With the assistance of Mark Cory, Market President and Franchise Consultant for FranNet of Michigan, Jared Rothberger made a lifelong dream come true—a business operation of his own. Jared had always wanted to take the entrepreneurial path in life and the story of his journey to get there was certainly an interesting one. Below, in his own words, the CEO of Jan-Pro Detroit shares the tale of his FranNet journey…
Background
“I graduated from Michigan State with a degree in Family Community Services, which led me to working in the nonprofit world for almost 10 years. I found the work fun and impactful, but after I got married and was starting a family, it was time to seek an opportunity with higher income potential.”
On Becoming an Entrepreneur
“There’s no doubt I always wanted to own my own business. I experimented with a few business models in college, and a lot of my good friends and mentors used to meet on a regular basis and discuss our crazy business ideas—just to see if we could make them work. We’d build them out and find ways to make them more successful and the feedback loop would help us fine tune our approach.”
Why Franchising?
“My business world mentors recommended this approach and provided me with the referral to Mark Cory at FranNet of Detroit. I really had no knowledge of franchising in general and no experience in investigating these types of opportunities. But I relied on and trusted the advice from my inner circle. I went into the process with my good friend and partner, Bryan Lubaway, back in 2015. We were both young, hungry, and willing to do anything to succeed.”
How FranNet Helped
“Mark Cory at FranNet started us off by saying, ‘Give each concept a real shot.’” We came to find out that picking the right business opportunity was the biggest challenge, and I’m not at all sure how we would have fared on our own. It turns out that just having a franchise guide is incredible—especially considering the fact that there is no charge for the guidance. The entrepreneurial readiness profiles we completed automatically eliminated the concepts that didn’t match up with our personality and skill sets. Mark Cory was very thorough in helping us navigate our way to Jan-Pro, which didn’t start out at the top of our lists. After a careful review of the business model, we determined that they had the best financials and potentials. We needed something that could support two families.”
Where Do You Stand?
“We signed our agreements with Jan-Pro and started back in April of 2015. The first six months of running the business were terrifying, which I guess is only natural because it’s tough to leave your comfort zone working for others. But then we really got things going quickly as the master franchisee, selling Jan-Pro franchises in southeast Michigan. We made it into their coveted ‘Gold Circle’ in the second year, and eventually become one of the top-growing Jan-Pro master franchisees in the U.S.
Bryan and I parted amicably in 2019, he now has his own market in Chattanooga, Tennessee and I’m running all of Jan-Pro in southeast Michigan. Last year, we did just shy $10 million in annual revenue, and I truly feel blessed in how things have worked out.”
For more information, please visit Jared Rothberger’s Jan-Pro of Detroit page on the internet.