The top 6 things I learned from almost getting scammed by Student Works…
There are a lot of articles, social media pages, and blogs out there about why Student Works is a complete scam.
And trust me, I was definitely one of those people who KNEW that this so-called ‘business program’ was some kind of pyramid scheme or MLM company.
My sister ended up going through the same info sessions at Queens that I did in Ottawa, and my Frosh leader was even a part of Student Works, yet I was convinced that if I participated in this experience, it would end with me losing money, or take away from the time I could spend on getting my degree, or any other negative outcome I could possibly think up in my head.
So, I am sure at this point, it seems obvious that I didn’t get involved with this program. But, I did and it was probably one of the best decisions of my life.
Here’s what I initially told myself about the Student Works Management Program.
- After going to a few info sessions, it was clear that this was a pyramid scheme or some type of scam, and I was eventually going to be screwed over. I didn’t know how or when, but I told myself this was inevitable.
- This whole thing seemed way too good to be true.
BUT, there was one thing that pushed me towards accepting my offer to run my own business.
My parents said to me, “It seems legit to us, what’s the worst that could happen, James? We think you should at least give it a shot.”
And just like that, I went from trying to run a rinky-dink yard maintenance business and driving Chinese deliveries, to jumping head first into operating my own business – which I still believed would be the worst experience ever.
Boy, was I wrong…
Here are 6 key takeaways I got from my experience with Student Works.
1. I was able to get the results I wanted
The first time I went out marketing on my own, I spent about 7 hours and didn’t get a single lead. I immediately told my coach, Pat that I was going to quit, then called my parents and told them the program was bullshit and I was done.
My parents drove from Peterborough to Ottawa just to tell me that I was not quitting after only one failure.
Then, Pat told me I was an idiot for not calling him way earlier than 7 hours in, with no results. He scheduled a day for us to go marketing together, which we ended up crushing…turns out I had been marketing the wrong way.
This is when I started to fully trust Student Works.
2. Student Works is 100%, not a scam or pyramid scheme
When I first heard about Student Works, it seemed way too good to be true. I thought, ‘there is no way that someone would put me – a fresh-faced 18-year-old – in charge of an entire business for the summer. I had no experience in marketing, sales, OR management, so I just couldn’t even begin to wrap my head around it.
I thought…
What’s in it for them? What do they want from me?
The short answer turned out to be money, but that was a good thing.
Student Works didn’t take any money from me up front, but they did take a percentage of all the work I did during the summer – this is just how they made money for their own company.
Honestly, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Because they only made money if I made money. It meant that they were right by my side until the very end. The better they helped me do, the better they did. It was a win-win.
It was almost like a franchise, just with no upfront cost.
Everything that I did – from marketing to recruiting to training to project management – there was a proven process that I just needed to learn and follow. So where I lacked experience, I was able to follow a step-by-step system and ask my business coach for help any time I needed it.
I stayed with the program for 4 years total – 2 years operating a business of my own, and 2 years as a business coach for other new students that joined the program. I successfully managed $100,000 in revenue in my first year and $130,000 in my second year.
Then, as a coach, my team was able to do a little over 1 million in sales each year.
I know that without taking that jump in my first year of university, I would not be where I am today.
3. I learned so much about my own skillsets and what I liked to do.
From the beginning of my experience, I thought that I knew everything when it came to my career path and where I was going to go in life. But, after entering university, and then deciding to stick with a crazy commitment of running a business while in university, I quickly learned that my journey was not going to be anything close to what I originally assumed.
I should have experienced university as a young adult, attending lectures, studying, and hanging out with my friends in my free time. Instead, I was attending lectures, studying, and happily prioritizing business-related tasks in my free time!
Now, don’t get me wrong, I was still able to make time for friends and family. I just had to get very effective at scheduling my time, staying organized, and making sure that I followed the daily and weekly plan I laid out for myself (my coach came in handy for keeping me on top of this stuff too).
Overall, I realized that the main thing I enjoyed doing was working with my employees, and building those relationships.
In my first year’s experience, I didn’t really make this a priority and I ended up feeling pretty crappy about the way I managed my team. So I felt as though I needed to make it my mission to do better at leading them and being even more involved the following year.
I didn’t grow my business too much in year 2, but I felt way better about the way I interacted with my workers, the way I ensured they were happy and that we all had a really fun summer together while completing high-quality projects.
Having the opportunity every single day to teach people how to grow their own businesses was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I got to be there for all of the ups and the downs. I got to celebrate the massive wins and help my students to recover from all of their losses. I really got an opportunity to shape the leaders that these students were becoming, and being a part of their journey and their success brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion.
Leading others is what I wanted to continue to explore.
4.Student Works provides the opportunity to grow, even past University.
Although I moved on from Student Works after my fourth year, there is an indefinite number of years that each person can stay involved. You can operate your own business for 4 years, you can pursue becoming a coach for other students, you can take on new roles within the program, and more.
There is a lot of room to grow and find what you enjoy doing within the program.
5.I gained lifetime friendships and mentors.
To this day, some of my strongest friendships have come from Student Works.
As I mentioned earlier, the free time that I did have was spent with friends and family, but the difference was that I was also making sure that my free time was spent with people I truly enjoyed being around. This just so happened to have been the same people that were going through the same experience of running their first ever business.
And this may seem a little far-fetched, but hear me out.
This program is designed to attract a certain kind of individual – a leader, an over-achiever, a competitor, and someone who likes challenges. The program is nowhere close to easy (remember that I almost quit so many times), but this is what allowed me to form such strong relationships with like-minded people who chose to launch themselves into this same experience that I did.
I was mentored by Patrick, who turned into a close friend and someone I can go to for any business advice. I worked closely with some other business coaches that I still stay in touch with today. I have traveled with business owners that I coached, and I have even remained a mentor to those that I once was within Student Works.
The overall network that has developed from an experience like Student Works is what has made me appreciate the short number of years that I spent in the program, and has also given me even more direction in my career path since leaving.
6.I made enough money to pay off my student debt.
You’re probably thinking, “Sure, you ran a business of $100,000…but did you actually make anything or did you get screwed?”
Fair enough.
Not only did I manage to run a 6-figure business while in University two years in a row, followed by coaching a team to a 7-figure sales number the next two years, but I was able to actually profit from the business.
This is yet another amazing skill I learned from the program – how to manage a business successfully in order to simultaneously employ staff, make customers happy, AND pull a profit as the business owner (enough to pay off most of my student debt within a year of graduating!).
So, yes, Student Works offers you the chance to run a successful business, AND make a significant profit from it too.
The main message here…?
I know that when I was looking at the program, I was thinking that it was a scam, there was no chance I was going to make money from this, and it was likely going to be a big waste of time.
You probably started reading this and thought the same thing that I did way back when, however, you’ve continued reading this far because you are also actually considering participating, even though everything in your logical thought process is telling you not to.
I wanted to make sure to share my story because from that moment to today, I went from a student with a seemingly clear career path to someone who gave it a shot to run their own business, and eventually became an entrepreneur, an expert, a founder, or whatever you want to call what I do is.
So, if I can pretend to be my parents for whoever stumbles upon this, and just tell you “What’s the worst that can happen? You should at least give it a shot,” then I know it will have the same impact on your life that it did for mine.
Go on and jump in, head first.