By the age of 10, Colton Johannesen had learned the value of a dollar and has been passionate about realizing a business career ever since.

Colton Johannesen, a first-year business administration student, at one of his family's McDonald's locations.

The first-year business student currently supports his parents in operating five McDonald's locations, three in Lloydminster and two in Cold Lake. However, the journey to his current success included 37 moves, plenty of perseverance and keeping the family bonds from fraying.

“I've moved so many times because my parents have been trying to open their own business. We started in Nova Scotia and made our way to the West coast the more we took on. For my dad to become a franchisee with McDonald's, he had to go through nine months of unpaid training. That was probably one of the most difficult parts of our lives. My siblings and I worked as soon as we could to help the family stay afloat. Almost every single penny went into the restaurant and our house at the time when we first started out in Hope, B.C., with the single restaurant,” Johannesen says.

That hardship is one of the reasons Johannesen says his family has excelled. They continued to grow in every market they entered, investing in locations, creating enough sales growth to make some of Canada's number one restaurants.

To build on the foundation of his family's franchising ventures, Johannesen enrolled in Lakeland's business administration diploma's accounting major to hone his business skills and learn more about the business side of franchises.

“I came to Lakeland to become a registered applicant with McDonald's Franchises, Canada. I chose the accounting major, specifically, because I wanted to further my understanding of the different accounts and statements that come with running a business, such as profit and loss statements, as well as managing the line items such as labour, food costs and repairs,” says Johannesen. He also mentioned that everything he learned until attending Lakeland was self-taught or by his dad's example.

It's been a different academic year for Lakeland students than other years, yet Johannesen says his Lakeland experience awarded him the opportunity to study and work full time.

“Honestly, learning online has been fantastic for me. If it wasn't for the online experience, I don't know if I could have done full-time school because I'm still working full time as well. I can work between classes and catch up on any missed school because my classes are recorded. The online platform Lakeland has adopted has been a great experience.”

Submitted photo: Colton Johannesen, a first-year business administration student, at one of his family's McDonald's locations.