A native of New York state, Trevor Obilisundar decided to make Baton Rouge his home after finding its business climate to be inviting during his student years at LSU. As Business Report details in its new Franchisee feature on Obilisundar, the 30-year-old now boasts an expanding franchise portfolio that includes four stores, including locations on Bluebonnet Boulevard across from Perkins Rowe, at Jefferson Highway at Bluebonnet, on O’Neal Lane, and on Highland Road near LSU.
With almost 4,400 locations in the United States, the UPS Store is the largest franchisor of retail shipping, postal, printing, and business services. It’s listed in Entrepreneur’s Fasting-Growing Franchise ranking for 2014.
“We package and do shipping and a lot of printing. We offer other business services like shredding and graphic design. Now we have 3-D printing,” Obilisundar says. “I was interested in 3-D printing because we were making prototypes for the Yellow Jacket smartphone case that includes a stun gun. When I first got into business, I would never have thought we would have a 3-D printer. Now our Jefferson Highway location has a professional grade version, the Statasys uPrint SE Plus.”
Read the full Q&A with Obilisundar. Here’s a sample of what you’ll find:
What’s the biggest challenge to owning a franchise?
“Our biggest challenge versus others is that when a customer comes through the door, and we ship their package, any problem in shipping isn’t directly related to us. For example, in a smoothie franchise, if the customer isn’t happy, you can remake their smoothie. At times there are issues that are outside of our direct control.”
