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Veterans in Franchising july 2017
www.franchisingusamagazine.com
GREASE MONKEY AND SPEEDEE TARGET VETERANS
for Leadership Skills, Discipline
unleashing creativity how military training taught me to operate
a successful franchise Franchising USA
SAME DRIVE. DIFFERENT BATTLEFIELD. TAKE THE NEXT STEP > VETFRAN.COM OFFERING FINANCIAL SUPPORT, TRAINING & MENTORSHIP Veterans interested in franchising can take their skills learned in the military to successfully own and develop small businesses. Learn more and support veterans in franchising at www.vetfran.com.
• 650 franchise companies participating • 151,000 veterans and their spouses found careers in the franchise industry • 5,100 veteran franchise owners
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V e t e r a n s i n F r a n c h i s i n g Suppl e m e n t july 2 0 1 7 Our Veterans in Franchising special supplement has become a regular feature of Franchising USA. To share your story in the next issue, please contact Vikki Bradbury, Publisher Phone: 778 426 2446 Email: vikki@cgbpublishing.com
Contents On the Cover
News and Expert Advice
48 Grease Monkey and SpeeDee Target Veterans for Leadership Skills, Discipline
50 Unleasing Creativity Gary Morton, Author of “Commanding Excellence:
50 Unleashing Creativity 52 How Military Training Taught Me to Operate a Successful Franchise
Inspiring Purpose, Passion, and Ingenuity through Leadership That Matters�
52 How Military Training Taught Me to Operate a Successful Franchise Jan Michell, Urban Bricks Pizza
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V e t erans in Franchising
G rease M onkey
GREASE MONKEY AND SPEEDEE TARGET VETERANS for Leadership Skills, Discipline
they offer veterans a 50 percent royalty rebate for the first four full quarters a franchise is open, plus a 25 percent royalty rebate for the next four quarters after that. And once those eight quarters are up, the two automotive franchises have a compliance program that continues offering veterans an ongoing 10 percent royalty rebate. “That is a lot of money going back to the veterans to help them become profitable and expand their system,” Yarusso noted.
Franchise Training Ralph Yarusso - United States Air Force · C141 Aircrew; Combat and Airdrop Qualified · Non-commissioned Officer E-6
A new opportunity to make an automotive franchise a top destination for members who are exiting the military and looking for a lucrative business opportunity is coming! Grease Monkey and SpeeDee Oil Change and Auto Service Centers are finalizing negotiations for their partnership with the Army and Air Force Exchange Services to become an automotive concessionaire on select military bases. “There are numerous sites and it is our intention to have all of these be veteranowned,” revealed Ralph Yarusso (USAF Veteran) Chief Operating Officer of Franchising for both the SpeeDee and Grease Monkey brands.
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The partnership is in line with SpeeDee’s and Grease Monkey’s targeting of military veterans. Yarusso said the military’s focus on discipline and constant training makes veterans ideal franchisee candidates. “Veterans have instilled in them a great deal of discipline and they’re easy to train,” he said during a recent interview. In particular, the leadership training military members receive helps them to be better franchisees because running a business means constantly being in a leadership role. Recently recognized by the International Franchise Association as having received a five-star ranking from VetFran, SpeeDee and Grease Monkey both have powerful incentives for ex-military members. Along with having veterans and certified franchise executives (CFE) on staff, the two franchises offer a $10,000 franchise fee discount to any veteran with an honorable discharge. In addition to that,
Although veterans come out of the military with a lot of training under their belts, both SpeeDee and Grease Monkey provide comprehensive training for all franchisees so they are better able to succeed in the franchises’ systems. “Training is ongoing,” Yarusso commented. “I like to think we provide it 24/7.” New franchisees are required to attend a full week of training at Grease Monkey University in the Grease Monkey headquarters in Denver, CO. After the university training, new franchisees spend another week with a mentor franchisee before they open their stores. The franchises also have pre-store-opening and post-opening training. That’s followed by quarterly visits onsite with the franchisees and their staffs to evaluate performance. Market training happens twice a year and both brands have an annual convention where franchisees can get even more training. “We take training very seriously and the results pay off dramatically,” the Chief Operating Officer stated. In addition to the Grease Monkey
University at the headquarters, the two brands have an online university, so all technicians and store managers can be trained online in the Grease Monkey Certification Program. The Certification Program is mandatory for all franchisees and staff members, so they are all qualified to work on any vehicle that comes in. Once the technicians complete the certification program, they become a Certified Pit Crew, complete with uniforms that emulate real NASCAR pit crew uniforms. This certification is important for garnering customer trust in the brands, Yarusso pointed out. “Customers want to know their $50,000 vehicle is being worked on by people who have training to work on that vehicle,” he said. An Air Force veteran himself, Yarusso said he believes Grease Monkey’s and SpeeDee’s comprehensive training and experience is what sets them apart from other quick lube brands. “The unique thing about Grease Monkey and SpeeDee is many of our senior management team are former automotive franchisees,” he explained. “Nobody else in the Automotive Franchise industry can make that claim.”
“The unique thing about Grease Monkey and SpeeDee is many of our senior management team are former automotive franchisees. Nobody else in the Automotive Franchise industry can make that claim.” - Ralph Yarusso Nationwide Opportunities While both franchises are in the automotive space, SpeeDee has a larger building footprint at about 4,000 - 6,000 square feet and is set up to handle more services like tires and deeper diagnostic repairs. Grease Monkey is a smaller model with a building of about 2,000 3,000 square feet. Both brands provide maintenance services like brakes, lights, wiper blades, belts, hoses, air conditioning and fluid exchange. Grease Monkey has been in business since 1978 and SpeeDee has been around since 1980. They both started franchising in the same years they were founded. Between the two of them, they have 519 franchise locations with the bulk of them being in the United States. They also have a presence in Mexico, China, Colombia and Saudi Arabia. Within the US, Grease Monkey is concentrated in Denver, Seattle and Salt Lake City and has a presence up and down
the East Coast. SpeeDee, on the other hand, is concentrated in Boston, the San Francisco Bay area and Dallas. Between them, the brands are in 37 states. Yarusso said there are franchise opportunities available all across the country. “With vehicles becoming more technologically advanced all the time, the need for a service like Grease Monkey or SpeeDee is obvious as the do-it-yourself market continues to shrink and the do-itfor-me market continues to grow,” said Yarusso. With their new veteran benefits program, both SpeeDee and Grease Monkey are excited to grow by attracting entrepreneurial veterans to help them transition to civilian life and begin a second career that their military experience will pay dividends for in the years to come. www.greasemonkeyfranchise.com www.speedeeoil.com
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V e t erans in Franchising
Gary Morton, Author
Unleashing Creativity How do you make your franchise the best of the best? How can you meaningfully contribute to the franchise’s evolution?
You may be lucky, and simply following the guidelines of the franchisor will lead to success. But, rising to the top and seeing truly exceptional results typically requires more active involvement. Your franchise has to become something special and take
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the business model to new levels.
A franchising opportunity is quite similar to the situation faced by peacetime military commanders who gain command of a unit/ship/squadron. The new commander walks into a military unit with solid methodologies already in place. The military provides a defined set of equipment and staffing. How do they make their command tour stand out? How do they rise above the fray and deliver truly exceptional results? The history of a US Army task force
“Techniques developed in TF 4-68 became incorporated into Army doctrine. Similarly, an entire franchise could benefit from your amazing success.” that accomplished what experts thought impossible during the late cold war era offers valuable insights. Task Force 4-68 (TF 4-68) won an unprecedented nine of nine engagements at the Army’s grueling and highly realistic National Training Center (NTC), a feat never equaled. TF 4-68 achieved these incredible results following three magical leadership themes. First, its new commander, Fred Dibella, provided absolute clarity of purpose with a simple, three-word, all pervasive mission. Second, he empowered an obsession to go “9 and 0,” and achieve the mission. Third, both of these enabled the most cogent of the three magical themes—unleashing creativity. TF 4-68 directed ingenuity toward developing highly effective new ways to conduct combined arms combat operations. In this effort, Fred Dibella was out front, voraciously collecting ideas, asking for input, and inspiring the refinement of procedures across the task force. He was the primary catalyst in developing a playbook for battle plans patterned after the well-known wishbone offense in football. The playbook concept boiled the complex task of combined arms operations into six simple plays (2 attack, 2 defense, 2 movement). The whole unit became engaged in perfecting our execution of the plays to win every maneuver battle. While dynamic, the creative environment was not an artistic, open-thought community; innovation was supremely purposeful. TF 4-68 looked for ideas that would tie to improved effectiveness in combat. To achieve a similar impact, a franchisee could focus creative energies on generating ideas that contribute to their top goal. Let’s consider how you could apply three methods Dibella used in stoking the creative fires.
First, through personal involvement, create an environment of direct and open communication that elevates ideas on the basis of their merits. Dibella set a great example challenging the status quo with the playbook concept. Celebrate the ideas and recognize inventors. Make evaluation criteria simple and objective. In TF 4-68 criteria were widely known: “If it works, do it.” The definition of “works” meant adding to our combat effectiveness. Everything tied to the 9-0 goal. Second, ensure the ideas have a champion and that champions can find resources to experiment. This is not to say that you need a magical pool of assets available to go after every idea. Dibella did not have such a luxury. Time, money, and other resources were precious commodities. Champions had to fight for them, but the effort to secure these crucial assets typically strengthened the resolve to make the ideas work. It also weeded out those with lukewarm commitments. There was high accountability but also a high tolerance for failure. Third, establish a pervasive organizational mindset in which people at all levels work to constantly improve. Many of the most important refinements arose out of the relentless energy poured into making communications, systems and processes just a little better every day. For example, other task forces were taking 6-10 hours developing their battle concept for the next morning’s mission before distributing orders to subordinate units. In TF 4-68, the playbook and myriad other innovations cut this time to two hours, giving the soldiers and subordinate leaders time to develop their own plans, rehearse, and prepare for the impending operation. The impact was transformational. Similarly, you can engage your people in identifying the most critical methods
Gary Morton
or systems holding back the franchise’s performance and unleash their native ingenuity finding ways to alleviate bottlenecks, improve communication, and optimize procedures. Like the wellspring of ideas generated in TF4-68, the impact will be dramatic. It all stems from defining a crystal clear goal, empowering people to embrace the goal, and unleashing creativity. For a franchiser or franchisee, the leadership lessons from TF4-68 are almost directly transferrable. The scenario is similar; you have a structure and requirements from the franchise/ brand, but you can also follow three magical themes and set your franchise apart. Techniques developed in TF 4-68 became incorporated into Army doctrine. Similarly, an entire franchise could benefit from your amazing success. As a franchisee, inspiring purpose, passion, and ingenuity creates the extraordinary. Gary Morton had a five-year career as a tank officer and transitioned out of the Army to medical-device manufacturer Stryker, where he held positions in project management, engineering, R&D, operations, and marketing leadership. This culminated in twelve years as Vice President and General Manager of the EMS equipment business that he cofounded. His new book, Commanding Excellence: Inspiring Purpose, Passion, and Ingenuity through Leadership That Matters, will be available in September 5, 2017. www.iGarymorton.com
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V e t erans in Franchising
Jan Michell, Owner of Urban Bricks Pizza in New Braunfels, Texas
How Mi Taught M Succes
After 21 years in the military, I knew I was given a first-hand learning experience on how to lead, stay disciplined and overcome adversities. As an attack pilot instructor flying the AV8B Harrier, I was given the responsibility to prepare young pilots to fly and fight
with an airplane. Training these young
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people toward safe operations and to combat effectiveness was founded in a proven, standardized approach to learning and practicing. I find I was attracted to the same strong structure when I chose a franchise to invest in and now use the same teaching techniques to train new employees.
Find the Right Staff The military operates like a well-oiled machine, and one of the main takeaways for me is efficiency. The military makes sure each person fills a valuable role and has a distinct responsibility to contribute to the mission’s success. I make that point clear when I hire each employee. I want people I can motivate and depend on to fulfill their duty. From the cook to the cashier, everyone plays an integral role.
ilitary Training Me to Operate a ssful Franchise Jan Michell
When it comes to staffing, we want to figure out what motivates employees and how we can give them the best opportunity to succeed. We can’t depend on the staff to treat their job like it’s their own business, but we can motivate them to give their best effort. Whether it’s a financial reward, public recognition, advancement or a simple thank you, there are ways to inspire an employee. Keeping open communication with your staff will give you the best chance to find out how to inspire them so they continue to be a valuable member of your team.
Be a Strong Leader The key to being a strong leader is discipline. Maintaining a consistent training program, giving clear instructions and sticking to the proven business plan the franchisor has provided is how you become and stay a successful franchisee. It can be challenging, but discipline can keep a business operating at maximum profits. Even during the slow months of the year, I had the lowest drop-off in sales within the system because of this discipline. Thankfully, my wife, Anita, has the same
passion for our business as I do. Partnering with my wife in this venture has proven to be such a joyous experience. It’s important for one of us to always be at the restaurant to give clear leadership to the rest of the staff. I focus on internal operations such as payroll, accounting, and inventory and purchasing, and Anita oversees marketing and community outreach. In the military, there’s one leader everyone can turn to and with one of us being present every day, we are that leader for our staff. Just being present is very effective when it comes to making a decision, getting a task completed quickly or solving any potential issues from customers or employees.
Choose the Right Company Structure for You Having a military background, I knew if I was going into franchising, I would need to find a company with a product I believe in and a strong business structure. Franchisors provide the road map to running your business, and it’s your job to follow the plan. Sometimes it can be challenging to maintain the discipline, but if it’s a proven structure, it is your job to follow the orders. A self-imposed policy of not having labor cost more than 25 percent of sales maintains top cost-effectiveness, which is an order that needs to be followed day-in and day-out. Finding a franchise concept you believe in is important because it will become an extension of yourself. Serving in the
military teaches you to accept a certain standard. Soldiers have a code of values we live by and I try to bring that same set of standards to my business. I want to serve not just a quality product but also provide a quality experience for my guests and staff. After retiring from the service, I was eager to face my next challenge: operating a business. Thankfully, my military experience helped give me the tools to be a good businessman. The honor, work ethic and efficiency are drilled into you as soldier, and I instilled that ethos to my business. Now, I’m looking to expand with more locations because I’m learning what works and what doesn’t, and most importantly I’m with a franchise system in which I believe. As long as you maintain the discipline, you will be successful in most businesses. Jan Michell is a retired Air Force and Marine Corps pilot. On active duty, he flew the AV-8B Harrier and A-4M Skyhawk. In 1991, he separated from active duty and joined first the U.S. Marine Corps reserves and later, the U.S. Air Force Reserves. He finished his 21-year career in 2004 as a C-5 Aircraft Commander at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas. He and his wife have owned an Urban Bricks Pizza franchise, a fast-casual chain serving customizable Neapolitan pizza, since June 2016. www.urbanbrickspizza.com.
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