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Young entrepreneurs looking to shine

New house detailing company sets up shop in Saanich
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Jeremy Carlson and Robin Wenger of Shack Shine offer a variety of housing detailing service. Shack Shine is a franchise part of O2E Brands.

Robin Wenger still remembers the call from a panicking real estate agent, who needed the services that he and Jeremy Carlson offer through Shack Shine, a house detailing franchise based in Saanich.

She had a showing the next morning at 8 a.m. but the home was not presentable. “Sure enough, the entire property needed to be power washed, windows cleaned, and the exterior gutters washed,” he said. “We managed to finish by the headlights of our own van, so that first thing the next morning she could show the home.”

That is the sort of customer service that the pair plan to bring to Saanich.

Carlson said they chose Saanich because it allows them to be almost anywhere in Greater Victoria within 20-30 minutes.

House detailing is important, said Wenger. “In order for you to keep your home from deteriorating, you need to keep it clean. So we clean all these vulnerable areas before problems arise.”

Shine Shack also offers siding cleaning, moss removal and custom Christmas light installations among other services to keep Carlson and Wenger on their toes.

“The spring is definitely our busy season,” said Wenger. “However, the fall gutter season [is] soon to come [and] custom Christmas light installations should round out the year. During the busy times we shoot for anywhere from one to five houses a day.”

Wenger’s episode about the real estate agent also speaks to the entrepreneurial spirit that runs through their respective biographies, if not their generational cohorts, as millennials are said to be among the most entrepreneurial generations.

Still in their 20s, both Wenger and Carlson worked for College Pro Painters during their university days before finding their way to Shack Shine.

“After three years of painting, my [College Pro Painters] franchises had produced $600,000 in residential painting,” said Carlson. “So at 21, I dropped out of university in my third year and bought into Shack Shine last September.”

A native of Whistler, Wenger brought College Pro Painters to his home while finishing his business management degree.

“Upon completion, I interviewed with O2E Brands, and was hired as Shack Shine’s first general manager to launch new franchises in Vancouver and prepare them for future franchise partners as a turnkey franchise,” he said. “During this time, I fell in love with the brand, the business, and the final piece was the opportunity to move to the beautiful Island where I could enjoy my Whistler-induced lifestyle thirst.”

Other O2E Brands include WOW 1 Day Painting, a painting company, You Move Me, a household moving company, and 1-800 GOT-JUNK?, a trash collection company that started under the now-legendary company name of Rubbish Boys, founded by O2E company head Brian Scudamore when he was 19 years old and attending the University of British Columbia.

In many ways, Wenger and Carlson are following in the footsteps of Scudamore with their own millennial twist, as technology plays a major role in their operations.

Customers, for example, can get estimates through the company’s online booking engine.

Shack Shine’s use of fully wrapped Mercedes Sprinter vans and uniforms that could be worn by computer store staff also adds to the company’s modern, youthful touch. But if these are the stylistic trappings of commerce in the second decade of the 21st century, Wenger and Carlson appear to back it up with considerable hustle, especially these days.

 



Wolf Depner

About the Author: Wolf Depner

I joined the national team with Black Press Media in 2023 from the Peninsula News Review, where I had reported on Vancouver Island's Saanich Peninsula since 2019.
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