5 Reason Why Veterans are Great Candidates for Franchise Ownership

Mary Kennedy Thompson, COO of Neighborly Brands, which has five brands on FBR’s Top Veteran Owned Franchise List of 2021, served eight years in the U.S. Marine Corps as a logistics officer before embarking on a long and successful career in franchising. She shared with FBR her top reasons why military veterans make excellent candidates for franchise ownership.

  1. Vets are disciplined: “Veterans spent their time in the military learning the rigors of discipline when leading an organization toward operational excellence. It’s a great match to franchising.”
  2. Vets can handle stressful situations: “The president of (our) Mosquito Joe franchise is a retired Navy captain. He flew F-14’s in Afghanistan and led people in some pretty hairy situations. Veterans are, for the most part, well equipped to take on any kind of stress.”
  3. Vets understand systems: “Franchising is all about working within systems, and the military is a system, the biggest one of all.”
  4. Vets are leaders: It doesn’t matter what “At just about every level of the military — whether a squad leader, flight line leader or a battalion commander —veterans come to the table understanding and knowing how to deploy the art and science of leadership toward getting a group of people toward accomplishing a common mission.
  5. Vets are committed to serve: “They were willing to take a bullet while serving our country and they’ll continue to do whatever it takes to succeed in business ownership. They are not looking for handouts.”

Includes owner satisfaction report
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