Job of the month finale

It's been almost a year since our job search began.  Jared was recruited by E-Source recruiter after we attended a meeting about general franchise ownership. I remember sitting in the meeting I was the only female present that was not running the meeting.  There were people that had been in corporate jobs and people out of work and laid off and a few privately owned business owners and investors and even some people that owned sports franchises.  From there we were encouraged to meet with a friend of the speaker that had some prior military experience and enjoyed working with other Vets.
From this point over the past two to three year the following had been franchise ideas that Jared tossed around. some only lasted a week others longer.  Here is the breakdown of the non- military jobs of the Month ideas we have discussed.

Edward Jones- Financial planning, Interviewed and was offered a position. Met with many other Edward Jones financial planners in WA, MN and California.

Dickey's BBQ came after Jared found a wanderlust for BBQ, while at Chinook training in the South and became a BBQ extraordinaire.  He came home and had to have a smoker and we talked about opening a business here. Looked into the FDD.

Photo booth Ownership and rentals. We decided against it because it is mostly a weekend only business and didn't want to have weekends booked.

Bricks for Kidz- A lego based Learning and fun franchise would take up any of our vacation time during afterschool hours and school breaks. Also did not see a great return here for making lots of income, parents cut kids extra activities when Money is tight.

Once he met with Jim his mentor, he did some personality testing to see where Jared's strong points are and where he should maybe look for hiring someone to fill in other areas.  It also took into account his interests. Then he sat down with Jared and I to discuss the results and also what I wanted from this.  At the time he was wondering if a healthcare industry would be a good business for us as I am a Nurse.  I said that I honestly have had so much involvement in Jared's career up till this point, I really analyzed every career move Jared made and how it would affect our family and my career.  So I really wanted something that could be his. 

From there Jared was given homework assignments and he had to do what was called due diligence to look into each business that Jim recommended.  Jared researched and spoke to owners and we met with regional developers for some of the larger companies.  The main ones we looked at were Certa Pro Painters, AdvantaClean, Archadeck, Handyman Maters, Window Genie.  The idea that we heard throughout was that this does not have to your passion but a means to and end.  Which went against everything I believe and have been taught.  I am a Pediatric Nurse and I certainly don't run all day, skip lunches and carry a huge emotional burden everyday because I think I will make good money at something. It is the people and the stories and the intimate moments that people share with their nurse that they have only known for maybe an hour or a month or a year that make my job so special. 

After doing his validations with each company and narrowing it down we looked at Certa-Pro in WA, and CA. We went down to California to look at schools and neighborhoods and talk to someone in the California National Guard about transferring.  There actually was a territory right near Jared's family in a prevalent area that had established accounts and we could buy into an already functioning brand. 

The reality of the cost of moving, the cost of living in CA, trying to change guard units and plan out mandatory training while starting a new business and me now being the main steady income having to get a new job seemed a little more challenging than we could afford at this time.  We also would not have the benefits of the military being so close to base here, we have reasonably priced daycare, free gyms, and some nice benefits of working at the Medical Center for easy access to care.

Here is WA we met the owner of Certa- Pro painters and he talked with us about his career and after looking into it we just felt that the market was a bit flooded for painting and too seasonal for WA.

We met with a Window Genie developer that was in Portland and Jared looked into AdvantaClean. These were our final two.  AdvantaClean had some benefits to our area.  There is a lot of mold and water. Also if the market turns down what service would continue.  People want to live in healthy environments and are concerned about mold.  If you have mold or water damage you really do have to get it taken care of regardless of if you want to.  Your windows on the other hand could wait or you could do it safely and correctly yourself if you have the time.  Mold is a specialty and requires lots of expertise to do it correctly.  We also have had lots of personal experience with water damage in our own home and property. 

So a year later here we are still in Washington, owners and operating the AdvantaClean of the South Sound.

Mold and Water Remediation