How These Three Family Businesses Became a Franchise

Even the largest franchise chains come from humble beginnings.

SPONSOREDUpdated 10:10AM • 06/14/16

Family businesses and franchises may seem like opposite ends of the business spectrum, but consider this: even McDonald’s started out as a mom-and-pop business.

Famed fried chicken chain KFC currently has franchisees in more than 100 countries and territories around the world, but back in 1930, it started out of the front room of a local gas station where founder Harland Sanders singlehandedly worked as the station operator, chief cook and cashier. Pizza Hut, a brand name that has become world-renowned, got its start in 1958 when founder Frank and Dan Carney came up with the name because their first location was in a building whose signage was too small to accommodate anything longer than nine letters.

The list goes on and on. Name any major franchise out there today, and chances are it got its start as a small family-run corner store. That’s because franchising allows a strong business to grow in ways that would otherwise be impossible with a single operator.

Here are three mom-and-pop start-ups turned burgeoning business that have grown greatly with the help of franchising.

TWO MEN AND A TRUCK*®

During high school in the early 1980s, Brig and Jon Sorber borrowed a 12-foot van from their mother, Mary Ellen Sheets. With a set of wheels, they were able to create a summer job for themselves moving small houses and apartments in the Lansing, Michigan area. But when they left for college, the brothers thought their days of wrestling couches and mattresses were over. But their mother had a different idea in mind.

In fact, that truck was their future. Sheets decided to keep the business going so her two sons would have a job to come back to when they were on Christmas, spring and summer breaks. She named this growing business venture “TWO MEN AND A TRUCK®.” To help drum up business for her sons’ part-time moving service, Sheets made a line drawing of two stick figures in a truck cab and placed an ad in the local paper.

Business picked up quickly; largely due to Sheets’ early discover that local, residential hauls were a greatly underserved market. She initially ran the part-time operation from her dining room. But as orders kept coming and the business continued to grow, she found herself devoting more time and energy, and began drafting formal business plans and operating manuals. By 1988, at the urging of a woman she met while speaking on a panel at Michigan State University, Sheets decided she could leverage and grow TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® through franchising. A year later, she sold her first franchise to her daughter, Melanie. Then her sons bought franchises, as did some of the moving men.

That was the beginning of a company that now operates more than 339 U.S. locations, 27 international locations, 265 franchises, 2,094 trucks and 8,000 employees.

Famous Toastery

In their time as actors and musicians in New York City, Brian Burchill and Robert Maynard made a ritual of home-cooked omelets made from scratch in the company of good friends.

Fast friends since the age of seven, Burchill and Maynard opened their first Famous Toastery location after seeking out breakfast options and coming up short. The self-proclaimed breakfast aficionados, who often eat omelets for dinner, collaborated to create a concept that fuses fantastic food with great presentation. After opening in Huntsville, North Carolina in 2005, and ultimately moving to a larger storefront in nearby Davidson, the brand quickly took off—their better-breakfast concept was an instant hit.

A short three years after opening, Maynard and Burchill opened an additional location. A third quickly followed in 2011. But as each of those locations became busier and busier, Burchill and Maynard decided there was a much greater demand for their restaurant than they ever could have imagined. Interested in finding a faster way to grow, the duo turned to franchising on a national scale. Famous Toastery was infusing a new life into a sector of the food industry that had plateaued, and investors were ready to be a part of this unique niche in the better-breakfast segment.

Today, Famous Toastery boasts unrivaled loyalty. And with 10 locations already up-and-running throughout the Southeast, Burchill and Maynard are on the cusp of significant growth throughout the nation.

The Roman Candle

Brewer Stouffer always had a deep passion for food.

From the simplicity of fresh San Marzano and hand-pulled mozzarella in Italy to the plumes of hickory smoke and sizzling sounds of slow-cooked brisket, experiencing food in the company of others was something he intensely savored. He didn’t know it at the time, but every moment and every flavor was being catalogued piece by piece within his expanding culinary memory.

And yet, despite all of these experiences, Stouffer never once thought about opening his own restaurant. Until, suddenly, he did.

In 2005, Stouffer officially opened the doors to his very first restaurant—The Roman Candle—in Madison, Wisconsin. The sights, sounds, smells and flavors that Stouffer enjoyed throughout the decades had all culminated into this—a one-of-a-kind pizzeria that prides itself on farm-fresh ingredients, quality local sourcing and a craft, handmade approach.

As soon as its doors opened, The Roman Candle was buzzing with guests hungry for something more than just homogenous, cookie-cutter pizza chains. Now, more than ten years later, the brand has five locations throughout Wisconsin, and each one is as local and community-friendly as the original that started it all.

Realizing just how special The Roman Candle is, Stouffer recently decided to bring that one-of-a-kind experience to even more neighborhoods throughout the country by opening up the business to franchising for the first time.

*This brand is a paid partner of 1851 Franchise. For more information on paid partnerships please click here.

How These Three Family Businesses Became a Franchise

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