JDog Brands Announces National Strategic Partnership With the Veterans of Foreign Wars

JDog Brands, the Veteran-centric franchisor with more than 260 Veteran-owned franchise locations across the United States, was built specifically to nurture the Veteran community. With a mission to bring  Veteran unemployment to under 1%, the home services franchisor provides Veteran or military family members with a low cost, operationalized and supportive business ownership opportunity. Now, in alignment with this mission, the brand has announced a strategic, nationwide partnership with the VFW, the largest and oldest war veterans service organization.

“The VFW does so much work for veterans in local communities across the country, and we are proud to be able to partner with the organization and give back in any way we can,” said JDog Brands CEO and Veteran Jerry Flanagan. “We want to utilize our resources and network to help the VFW in their mission to support our fellow Veterans.”

In honor of the new partnership and Veterans Day, JDog Brands launched a charitable initiative in which participating JDog Junk Removal & Hauling locations nationwide will hauled away an item that their local VFW post no longer needed and replaced  it with a more necessary item acquired from a previous job.

The initiative was inspired by the Veterans Day episode of the brand’s new TV show on Discovery, Operation Hidden Treasures. The show follows enterprising U.S. military Veterans and their families whose mission is to salvage and repurpose otherwise unused items and turn them into ‘hidden treasures’ for people in need. In the Veterans Day episode, a JDog owner in Kyle, Texas repurposes an old grill and donates it to their VFW post. The JDog team loved the charitable act in the show so much, they decided to replicate it on a national level.

JDog Brands is designed to elevate the strengths of Veterans and make the most of their leadership abilities and talents, which are often underutilized. A shocking 6.5% of America’s Veterans are unemployed, largely due to the fact that the military encourages a lifestyle of honor, courage and service that is hard to find in many modern work environments. When franchisees buy into JDog Brands, they are becoming a part of a brotherhood and sisterhood of Veterans and military families, and when customers choose JDog Brands for junk hauling or carpet cleaning, they can be confident they are supporting their local Veterans. This provides a valuable outlet for Veteran entrepreneurs who are struggling to adapt to civilian life and who are eager to give back to their local communities.

Joe Yurick, for example, is a U.S. army Veteran and former missile operator who struggled to find his footing after returning from deployment. When the self-proclaimed “vetrepreneur” discovered JDog Brands, he knew it would not only be an exciting business opportunity, but also a chance to give back to his fellow Veterans through employment and service. Today, Yurick is the owner of JDog Junk Removal & Hauling in Southern Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

"After the military, I had a hard time coming back to real life,” said Yurick. “I never celebrated my military background, but with JDog, I am proud to show and tell people that I am a Veteran and that my crew is too. I saw a business opportunity where I could celebrate being a Veteran and work with other Veterans."

Moving forward, the VFW partnership will give JDog franchisees like Yurick even more opportunities to support their local Veteran communities. And as home services become more relevant than ever following the COVID-19 pandemic, prospective franchisees can be confident they are joining a well-positioned and fast-growing brand. The team has already signed more than 84new franchise agreements with owners across the country, and both the TV show and the VFW partnership will help continue to spread the JDog name.

“We’ve been able to put up 262 franchises in seven years, and the next 200 to 500 franchises are going to come even easier and faster,” Flanagan said. “We have the infrastructure in place that will allow this affordable business to succeed in any market across the country. We want to have a JDog in every zip code, which means about 1,500 franchise units. That is a lot of Veterans being hired. Especially with our new VFW partnership, we hope other companies look to us as a leader for Veteran small business ownership.”

The cost to open a JDog Junk Removal & Hauling ranges from $30,000 to $110,000, including a $35,000 franchise fee. For more information on franchising with JDog, visit https://www.jdogbrands.com/own-a-franchise/