Sherwin-Williams – “a great place to get your feet wet, but not so much for swiming in the deep end.”

Pros

Soild company, nearly recession proof. if you in the door and work hard you'll have job. promotions are very easy to be made aware of, getting them may be another story. the corp. network is nice to have to service customers fully. brand rec. is huge. makes selling a little easier, than if you where a mom and pop paint store. R and D is always cooking up some type of new product to keep us on the cutting edge. but the thing i would consider best by far is the fact that you are devloping real realationships with your customer base. you are helping them grown their biz, in turn you'll grow.

Cons

the sitgma of being a corp. feast or famine bonuses. if you year sucks its sucks. if it is popping, its popping. the three major factors that play in your profitablity are you, your rep, the market. if one is off. your year will suck. and you will start to lose hair. often you will find your self alone in your store, for the reasons of keeping down cost. normaly not a issues, but it sucks for your customers when you are waitng on seven or eight people and your trying to take the time to make sure each is getting the proper service level. the most annoying thing is some of the 'days of our lives' type of drama that occurs. people talk about everything that anyone has going on.

Advice to Senior Management

foucs on developing good management staff. have a bit of grace.