids are applying to a dozen plus schools you know the process was completely different then yes so so you only did two schools then yes ok and did you visit the schools i did ok and so  how did you end up picking penn state well those of my my first choice i love the university for its size and all its all its offerings from you know big time college sports to just you know beautiful campus with lots of lots of options and so that was number one of my list so when i you know got in it's where i was going to go and you do so now you're at school you go to penn state first  day what do you start thinking about how to how does this whole process start when you get to school oh was it was pretty daunting to navigate through such a large school you know finding just fun your way to classes you know your first your first semester can be you know a bit over overwhelming i don't think that high school really prepared me to be as independent as you know of a student turn of having the the the you know taking on the rigors of college yes so i didn't have a lot of discipline around studying and so forth so that was that was one of the things that you learn very quickly in terms of you know how do you how are you going to get through this yeah so now did you did you think about entrepreneurial ship in college right away or was it more i'm going to just take the general classes and start from the not at all i mean being a bigger business owner wasn't even you know i thought that i had at the time i was looking to do something with my life other than you know taking on some routine manufacturing job or whatever was being offered back in you know the late seventy's early eighty's and so i i want to do something i just didn't know what i wanted to do ok so general class is usually the first two years right that's correct ok so what did you what did you end up studying to in college well i started off with some business courses ok and over time i started getting become interested in  engineering i thought engineering to be a cool career so i started taking some engineering classes and realized i'm not going to be an engineer so so i basically  with a degree that combined engineering and business it was offered by the school of agriculture so i left getting a degree a bachelor's degree in agricultural  something different yeah it was different yeah so what does that entail well it was it really came down to you know fairly heavy business education with the understanding of you know engineering and how things worked i believe the the you know the career that would be separate someone who took that could be anything from working in a you know in a in a manufacturing environment plant manager quality control manager to perhaps out selling something along the technical line ok so now did you ever think of entrepreneurial ship while in college you know little so now how does one go from college to becoming the president of speed pro imaging mercer county in new jersey well in my in my senior year i met the vice president of human resources actually at the time was personnel for an aerospace company and he happened to have an opening on his staff and so i went for an interview and became a recruiting coordinator so i was responsible for recruiting college grads into their engineering programs so that was that was kind of a nice transition you know having some  engineering having engineering education along with business and now you know becoming part of human resources and you know focused on recruiting engineers from schools all over the country wow so so you did a lot of traveling defender amount but not not a lot i mean we i would we would send out engineers on campus to interview i would go out to you know a number of schools as well so you know it was it was a rule of kind of course meeting all these activities to identify the right people now does that mean that there's a lot of networking networking that you do in college to find a vice president like that  and you know the introduction you know came about and i think that this individual was looking to fill a spot week we can make we connected on some level later part of my career i started thinking about you know what do i want to do what else do i want to do with the remaining part of my career and so that was a for me about a five year process from the a lot of money as well i don't know the pens in the business i suppose but i but it really starts with you know a plan understanding you know identifying what it is and really going through that due diligence of you know making sure this is one something you want to do to is it something that's you know going to going to be successful and you know breaking it you know breaking it down and talking to a lot of people you know people who have been there to you know understand what they had gone through why why is it work for them you know are you willing to put forth the kind of you know effort and resources to be successful so now to franchise right i do ok so is that is that way different than owning your own opening your own business oh i would think so yes i you know the concept of buying into a franchise is that there's a proven model when you're really you know you're going in the business for yourself but you're not alone in that business in other words you have lots of resources to pull pull on whether it be other franchise owners or the  franchise itself there's there's lots of resources to pull on to you know to help you along the way so is it the support team that you're you're looking for when you when you do that was that an option for you you know you're looking at support team for a franchise business instead of owning a business so is it that support team that you look for when when you're looking for franchise type but sure i think there's a larger number of things that start off with  you know the other owners the existing owners you know what's their happiness you know are they happy with their decision you know how they went about making that decision what type of support do they get both from a pet legal standpoint as well as you know a marketing standpoint so those things those things come you know come together you need to look at you know what does it take to reach breakeven it's going to vary from you know in the vigil individual based on their skills knowledge and skill and effort as well as the markets that are in every market going to be different so now if you're a college kid coming out of school do you tend to look at franchises or owning your own business more when you're in your twenty's oh i don't know if i were to graduate today in today's environment that i'd be looking to start a business right away and i think that the smart play is to go work for you know a large organization gain the experience and knowledge that that they have  large organizations will train you well you'll learn a lot about business and that will help prepare you in terms of one you know your business maturity to the way things really should work  you know the discipline around you know around various business functions this all kind comes together and large organizations but when you become the new owner own business now you're doing everything that all these other departments us to do so you know when the you know when there was a bill to be paid you send it to accounting if there was a human resources issue you would involve other people to help you resolve that if you were recruiting to fill a position again you would help you would you know solicit the the internal resources but when you're when you're running your own business it really comes down to you so now a lot of students out there they usually say you know i can't i can't find a job because they're always looking for experience so when i create my own job what do you say about you know kids that are saying that kind of stuff well there are there are a number of individuals who are just entrepreneur by nature i mean they they come out they you know they have an idea and are able to run with it and i think there's you can point to a lot of you know examples of you know where young people have come out of school with with happen absolutely and you said money before money if you're opening up your own business compared to franchise business what's the difference in monies that you're looking at i think depends on the business so if the business really depends on you for the year you're not buying you know equipment that you don't need a brick and mortar establishment you know all those things become very very expensive and can you know be a quick drain on whatever you know assets you have early on however consulting and you know where you can work out of your home you know be a sponsor this show as well what exactly do you do it's be pro energy well it's being pro we help our customers get their message out whether it's their branding of their business whether it's you know just some type of promotion it's all through you know printing big so we print great big graphics so we do everything from trade show displays to vehicle wraps  banners building signs window graphics and so much more and you can handle everything from small business to big business a big box stores anything in between absolutely we have we have we have customers who are you know may just be very small business up to major corporations to ad agencies you know you cover the gamut and they and they marshall county dot com and there is a button where they can you know submit an inquiry or they can call our number and speak to any individual within our business and we'll be happy to help them perfect so now going back into high school is there is there like trade college nine hundred things like that that you go to for kids that like yourself you're not really sure what you wanted to do at the beginning is there any kind of college night or anything that you did i don't remember that at home you know i do remember taking the s a t s i remember you know i remember certain things but i really don't remember  those kinds of events taking place when i was in high school and was there the travel was was that a big factor being that you went to penn state did you where you from pennsylvania yeah i was i grew up about forty forty five miles from university park so it was you know my reality was that i was going to be going to school at u c berkeley or you know miami i wasn't going exotic location i was i was staying mogul ok so so you really were looking at just the schools from the pennsylvania area being that you were from pennsylvania ok and traveling middle schools and checking them out  what did you find at the atmospheres of those schools you know picking the school just because of the sports and academics of the school is great but a lot of students out there they want to know you know the diversity of the school what it what it actually brings to it was there anything when you visit those schools that really came out and said wow this is really what i want to do i really don't remember that but you know i i think that today's consumers the the students the prospects there are so much more but better educated in terms of you know looking at schools there's you know there are so many things to look at  from the size of the school its geographic location to its greek life to the sports to the educational offerings to diversity there are so many things to you know take into consideration i think in some very important you know thing that every student to look at look at themselves and say what is the ideal environment for me yeah i just happen to thrive in a large environment you know if i went to a really small school i don't know if i wouldn't had enjoyed it quite as much as i did there what was the other school  look like for some of the people that haven't been to penn state for me because i went and did the college recruiting visit a lot of schools after i had graduated so everything was benchmark against penn state and there  very few schools that i would go on campus and say this is you know this is just just like state college or university park so it's it's a it's a it's a large school but it's  spread out so one campus the university park is one one large campus dorm rooms on one side of the medium's on the other the dorm rooms are kind of spread throughout the campus north south east and west and the but you know the campus has a has a nice feel it's kind of a deal like you know university setting with a with a great college town no water next to it or nothing like that no no there's there's no beach so they there's just it's just penn state and that's it is there is there is a community outside of a college community is a great community there i don't know what the of people that are looking at penn state they usually tend to gravitate towards the sports football and basketball is usually the main sports this penn state chose show students just rich in culture and you know you can you can make a large school feel small but you can make a small school feel big so i think that you come into a large environment like that you can find a place for yourself yeah you know provided that you're you know that you're good with kind of navigating through because i'm like a small school there's not to be someone that can hold you make sure you get through you know your four years so with the class sizes pretty large at penn state and  pencil depends on the classes i mean i had i had some classes that were you know two hundred students maybe more in other classes that were you know twenty or less really so it really depends on what the class was so when when you take a tour at the school like that what are they actually showing you that they show you the classrooms that they show you some of the buildings there or is it pretty much you know they don't show you much of anything just t through and you'll see you know classrooms and auditoriums and you know the law brierly and so the do do they get you to talk to financial people there and missions that kind of stuff as well i i really don't know the answer to that i mean like sense but it's been one yet well you know if you want to find out for for you know the parents out there that they're constantly looking for those type of things toward wise you specially state college or penn state so there's a come down to money because i know when you're in the state of pennsylvania it's a lot cheaper than if you were living in new jersey absolutely ok so does it come down to most finances huge i mean i you know i needed to work i work two to three part time jobs so i'm going to penn state you did you know i was just so you were doing it on your own even without mom and dad trying to help i mean for you know for part of my time at penn state absolutely so they know so now after graduation was there any graduate school or anything like that for you i did not seriously pursue pursue that  crossed my mind on different different stages in my adult life that i never pulled the trigger on at all that's a that's a that's always a big thing for a lot of people out there as well so we're coming to the end of our show usually ask my  guess what what advice do you want to give to the parents out there that their sons or daughters are going to schools they want to become entrepreneurs after school what advice do you want to give those parents i would location sitting on a beach somewhere but i think that they need to find a fit there's probably there's a school out there for everyone and so it's finding the the right the right school  a and then to network you know find people that are doing you know something similar to what you know your son or daughter wants to do you know get into an internship because what you think you might want to do a versus where you end up may be completely different so so it's kind of like sorting that out and then you know and and keeping your options open because there are so there's so much out there and you know frankly i don't think that at eighteen years seventeen and eighteen years old that you really do know what you want to do in life you may have an idea i may take