Want to make a difference in the world?  Want to contribute to something greater than yourself and feel like your input matters?  A company I founded ten years ago is growing and we need team members to join in and contribute to its greatness.  If you are looking for a ‘job,’ this listing is not for you so you can stop reading now, but if you are looking to make an impact and change our world for the better, then continue to read my story below and the details of the help we are looking for below…

Ten years ago I was a kid attending the University of Florida.  Like a lot of college kids, I felt lost.  I was a good student. I studied, went to class (when possible – you will understand in a minute when you get down to the part about buses), received great grades, but like a lot of college students I was under pressure.  What pressure you ask?  The pressure of entering the ‘real world.’  I was about to graduate college.  I was about to be out on my own.  I needed to find a JOB.

Just like all the other UF students, in January (of 2004), I attended the Career Showcase at UF.  I was dressed in a suit, walking from recruiter to recruiter, handing them my resume, and putting on a fake mock interview.  I was so out of place.  1. I may have worn a suit a dozen times in my life prior to that moment and 2. The only thing going through my head was, “Oh my gosh… I am never going to work for you.”  This was an obvious sign that the whole ‘getting a career’ thing, probably wasn’t going to work out.

Alright. So why scooters?  Well…  throughout my time at UF I lived at University Terrace West on SW 20th Ave.  Apartment 407 to be exact if you know anyone that lives there.  Southeast corner bedroom, if you know anybody that lives in that apartment and you really want to freak them out.  Anyway…  Ten years ago the RTS system wasn’t what I would refer to as ‘great.’  Has it gotten better?  Yes.  I hear there are still issues though.  I would go outside to the small bench out in front of ‘UT-Dub’ (University Terrace West) (which is no longer there (the bus stop I mean – it has been moved to a larger bus stop further down)) and I would wait for the bus like normal UF students.  The problem?  The bus route started all the way down at the mall and it would pick up so many students before it got to my stop that by the time it actually got to my stop it would drive by with the words “FULL BUS” lit up across the top.  If I was even lucky enough to get on a bus, guess what…  Standing room only and after we had all just been standing outside in the Florida heat you can imagine how much fun it was standing up against other sweaty students that had to hold their arms up in order to hold the hand rails. #sweatypits

You can imagine how many times this happened before the lightbulb goes off and you think to yourself, “Man!  This is a huge problem!” Know what else?  I had a car.  I finally got to the point where I had 60 credits, which way back yonder was enough credits to get a ‘Commuter Lot’ parking decal to park on campus (which everyone knows that NEVER guarantees that you will get a parking spot).  Did I ever get a Commuter Lot parking decal?  Nope!  As soon as I reached 60 credits, UF bumped it up to 90 credits.  As soon as I got up to 90 credits…  Yep.  You guessed it.  It had been changed to 120 credits.  Congratulations…  You now have to be a GRADUATE student to receive a Commuter Lot parking decal.  Is that the case now?  I honestly have no idea (again, this was over 10 years ago), but could you see all the signs going off in front of me saying “WAKE UP COLLIN, THIS IS A BIG PROBLEM!”?  Yep.

When I was in school, scooters were BARELY in existence.  In fact, it is safe to say that bicycles were the main way for students to get around.  Mine was stolen.  #FAIL  (Ten years ago hashtags weren’t a thing either)  I remember there being way more motorcycles than scooters on campus.  It was only $30/year to park a motorcycle / scooter on campus way back then.  (Student Scooter Riders that are reading this…  I know!  Don’t freak out!  $156/year now?!  The SAME as a car when a scooter takes up 1/6 of what a car would take up?!)  There wasn’t even scooter parking.  You know those hashed areas at the end of parking spots?  A sign was stuck right in the middle of those that said “Motorcycle / Scooter Parking.”  Try getting your motorcycle or scooter out if you were stuck in the middle of the hashed block!  #thisiswhyUFcreatedactualscooterparkingslots

I can’t believe my eyes when I look around Gainesville and see the huge impact this company / THIS TEAM, has had in creating an entirely new LIFESTYLE in Gainesville.  When we opened up, motor scooters were looked at as being ‘dorky’.  In fact, we sold more scooters to Sophomores at UF.  Why? Because they thought scooters were dorky as freshmen until they suffered through that first year and then stopped and thought to themselves, ‘I’m not doing this again.  I’m getting a scooter!’  I remember parents bringing their kids in to look at scooters and these parents would literally BEG their kids to get a scooter (knowing what a time saver a scooter would be) and these college freshmen would say, no.  (Meanwhile, here I was, an entrepreneur silently screaming in my head, “WILL YOU JUST LET YOUR PARENTS BUY YOU A SCOOTER?!”)  #truestory  Today…  We have successfully created a scooter lifestyle that is COOL.  A girl walks in and tells us she is going to buy a scooter from us because everyone in her sorority has a scooter from us. Guess what?  Number one customer is now FRESHMEN too!

What’s even more awesome?  We are growing!  (This is why we need your help!)  We put TONS more scooters on the road in 2014 than we did in 2013 and we know (from 3rd party research) that this team is on track to sell more scooters in Gainesville this year than all the other dealerships do combined!

You see scooters everywhere.  Now if you pay close attention, you will see the NS4L logo on the side of lots.

Is that the whole story?  Nope.  There are tons more.  A lot of adventures.  They are fun stories to reminisce over on ‘Beer Cart Fridays’ when hanging out at the shop and relaxing with the team…

You:  “So what is this Collin?!”

Me:  This is a job description!  A bit unorthodox, I know, but if you know me…  I am a bit unorthodox.  When I took over as sole owner of this company in 2006, I had one mission:  To help students get to and from class, at their convenience, on high-quality, affordable transportation, without having to wait for the bus!  We want to continue this mission and help others find the transportation they need as well!  🙂

So what makes us different?  We believe we are a customer service business that just happens to sell, repair, and rent scooters.  Our number one core value is to Create and Recreate the UCE – Ultimate Customer Experience.  We live and breath customer service.  Do we fail sometimes?  Yep.  Sorry…  even I can’t have a great day and be on my game 100% of the time (but I strive like crazy to!).  You try smiling and clearing your eyes of tears to deliver great service when you just find out that your grandmother passed away.  It’s not easy.  How do I account for this?  I simply work at building relationships so tight with my team members that should something like this happen and be weighing on someone emotionally, I can recognize it and let them go home for the day.  We all have bad days and it is imperative that we work hard so these ‘bad days’ don’t affect a customer’s perspective or experience with us.

Can we make EVERY customer happy?  No.  (This really really sucks honestly, because I have lived so much of my life trying to please EVERYONE.)  Of course we do everything in our power to make our customers happy, but we are not the scooter store for everyone.  I haven’t quite figured it out, but there are people that are living right now, breathing air, and hating every aspect of their life that they feel it is absolute necessary to take it out on the rest of the world.  We have had a customer threaten the lives of our team members before.  That is uncalled for and that type of behavior will never be tolerated from any customer.  This is NOT the store for those kind of people and I have no trouble telling customers not to ever come back should I feel that the customer may cause harm to my team or other customers.  My team and the customers that appreciate and share our values are my family and I will do everything in my power to help and protect them.  I will always bend over backwards to ensure the safety and satisfaction of our customers.  This business is my baby and supports my wife and baby boys…  Believe me, nobody wants to make sure customers are happy more than I do.

You:  “So why are you telling me all of this?”

Me:  It’s simple.  Students graduate school and leave Gainesville for a ‘job’.  My team and I need quality help.  We know your mom and dad want you to go get a corporate job with lots of benefits, corporate structure, yada, yada, yada.  Believe me.  I know.  When I told my dad I was starting my own company, he was against it.  Yet, here I am.

If you want to spend the rest of your life in a cubicle, have fun.  I don’t believe that most of you want to work in a cubicle your whole life.  If you are like me, you feel like you were put on this Earth for something amazing.  You want to make a difference and impact people’s lives for the better.  You want to connect with other people that are out trying to create a better future for the son or daughter you haven’t even had yet.  You want to have your name written in a history book so that when you die, your time on Earth mattered.  You want to simply CHANGE THE WORLD.

Guess what?  Me too.  If you can’t tell then you need to just stop reading now.  This is my ‘we’re hiring’ post.  We aren’t just hiring anyone though, we are hiring people that want to CHANGE THE WORLD.  If you want to be a cubelet (my word for someone that spends their life in a cubicle), then NS4L is not the place for you to work.  However, if you want to make a difference in the world and be part of a young business that wants to create a lot of change within its community, region, nation, and world.  Then this place is for you.  If you want to be a part of one of the most unique company cultures in our region, then NS4L is the place for you.  We are known for being wild, eccentric, and fun, yet all that stems from the customer service we provide our customers.  Our team is a family, so if you like building close relationships with a team, having brothers and sisters you can count on, then NS4L is the place for you.  If you want to have ‘coworkers’ (our coworkers are family) say hello as you pass them in the hall and not feel like you want to steal a printer from your work and beat it to death #officespace, then NS4L is the place for you.  Don’t get me wrong, we would beat a printer to death with a baseball bat, but it would be because it doesn’t work.  We would also NEVER do so without recording it and putting it on YouTube either.

You:  “Collin, I am a college student and want to work part-time while in school, will you consider me for a position?”

Me:  Yes!  Some of the BEST hires have been part-time college students.  I do want this particular position to be a long-term position, but if this position isn’t right for you, we may have another that is.  Many of these students saw me speak at UF about entrepreneurship and came to me and said, “Collin…  I think I can help you.”  BOOM!  So it began…

You:  “Collin, I don’t see a job you offer that I would fit really well in, but I think I could help you in so many other ways, will you hire me?”

Me:  Go ahead.  Create your own job at NS4L.  I can’t promise that it is right for this team, but I love people that are creative and if you want to help me change the world, then I would be stupid to not at least listen to what you have to say, right?

I hope all of this shows how passionate I am for what I do.  If it doesn’t, then I really (REALLY) failed.  I hope that things like upsetting the status quo, family, making a difference, being a part of a team, creating change, having fun, and being heard will take precedence for you over bureaucracy and boredom. So here are the details of the position…

JOB LISTING:

Details of current OPEN position
New Scooters 4 Less
NS4L Voice
Sales & Operations: Job is Located in Gainesville, FL

The NS4L Voice plays THE vital role of representing New Scooters 4 Less online.  You are the VOICE of the team and ’speak’ on behalf of NS4L online.  This team member works at NS4L and ‘on the go’ to keep NS4L active on all forms of Social Media!  Our team is looking for someone who is energetic, hard working, organized, detail-oriented, fun, determined and just the right amount of weird!

NS4L Core Values

1.     Create and Recreate the Ultimate Customer Experience

2.     Stay Calm and Scoot On

3.     Don’t Believe the Hype! (Stay Humble!)

4.     Embrace and Shape Change

5.     Keep Promises

6.     SOC it to Me (Safe, Organized, and Clean)

7.     Communicate Clearly

8.     SIQ Awesomeness (Service, Integrity, and Quality)

9.     Create a Lifestyle

10.  Always Put a Teammate First

11.  Serve a HIGHER PURPOSE!

12.  If you are late to work, you better bring breakfast!

·      Taking NS4L online!

·     Online sales through websites like Craigslist, Gainesville4Sale (and similar sites), Cycle Trader, and more.  You will be our ‘sales lead’ for anything web-based. (You will be required to have extensive knowledge of the scooter business and industry.  You don’t have to know all this to start, but you are going to have to study and learn quickly.)

·      ‘Speaks’ on behalf of NS4L on Social Media.  Makes and schedules posts relating to NS4L and other articles and happenings that relate to our customer demographic and industry.

·      Increases ‘followers’ and ‘fans’ by building online relationships with customers.  Stays active by posting and tweeting with customers and fan base.

·      Increases scooter and service sales through social media.

·      Grows the NS4L website blog and builds content.

·      Grows the NS4L website:  scooter inventory, available colors, etc.  Keeps the website up-to-date and fresh with new content.

·      Lists parts, accessories, and other products on eBay to work on expanding sales of NS4L products nationwide.

·      Grows and constantly strives to take NS4L’s reputation up a notch by keeping an eye on what is being said about NS4L online.  You will be the ‘first responder’ and NS4L’s primary customer service manager responsible for addressing customer service complaints immediately and delivering all customers with the Ultimate Customer Experience.

·      Make New Scooters 4 Less active on forums related to our industry.  Network and communicate within these forums to expose NS4L to more customers and ‘fans’.

·      Create video (iPhone, GoPro) to expose customers and fans to the ever-growing culture of NS4L.

·      Begin the inner-workings of creating an ‘online’ business future for NS4L.

·      Work with our team to achieve our monthly, quarterly, and yearly goals!

·      Be an active part of recognizing opportunities for improvement and efficiency in order to increase the overall productivity and online growth of NS4L.

·      Actively contribute to our unique, exuberant, outlandish and exciting culture!

·      Build relationships with the greatest people in Gainesville (our customers, business friends, and team)!  Get out and network to capture more content for NS4L!

·      Experience with all types of social media and understands how to interact and build relationships online.

·      Experience with wordpress.

·      Experience with photoshop, illustrator, etc. preferred.

·      Sales experience.

·      Thorough understanding of online SEO.

·      Blogging and writing experience.

·      Marketing / Social Media background preferred.

·      eBay experience.

·      Must be able to “smile with your voice” and have a good “email/online voice”

·      Positive attitude and ability to interact with customers in a friendly manner.

·      Has to have close attention to details as well as a vision for the bigger picture.

·      Must be coachable, open to feedback and dedicated to consistent self-improvement.

·      Leadership experience and open to growing as a LEADER as there will be lots of time dedicated to leadership development.

·      NS4L Swag Bag.

·      Snazzy freaking uniform.

·      Exposure to sales and growth in communication skills.

·      New MacBook Pro and Thunderbolt display for work use.

·      A lot of experience with customer service and interacting with different personality types.

·      Exposure to the ever-growing entrepreneurship world of Gainesville.

·      A dedicated team that is fun to work with and will become a part of your extended family.

·      Paid sick time.

·      Paid vacation time once employed for 1 year.

·      Paid holidays.

·      Participation in Donut Fridays.  #awwyea